Safety, Rescue, and Emergency Response in a Post 9/11 World: Design and Experiment of Head-mounted Displays and New Technologies for Urban/Industrial Firefighting and Emergency First Response

In recent years, large scale incidents have increasingly become a major global problem, from terrorism to natural disasters. Emergency responders are ill-equipped, needing improved information and communication tools. This book describes development of new technologies to mitigate emergencies and to help first-responders be more effective at large urban/industrial incidents. It begins with a 'user-needs' study conducted with major US Fire Departments, highlighting the need for improved communication and visual spatial information. Later Chapters describe a wireless sensor network that can readily be installed in a building, transmit incident conditions, track responder locations, and provide redundancy in communications. The book also describes new tools for the Chief and the personnel involved in the incident scene, including the FireEye head-mounted display. Human subjects experiments show up to 60% improvement in navigation effectiveness, enhancing victim rescue and fire attack. This book will be of great interest to the fire, police, and military communities, and to those designing or implementing head-mounted displays, emergency response equipment, and sensor networks.