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As wildfires sweep California amid what’s been an uncharacteristically early and hot summer, some fire departments have turned to Augmented Reality to keep personnel in the field informed. It’s a trial by fire (if you’ll excuse a bad pun) for AR, a technology that’s finally beginning to emerge as more than a novelty.
Currently, teams from the Alameda Police Department and the Menlo Park Fire Department are using a technology called EdgyBees, which provides contextual mapping to distributed teams
.I reached out to CEO and co-founder Adam Kaplan for some insight.
“The unique nature of fighting fires necessitates the use of knowing the precise locations of teams, equipment, and potential hazards,” he told me. “EdgyBees augments live video feeds with geo-information layers, including maps, building layouts, points of interest, user-generated markers, and more data layers that provide visual context and operational intelligence.”
According to Kaplan, the technology can be conceptualized by imagining a sports broadcaster chalking up a play on the screen. EdgyBees permits the relay of information like that between parties, effectively acting as a two-way radio for visual information.
“The software and video is available to drone pilots, ground personnel and all distributed personnel and the footage is live streamed back to command and control centers to assist in making critical decisions immediately.”
It’s not the only AR solution being explored by fire crews. A company called Qwake Tech makes an AR helmet for firefighters that uses thermal imaging, edge detection, and toxicity sensors to give firefighters augmented sense perception in situations where smoke and fumes impair sight.
A similar systems has been developed by EPFL, a university in Switzerland.
Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are also being used to train first responders, including EMTs.