The Chicago Fire Department is testing a wireless system that will pinpoint the location of firefighters, reports RF-ID Journal. Researchers at U/C Berkeley developed the system in response to a request by the fire department. Currently firefighters must report their own status and position via 2-way radio.

Developed in collaboration with the Center for Information Technology in the Interests of Society (CITRIS), the Fire Information and Rescue Equipment (FIRE) system provides firefighters and command chiefs details about rescue workers’ positions in a building.

The FIRE system, which the Chicago Fire Department began testing in the spring, consists of two elements—SmokeNet and FireEye.

SmokeNet is a wireless network using Moteiv’s Tmote Sky wireless sensing platform and sensors, as well as its Boomerang software, which enables wireless sensor devices to register and report changes in the environment to firefighters.

The sensors use two AA batteries and can be installed in smoke detectors throughout commercial buildings, says Paul Wright, chief scientist for CITRIS, a public-private partnership that creates information technology solutions for social, environmental and health-care problems.

The sensors use active 2.4 GHz RFID tags with a read range up to 100 feet. As part of its pilot program, the Chicago Fire Department has installed these sensors throughout one of its facilities. The FIRE system is also installed in some UC Berkeley buildings and is being examined by several other cities.

The in-building sensors send out an RF signal every two seconds, scanning for firefighters whose air tanks are equipped with wireless sensors that both receive and send transmissions to and from the building sensors installed.

The sensor in each firefighter’s air tank includes a unique number; as a firefighter passes an in-building sensor, the air tank sensors communicate its ID number to in-building sensor, establishing the firefighter’s location.

This position information is sent via a wireless ZigBee network to tablet PCs monitored by chiefs or incident commanders. The real-time status is displayed using a Flash GUI. The tablet PCs also utilize AutoCAD drawings, provided by the city, of buildings in which the sensors have been installed, and firefighters’ locations will appear on the screen as dots.

The in-building sensors also can be equipped to measure smoke levels and temperature, alerting firefighters about conditions around them. There can be dozens of sensors in the building transmitting to a firefighter’s corresponding sensor at any time, says Andrew Redfern, a wireless sensor networks research engineer at UC Berkeley.

UC Berkeley student Joel Wilson has developed a system known as FireEye (pdf), which includes a head-mounted display screen attached to the nose guard inside the helmet of a firefighter. The latest smart helmet packs an 11-ounce Xybernaut POMA computer, slightly smaller than a VHS videotape. Once the monitors, motes, transmitters, and batteries are all assembled, the unit will weigh between five and ten pounds.

The FireEye displays an interactive floor plan map featuring the firefighter’s current location, or that of other company members, on a postage stamp-sized LCD screen positioned below the right eye of the fire fighter.

The Chicago Fire Department and UC Berkeley hope to have the system installed in Chicago, but when that would happen is still unknown.

CITRIS has a variety of interesting study areas (project list) such as the Center for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles. Founding corporate partners include BroadVision, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Infineon, Intel, Marvell, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, STMicroelectronics, and Sun Microsystems.

In related news, a recent vote by the California’s Public Utilities Commission paved the way for a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. plan to upgrade all of the company’s residential electricity and natural gas meters, to CITRIS-based SmartMeters. The five-year project promises to change the way the utility’s customers pay for power by sending power consumption data over power lines and wireless transmitters.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at 5:31 am.