Landmarke

Duration: 2008-2011

Sponsorship: Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)

Contact person: Leonardo Ramirez M.Sc.Eng.

Indoor Navigation

Quickly building a reliable assessment of an incident is a key skill for Firefighters. Reconnaissance missions done under extreme rough conditions and very poor visibility are central tools for this task. Despite the technological tools available today, navigation under such condition represents an important source of risk in firefighting practice.

Navigation is an Art

Navigation is an agency in which experience, senses and training play a very important role. Technology supporting this agency must take this into account to provide the required levels of safety. The goal of the Landmarke Project is, based on Ubiquitous Computing, to develop a navigation and orientation infrastructure that leverages the use of the cognitive abilities of firefighters. It focuses on providing firefighters with an infrastructure to support the construction of dynamically growing ad-hoc reference systems.

Scenario

While performing a reconnaissance mission, first responders mark relevant points of reference using interactive landmarks. These landmarks are small, deployable tokens containing sensors and networking technology. Interactive clothes on the firefighter call their attention and allow them to interact with the landmarks. Sensors carried by the firefighters and the landmarks exchange information, building a layer of information that provides a richer perception of the environment. Using radio communication or in debriefing sessions, firefighters can use this reference system to talk about the space and to understand it collaboratively.

Further information on www.it.fraunhofer.de/de/fb/ucc/projects/landmarke.html

Publications

2012

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  Ramirez, L., Dyrks, T., Gerwinski, J., Betz, M., Scholz, M. & Wulf, V. (2012)Landmarke: An ad hoc deployable ubicomp infrastructure to support indoor navigation of firefighters

  IN Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 16, Pages: 1025–1038 doi:10.1007/s00779-011-0462-5
  [BibTeX] [Abstract]

  Indoor navigation plays a central role for the safety of firefighters. The circumstances in which a firefighting intervention occurs represent a rather complex challenge for the design of supporting technology. In this paper, we present the results of our work designing an ad hoc ubicomp infrastructure to support navigation of firefighters working in structure fires inside the zone of danger. We take a wider approach, complementing the technical questions with the development of effective navigation practices based on technology available today. We provide an overview of the complete design process, from the theoretical and empirical underpinnings to the construction and evaluation of three iterations of the platform. We report the results of our evaluation and the implications and tensions uncovered in this process, and we discuss the challenges and implications of it for the design of ubicomp for firefighters.

  @article{ramirez_landmarke_2012,
  title = {Landmarke: {An} ad hoc deployable ubicomp infrastructure to support indoor navigation of firefighters},
  volume = {16},
  issn = {16174909},
  doi = {10.1007/s00779-011-0462-5},
  abstract = {Indoor navigation plays a central role for the safety of firefighters. The circumstances in which a firefighting intervention occurs represent a rather complex challenge for the design of supporting technology. In this paper, we present the results of our work designing an ad hoc ubicomp infrastructure to support navigation of firefighters working in structure fires inside the zone of danger. We take a wider approach, complementing the technical questions with the development of effective navigation practices based on technology available today. We provide an overview of the complete design process, from the theoretical and empirical underpinnings to the construction and evaluation of three iterations of the platform. We report the results of our evaluation and the implications and tensions uncovered in this process, and we discuss the challenges and implications of it for the design of ubicomp for firefighters.},
  number = {8},
  journal = {Personal and Ubiquitous Computing},
  author = {Ramirez, Leonardo and Dyrks, Tobias and Gerwinski, Jan and Betz, Matthias and Scholz, Markus and Wulf, Volker},
  year = {2012},
  keywords = {Ad hoc deployment, Firefighting, Human-computer interaction, Indoor navigation, Landmarke, Mobile ad hoc network, Navigation, Orientation, Sensor networks, Ubiquitous computing, Wearable computing},
  pages = {1025--1038},
  annote = {ISBN: 0077901104625},
  }