Situational Awareness and Visual Analytics for Emergency Response and Training

Abstract

Many emergency response units are currently faced with restrictive budgets which prohibit their use of technology both in training and in real-world situations. Our work focuses on creating an affordable, mobile, state-of-the-art emergency response test-bed through the integration of low-cost, commercially available products. We have developed a command, control, communications, surveillance and reconnaissance system that will allow small-unit exercises to be tracked and recorded for evaluation purposes. Our system can be used for military and first responder training providing the nexus for decision making through the use of computational models, advanced technology, situational awareness and command and control. During a training session, data is streamed back to a central repository allowing commanders to evaluate their squads in a live action setting and assess their effectiveness in an after-action review. In order to effectively analyze this data, an interactive visualization system has been designed in which commanders can track personnel movement, view surveillance feeds, listen to radio traffic, and fast-forward/rewind event sequences. This system provides both 2-D and 3-D views of the environment while showing previously traveled paths, responder orientation and activity level. Both stationary and personnel-worn mobile camera video feeds may be displayed, as well as the associated radio traffic.