• Hardware
• Software
• Applications
• • Healthcare
  • Emergency response
  • • Objectives of the user tests
    • Participants in the tests
    • Task scenario
    • Experiment setup
    • Testing methodology and procedure
    • Data collection and analysis
    • Results
  • Maintenance
  • Production

In the following, we describe the components that have been developed and to what extend and purpose they have been subjected to user tests.

Wearable System
A first prototypical wearable system, integrating a number of components into a housing mounted on the air tank, has been developed. This essentially allows carrying the components in an unobtrusive way. The design of the housing and integration is experimental and has not yet been subjected to user tests. Currently, the networking and the PDR component have been integrated into the Wearable System and these have been evaluated with respect to positioning quality.

Networking Component
In order to explore wireless communication, we use different WLAN routers with modified protocols. These routers are either a part of the integrated wearable system of the fire fighters or can also be deployed as relays during interventions. Three different configurations have been evaluated in different usage settings and both technical and user-related objectives (see below).

Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR)
Evaluation was done for a in- and outdoor positioning technology using Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) and GPS, developed by TZI. As stated above, the PDR has been evaluated with respect to positioning quality.

Sensor network LifeNet
We use different types of sensor nodes to explore the use of sensor networks for localization, navigation support, communication and environment monitoring. DoCoMo works on directional antennas and we are collaborating with the European project RELATE for exploring RF and Ultrasound based approaches. The LifeNet approach and the interfaces for navigation support are developed by Fraunhofer FIT. The physical implementation of the LifeNet has been evaluated in terms of principal positioning quality and basic usability. Evaluation of usability during realistic usage settings is planned for when the results of these initial evaluations have been used to create the next design iteration of the networking software.

Wizard of Oz indoor positioning
In order to study localization and navigation support with several fire fighters even before other localization technologies are completed, we developed a Wizard of Oz approach to simulate localization during trainings exercises. This approach has been used to study the impact of positioning technologies on navigational behaviour and performance of fire fighters.

VR-Simulation FireSim
In order to study all interactive systems such as positioning and navigation, voice and video communication etc. we developed the virtual reality prototyping environment FireSim. Currently, a functional version of the sensor network LifeNet is available for user tests and voice communication is being integrated. The objective is to study different options for the design of the user interface and interaction and the corresponding work practices in order to guide the time-consuming development of the physical sensor nodes.

Command Post Application
The fire brigade of Paris currently uses operational whiteboards inside a specially conditioned vehicle to allow collaborative mission planning. It is used to write names and status of fire fighting teams or tactical keywords, sketch out the local surroundings, help keep track of tasks and communicate relevant information. A Large Interactive Display could provide a natural extension to the whiteboards currently used, adding the whole range of possibilities that a digital computer display offers. It can provide augmented support for the intervention commander based on the information gathered by the wearable computing devices, in addition to the services that the commander is accustomed to use in the current whiteboard. The command post system is an application that runs distributed on a Large Interactive Display (Smartboard), and that shows different layers of information coming both from devices embedded in the fire fighters working on field and from external sources of information like GIS systems or the web.