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SIREN Situation Aware Response to Emergencies

G r o u p f o r User Interface Research. University of California Berkeley. SIREN Situation Aware Response to Emergencies. Xiaodong Jiang Leila A. Takayama Jason I. Hong James A. Landay. Motivation for Emergency Response. Emergencies are a fact of life

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SIREN Situation Aware Response to Emergencies

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  1. Group for User Interface Research University of California Berkeley SIRENSituation Aware Response to Emergencies Xiaodong Jiang Leila A. Takayama Jason I. Hong James A. Landay

  2. Motivation for Emergency Response • Emergencies are a fact of life • 1,755,000 fires in the United States in 1998 • 4000 deaths, 22000 injuries, 100 firefighter deaths / year • $9 billion+ in property losses / year • Difficult to make coordinated decisions under stress • Assessment, communication, and planning • Often with little information • "Firefighting is making a lot of decisions on little information" • Improvements here can save lives!

  3. Motivation for Emergency Response • Relatively unexplored domain in HCI • Very far away from desktop computing • High-stress, chaotic, lots of information, communication • Very serious consequences • Sensor nets • Small cheap sensors for location, identity, temperature, humidity, etc • Pushes scalability and usability (and some privacy) issues for Context-Aware Apps

  4. Previous Research • Naturalistic decision making under stress (Klein) • Recognition-primed decision making • Power of mental simulation • Non-linear problem solving • FireWall, CS160 • See inside the fire • Prototype for incident commanders

  5. Overall Approach • Field studies • Building managers, civil engineers • Battalion chiefs, firefighters, engineers • Understand tools, tasks, processes, language, organizational structure • Iteratively develop a suite of applications • Brainstorming, Rapid prototyping, Feedback • Primarily sensor-based apps

  6. Outline • Motivation • Field Studies • Some Prototypes and Some Brainstorming

  7. Field Studies • Field studies • Interview participants in normal work environment • Participants • 2 Building Managers • 1 Civil Engineering Professor • 5 Battalion Chiefs • 1 Captain, 2 Engineers • Several Firefighters • And a (yummy) dinner with Berkeley Fire Dept • Leila & a smoking trash can • And we helped fix their VCR

  8. Field StudiesAnd we fixed the VCR!

  9. Field StudiesOrganization • Para-military organization • Extensively trained, clear roles, clear chain of command • Ranks • Battalion chiefs, lieutenant, captain, engineer, firefighter • Divisions • Divided by geographical locations • Functions • Grouped by responsibilities (incident commander, division leader, strike team leader)

  10. Field StudiesRoles and the Chain of Command

  11. Example ScenarioSingle-story house fire • 911 Dispatcher notifies nearest Fire Station • Several engines arrive • First engine takes a quick look around • Firefighters sent out to understand basic layout, find fire and scope of fire • Engineer sets up hoselines • Highest ranking becomes Incident Commander (IC)

  12. Example ScenarioSingle-story house fire (cont.) • Battalion Chief arrives • Comes only if fire is large enough, assumes role of IC • Gets 30-sec assessment from previous IC (captain) • What resources do you have? • Who is here, and where are they? • Status of fire? • What resources are needed? • Incident Commander • Gets more resources if needed (2nd alarm, 3rd alarm) • Divides firefighters into divisions and groups • Does constant assessment, accountability, and planning

  13. Field StudiesAssessment • Understanding the situation • Fire status • Progress of divisions and groups • Victim status • Occupants, their location, activity • Building status • Floor plans, Heat, Hazardous materials, Utilities • Weather • Exposures • Buildings close to the burning areas

  14. Field StudiesAssessment (cont.) • Many sources of information • Primarily radio and face-to-face • Street maps • Floor plans (sometimes) • Hazmats • Weather reports • Kept track through many tools • Grease board (sketch of area) • Activity log (events) • ICS forms (tasks assigned, resource status) • Passports/TCards

  15. Field StudiesAccountability • Accountability • Who are the people under my command? • Where are they and what are they doing? • Do they have enough resources to get their job done? • Are they safe? • Accountability pervasive part of the culture • Permeates everything: org structure, standard operating procedures, equipment, tools, and documentation • Ex. Buddy system, Passports (personnel), TCards (resources), ICS, roll call • Ex. 4 firefighters died in Seattle & no one knew for hours

  16. Field StudiesAccountability (cont.) • Passports • TCards

  17. Field StudiesPlanning • Go Offensive / Defensive • Assign Tasks • Rescue, stage in a certain area • Request more resources • More water, more engines, air, medical • Abandon • Communicating new plan thru chain of command

  18. Field StudiesCommunication • Communication always thru chain of command • Messages sent through radio, pre-specified freqs • Messages always acknowledged by receiver • ICS forms are externalized artifacts for communication between duty shifts during large incidents

  19. Field StudiesSpanning and Branching • Focus attention on 5-7 things at most • Ex. Firefighters focus on task and tracking buddies • Ex. Captains focus on firefighters under their command • Ex. Division commanders focus on their companies • Ex. Operations (often the IC) focus on divisions and groups • If too much to focus on, add level of indirection • Assign someone else to focus on specific task • Delegate directly below of new chain of command

  20. Field StudiesIncident Command System (ICS) • "Coordinate personnel, resources, & communication during the response to an emergency" • "Unified command, common terminology, comprehensive resource management, and manageable span of control" • Over 20 forms • Utilized to different extent depending on size of incident • Utilized to different extent by different roles

