Under the HUD Executive Summary
OUR MISSION: Here at Under the HUD we believe the value of a person’s life is priceless and that is why we have decided to address some major issues within the field of firefighting. Too many times are firefighters and civilians hurt in the line of duty affecting the lives of more than just the injured. That is why we have taken it upon ourselves to address the issue of sight for firefighters when inside of a burning structure. This is a common issue when entering smoldering buildings that due to all of the smoke caused by the fire, it is almost impossible to know where to go. The status quo on how to navigate through a building by first finding a suitable entry point and once in, feeling around and using a poke stick in order to try and assess where obstacles are and if certain structures are about to collapse is definitely not an efficient system and is what we aim to fix. THE SOLUTION: We are working on taking existing technology and innovating how it is used in order to solve this problem of impaired vision. Our plan is to take the current mask used by firefighters and implement new technology we have available to us today in order to change the way a firefighter sees in the line of duty. Specifically we will be including a small thermal imaging camera that will be mounted onto the mask in a fashion to where a firefighter can simply look through it with one eye. That way it is not replacing a worker’s full natural vision and can be used when needed. We are also going to be adding Google Glass to the screen of the mask in order to create a heads up display (HUD) that will be able to display some key information for firefighters in order to navigate through burning buildings. This HUD will display various stats such as the level in an oxygen tank, the current temperature inside of a room, a viewable schematic of the building that a firefighter is currently in, and also show an bird’s eye view of the same schematic as a small map that will display where other firefighters are within the building, using Google’s GPS system. Through these different technology integrations we know that we can take a giant leap forward in not only protecting the lives of firefighters but also make saving the lives of those trapped in fires safer and more efficient. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN: A change like this cannot simply happen overnight so in order to fully implement our plan we will need to carry out certain tasks before we can take the next step in safety. First, we must integrate all the technology together in order to have the product in the first place. This will include having new masks that are made in part with Google in order to have the Google Glass augmented reality HUD on the vizard of the mask. Next, we must obtain floor plans and schematic for all the buildings within a city. This is a vital part about the HUD as it is what will allow for firefighters to be able to more safely navigate through a building if they know the general layout. This information, with some work, can easily be obtained from different databases. Finally, once all the schematics are received then we must compile them all and add them to an encrypted data base for firefighter access only. The reason it should be encrypted is because people will not want to give blueprints of their homes if anyone can view it. FUTURE PREDICTIONS: With all these pieces of technology we plan to integrate with the mask firefighter’s use, we can expect a fall in the statistics of injuries in the field. We believe that the innovation of the mask in the way we are carrying out is vital if we want to see a safer future and provides a viable answer to the problem that was given to us. In the future, if given more time we have an idea on how to also innovate the smoke detector to use echolocation as another tool to assist firefighters in giving them a real time idea of what kind of condition a room inside of a building is at. This, partnered along with our mask that we have created will further ensure a safer tomorrow for firefighters and victims.
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