Personalized Evacuation Maps for Emergency Alarms
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing building alarm systems do not effectively generate personalized evacuation maps based on the location of emergency incidents and user device positions within a network, leading to inefficient evacuation routes.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that retrieve alarm type and incident location data from a building's alarm system controller, analyze this information based on the building and network layout, and generate customized evacuation maps specific to user devices, directing users to safe exits while avoiding hazardous areas.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional alarm systems are used, then the system is simple and easy to implement, but the evacuation routes are not personalized and may lead users through hazardous areas
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the building into multiple zones with different hazard levels based on the emergency incident location. Each user receives a customized evacuation map showing only the relevant zones and safe routes for their specific location, rather than a generic entire-building map. This segmentation allows personalized safe routing while maintaining system manageability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system pre-establishes building layouts, zone definitions, and safe exit routes before emergencies occur. When an emergency is detected, the computing device quickly retrieves pre-stored layout information and generates personalized evacuation maps by overlaying the emergency incident location data onto the pre-existing building models, enabling rapid response without complex real-time calculations.
2Productivity
If personalized evacuation maps are generated for each user device, then the evacuation routing is optimized and safe, but the processing and communication load on the network increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system generates evacuation maps with local quality by including only the specific zones, exits, and routes relevant to each user device's location relative to the emergency incident. Rather than transmitting complete building maps to all devices, the system customizes each map to show only the necessary local information, reducing data transmission requirements while maintaining personalized routing optimization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates simplified copies of the building layout for each user device, extracting and displaying only the relevant portions of the complete building model needed for that user's evacuation route. These copied maps are lightweight versions that retain essential navigation information while consuming minimal network bandwidth and device processing resources.
3Ease of manufacture
If the system integrates with existing IT infrastructure including network switches, then the deployment cost is reduced, but the system must handle network variability and addressing complexities
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves universality by designing the computing device to work with standard network protocols and interfaces that are already present in most building IT infrastructures. The device can retrieve alarm data from various alarm system controllers and communicate with different types of user devices (smartphones, tablets, computers) using common communication protocols, enabling broad deployment without requiring proprietary hardware or complex custom integrations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service by automatically discovering user devices on the network and retrieving their location information from pre-stored building and network layout data. The computing device autonomously matches network addresses to physical locations and generates appropriate evacuation maps without requiring manual configuration or intervention, simplifying deployment while handling network variability through automated processes.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for generating digital emergency alarms is disclosed. The method includes retrieving, by a computing device and from a data packet transmitted by an alarm system controller of a building, an alarm type and an incident location of an emergency incident detected in the building, analyzing, by the computing device based on a building and network layout of at least the building, the alarm type and the incident location to generate an evacuation map specific to a user device connected to the network, where the building and network layout includes a physical location and a network address of the user device, and sending, by the computing device via the network switch based on the network address of the user device, the evacuation map to the user device, where the evacuation map is displayed on the user device to direct a user to evacuate from the emergency incident.