IoT and First Responders-New Tech in the Offing Helps Them to Cope Better With Evolving Situations.

If we've learned one thing from COVID, it is that our first responders, from Firefighters to EMT's and paramedics need to have better communications and better technology. Not only do the first responders struggle with a lack of communications bu they need better tech for personal protective gear and more. New tech could help them to live better and to perform better and even much more rapidly attend to the people who need them most when they need them.

Due to this NIST or the National Institute of Standards and Technology has launched a "Chariot Challenge" that is designed to get problems solvers and tech innovators in the industry to help to design new kinds of technology that will allow first responders of all types to use real time IOT data. This will allow health care and first responders to make decisions in a crisis that can save lives more rapidly and more readily.

Scott Ledgerwood,leader of Standards and Technology at NIST said that ""Our goal is to uncover technology solutions that will make it easier to guarantee public safety by tapping into IoT data that can be relayed to first responders."

Not only is great information necessary in a crisis but also an interface that doesn't take a long time to use and implement. First responders don't always have time to navigate around an interface and there is no excessive time to accomplish tech tasks during a health care crisis. That is why many decisions are made on the fly, using the combined intelligence and experience of first responders such as paramedics and EMTs.

Ledgerwood acknowledged that facet of the operation as well, stating, "We want to develop user interfaces that are user friendly and that are fast to deliver actionable insights."

The CHARIoT challenge is designed to touch on a wide range of different scenarios that may be seen in first-responder situations. These could include anything from COVID to other types of infection control and down to the control of fires, floods, mass transit issues and even active shooter scenes.

Ledgerwood explained that "In each of these scenarios, IoT sensors with endpoints such as cameras are capable of monitoring different aspects of an environment. He added that it would be possible to monitor people, materials and even the overall location so that you knew where everything and everyone was located, allowing the first responder to make more informed and safer decisions.

"As a first responder investigates a site, he or she has an augmented reality headset that adjusts as it takes in IoT data that the responder can use. This data informs responder decisions and promotes the safety of both the responders and the public."

One example of this is in a wildland fire scenario, both wind and weather information could be given in real time so that the Firefighers and EMTs could see what areas could be impacted by the fire, and be given more information about where the heat was in the building and where personnel were so that even though they could not physically see past heavy smoke they would still be able to know what areas were the hottest and where their personnel were located due to sensors being worn by them.

Ledgewood said that a lot of prototypes should be seen by the fall that allow the production of new solutions for floods, fires and even pandemics to assist all types of first responders to better cope with any situation that they find themselves part of.

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