Practicality and technology fusion
Published: 01 September, 2006
What does Robocop have in common with the average firefighter? At the moment not much, you might think, but if the cool gadgets currently being developed and trialled by the Paris Fire Brigade are anything to go by, then the firefighter of the future is going to be so technologically equipped that he’d make James Bond look like a kid with a leaky water pistol. Unlike Robocop, however, the firefighter will still look human so as still to be able to interact with people in distress.
Last month the world’s biggest non-military venture into wearable computing – the European Union project WearIT@Work – completed a multi-national roadshow with the aims of calling for more participants and showcasing its results so far (including some rather impressive looking gadgets). Fire & Rescue travelled to Madrid, Spain, to catch up with the project so far. We were so impressed with the possibilities afforded by the emergency response part of the project, that we tracked down the man behind the technology: project manager Markus Klann of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, Germany. In an exclusive interview, Markus offered some glimpses into how technology could in the future make firefighting operations safer and more effective.
Since June 2004, Markus has been taking a user-centred approach with all the divisions of Paris Fire Brigade, both taking part and observing and training operations with paramedics, firefighters, and staff in the command centre. A large part of the work has meant inspiring firefighters with the sheer possibilities afforded by technology.
The ongoing research and developments – some which have resulted in technology being adopted by the firefighters – may seem astounding, but mainly utilise technology that is available now. And the biggest barrier to widespread use and commercialisation is, as ever, the well-known limited budget of the average fire brigade.
Intelligent boots
Firefighting boots are engineered to be tough – but in the presence of highly corrosive substances even they can fail, and the first thing a firefighter might feel is a painful, burning sensation leading to some nasty injuries. But what if the boots could sense the environment and then warn the firefighter when it was time to get out? Sounds like wish-list material? Think again.
“The technology isn’t complicated,” says Markus. “Much of it is in the market but the challenge is how to communicate that information to the wearer. The boots could be wireless, and they could send warnings via radio waves – but a source of power would also be required. We are looking at the different options and it could become a reality.”
Put enough engineers on the case, he adds, and a solution will be found. “But making it cost effective is a different story. Also there are design challenges, such as ensuring that the firefighter doesn’t have to spend time connecting anything.”
Another exciting avenue that has been investigated is the possibility of boots that automatically disperse small markers on the ground that would – in low visibility – allow the firefighter to find his way back out of a building without having to resort to following a lifeline (in a way reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel dropping pebbles to avoid getting lost in the forest).
“The idea is to have sensors that carry out some processing – such as temperature measurement and localisation properties – and radio communication. The sensors would transmit their precise location, and this information could be relayed to head mounted displays (HMDs) worn by firefighters. The firefighters liked the idea and suggested adding flashing LED lights onto the sensor nodes, because they preferred something that was ‘real’, and which did not rely overly on the technology of head mounted displays in case something went wrong.”
Markus explains that the initial concept of integrating marker dispensers in boots has now been overtaken by the more practical idea of integrating the dispenser within existing breathing apparatus, a better option than re-designing the wheel – or, in this case – the boot.
Physiological well being
Wouldn’t it be great to know the exact physical well being of a firefighter deep inside a burning building or industrial compound? Well, measuring the heart rate and pulse of a firefighter is technically easy, points out Markus. The difficulty is in measuring stress; and that is what is currently being investigated. “The way to measure stress in laboratory conditions is via Electro-Dermal Activity, EDA, which is basically measuring the capacity of skin to conduct an electric current. But in real conditions this is difficult because a firefighter is in very hot environments and naturally gets sweaty. So we are looking at alternatives.” The other challenge is how to integrate the sensors in the clothing without making them detach easily. “That will be one of the ultimate focii of this project.”
The transmitting pencil
The transmitting pencil is the first success story of the project, and one that has been adopted by Paris Fire Brigade for over six months now. The brigade may be unique in that it has a trained illustrator in its firefighting ranks, whose job it is to draw a three-dimensional sketch of the building structure, access points, location of the fire and firemen; historically, this sketch was then sent to the command centre by fax. “The solution we came up with was to use an electronic pencil, which connects with a mobile phone thereby sending the sketch straight to the control centre.” It is quite unusual, adds Markus, to see a concept become a reality so quickly.
USAR
Markus observed how Parisian firefighters as a matter of course made marks on doors to communicate to fellow firefighters whether or not a room had been searched. “But this did not always work in practice. Rooms would sometimes get searched twice when markings were rubbed off or got covered in smoke. We wanted to achieve some kind of electronic substitute that would be more reliable.”
The key to solving this problem was finding a way of collecting and transmitting location information. “We are working on a solution that means the command post knows the position of the firemen at all times. When a firefighters wants to signal that a room has been checked, he can indicate that via voice recognition into a microphone, or by making a certain gesture that is captured by sensors on his arm. The command post or team leader can then advise other firefighter which sections of a building have already been searched, or the information can be transmitted automatically to the other firefighters via head mounted displays.”
Wireless communication
Firefighters pointed out that they wanted to be able to communicate with other firefighters without each comment necessarily being overheard by the whole team. “They wanted more structured communications between team members, because currently they have to interact via hand signals, or by standing very closely together and talking. We wanted to establish a structure so that people working in certain environments could communicate without disturbing everyone else – difficult in an operation involving 80 people or more.”
A system like TETRA, says Markus, could achieve this but not much else on top. “I think there are better communications solutions, because TETRA’s bandwidth is not wide enough to allow for multi-media communications involving video and sensor information such as temperature measurements in a building.”
Markus however admits that TETRA is so far down the line that rather than replacing it, his challenge is to come up with a system that can complement it with interesting added capabilities.
User-centred approach – the virtual lab
“Marvellous” is how Markus describes the last two years spent working closely with the Paris Fire Brigade. “In the past similar projects have been developed only with the technical capability in mind, and when the system was ready the users found that they could not use them. This is what we were asked to avoid, by adopting a user centred approach and involving the firefighters from the very beginning of the design process.”
After taking part in training, reconnaissance operations and observing in the command centre, Markus created a virtual reality laboratory. “It looks like a computer game and we intend to install it in fire stations. Upon visiting stations, we realised that many of the young firefighters were playing computer games anyway, so we had the idea of creating a virtual environment where they could test prototypes of the systems that we were designing, in order that they could give us some feedback, and come up with their own ingenious ideas.”
Currently Markus is working on making a virtual version of the actual training ground of the brigade.
The day that firefighters’ gear is packed with futuristic gadgets may still seem far off, but the fact is that the technology is already here. One of the current (and perennial) challenges is an economical one, but sooner or later it will be overcome and that day firemen’s safety will be improved.