  21. Field StudiesExample ICS Forms

  22. Field StudiesExample ICS Forms

  23. Field StudiesPre-planning • Mutual Response Agreements (MRA) • How nearby counties will help each other • Material Safety Data Sheets • Each business describes floorplan, hazmats, etc • Located near the main entrance • Annual inspections • Only for large buildings and apartments with 4+ units • Check smoke alarms, extinguishers, combustibles, etc • High-risk site inspections • Lots of Training exercises

  24. Field StudiesInside the Fire • Carrying 40+ lbs of equipment • SCBA Oxygen, Nomex body suit, axe, radios, etc • IPass system • Panic button, motion sensor • Often can't see • Often crawling on ground • Voice range • Teams of 2 within voice range, OSHA requirement • Radio • Little or no knowledge of floorplan • Take a 15-minute break every 45-60 minutes • Individual firefighters provide "sensor data" to IC

  25. Field StudiesInside the Fire Engineer

  26. Field StudiesDangers to Firefighters • Hidden fires • Flashovers • Backdrafts • Getting Lost • Running out of oxygen • Exhaustion

  27. Field StudiesDangers to Firefighters (cont.) • Hazardous materials • Structural collapse • Often indicated by cracks in walls, roof deformity • Newer truss roofs don't give indicators and fail catastrophically • Missed communication • Missing "abandon" call • Radio dead zones • Weather and topography • Sudden wind shifts dangerous

  28. Some of Our Current Problems • Understanding precisely the roles and responsibilities • What kinds of information each role needs • Evaluation • Training exercises • Training observation this afternoon at 2pm

  29. Outline • Motivation • Field Studies • Some Prototypes and Some Brainstorming

  30. Prototype #1 • Similar to FireWall… • Provides floorplan of building • Provides building specs, location of fire hydrants, multiple views of building • Monitors location, oxygen remaining, body temperature of firefighters in a burning structure Battalion Chief • Except it also… • Monitors ambient temperature of structure and around firefighter • Facilitates communication between IC & firefighter w/ heads-up display • Tracks victim location • Includes history viewing Engineer Captain

  31. Prototype #2 …and inspired the design of … … goes here…

  32. Prototype #2 (continued)

  33. Prototype #2 (continued) • Heads-up display • Minimally invasive • Only communicates very time sensitive information • ME Prof Paul Wright, BMI Research Group • Currently working on headsup displays for firefighter masks (Chicago Fire Dept)

  34. Prototype #2 (continued) • Heads Up Display • Commands from outside such as “abandon” • Level of oxygen left in oxygen tank (SCBA) • Current body temperature • Current ambient temperature • Thermal imaging of environment

  35. Prototype #2 (continued) • Digital backup & communication • Record form-filling digitally and on paper • Transmit relevant information to division leaders to augment radio communication

  36. Prototype #2.5

  37. Crazy Idea #1 • Lots of documentation for long-lived fires • Ex. Some forms worked on constantly (action summary) • Ex. Some forms updated daily (ICS plans) • Ex. Other forms static (emergency phone list, checklists) • Currently done with daily meetings and packets • Streamline distribution of docs • Large wireless network + Tablet PCs • Wireless portable printers • "I am a division commander, print all forms I need"

  38. Crazy Idea #2 • Wildfires very dangerous • Geography, wind, and humidity important • Sudden changes in wind can trap firefighters • Sudden drops in humidity can signal ignition • Currently would get daily weather reports from dedicated meteorologist • Sensor networks for wildfires • Provide visualizations of realtime sensor net data • Prof. Glaser is looking at using data like this to model and predict spread of fire

  39. Crazy Idea #3 • Robust location tracking • Sensor-based Buddy system, notify firefighters if too far from buddies • Visualization to command post • Important for rapid intervention crews (rescue) • Accountability at all levels • Side ideas • Can we get power from heat? • How strong a signal would need to be beaconed out? • Or how strong would base station signals need to be? • Biggest bang for buck?

  40. Crazy Idea #4 • Lots of data often collected • Location on fire hydrants, standpipes • Existence and location of hazardous materials • Pictures of building, Layout of building • Problem is that data is often: • Hard to find (large binders) • Collected by other groups (fire inspectors, env health) • Streamline collection of fire data • Digitize and tag all data collected with location info

  41. Crazy Idea #5 • Location of victims • About how many people are in the building now? • Are people stuck in the elevator?

  42. Crazy Idea #6 • Passport system cumbersome • Often out of date • Important to be right for accountability • Active Tags and Electronic Velcro • Tags are small active displays showing names of firefighters on duty • Still tangible, easy to move around and re-arrange • Transmits info thru the velcro (to the ICS board)

  43. Non-research Things • Cost is a huge constraint • Lot of tech they want already out there (thermal imagers) • Incompatible radios • Only three channels statewide • Getting to the scene • Pedestrians • Vehicles not yielding • Hitting other fire engines

  44. Non-research Things (cont.) • Technology giveth and taketh away • Full-body suits and thermal imagers lets firefighters go longer and further in • Difficult to sense flashovers coming • Toxins and structural weaknesses in plastics and steels • Common mistakes people make • Closest exit isn't way you came in • Don't run back in to get stuff

  45. Group for User Interface Research University of California Berkeley Thanks to: Berkeley Fire Dept El Cerrito Fire Dept Alameda Fire Dept NSF ITR CITRIS Nick, the camera man Xiaodong Jiang Leila A. Takayama Jason I. Hong James A. Landay http://guir.berkeley.edu/emergency

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