Search Area Tracking System for Emergency Response
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Solution Overview
Problem
In emergency situations, searchers in dark and smoky environments, such as fire crews, face inefficiencies in searching for victims due to reliance on slow manual methods, leading to incomplete searches and wastage of resources as previously searched areas are often revisited.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising sensors and a communication unit that track a user's path and hand location, allowing a controller to identify searched areas and provide notifications to other users or supervisors, enabling more efficient searches by visual and audio indications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual search methods are used in dark and smoky environments, then searchers can operate without complex equipment, but search speed is slow and completeness is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical search methods with an automated electronic system comprising sensors (cameras, LIDAR, RFID), communication units, and controllers that automatically track and map searched areas, eliminating the need for complex manual coordination while dramatically increasing search speed and completeness
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates digital copies/maps of searched areas through sensor data processing and transmits these representations to notification devices worn by other searchers, allowing them to see virtual representations of physical search progress without physically being present in all areas
2Reliability
If manual search methods are used, then equipment requirements are minimal, but resource wastage occurs due to incomplete searches and revisiting areas
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements real-time feedback by continuously tracking searcher positions and searched areas through sensors, then immediately communicating this information via notification devices to all team members, allowing dynamic adjustment of search patterns to ensure complete coverage and eliminate redundant efforts
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary mapping and tracking of searched areas before other searchers arrive in those zones, creating a pre-established digital record that prevents redundant searching and allows new searchers to immediately focus on unsearched areas
3Productivity
If real-time tracking and notification systems are implemented, then search efficiency and completeness improve, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The notification devices serve multiple functions: displaying searched area maps, providing directional guidance to unsearched areas, showing teammate locations, and offering emergency alerts, thereby consolidating what could be multiple separate complex systems into a single multi-functional device
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces communication units and controllers as intermediary components that bridge the sensors and notification devices, processing raw sensor data into simplified visual representations and managing information flow between multiple searchers, thereby reducing the complexity burden on individual searcher devices
Data Source
AI summary
A device, system and method for causing a notification device to provide an indication of a searched area is provided. A device comprises: controller; and a communication unit configured to communicate with one or more sensors, the one or more sensors configured to track: a path of a user; and one or more of a reach of the user and hand location of the user. The controller receives, from the one or more sensors, via the communication unit, sensor data indicative of the path and one or more of the reach and the hand location of the user at a location. The controller identifies, from the sensor data, an area searched by the user at the location. The controller causes a notification device to provide an indication of the area searched by the user.