TECHNOLOGY AND RESCUE

IMAGINE

That a disaster has occurred. One that destroys buildings, floods neighborhoods or burns them to the ground...

As things stand now responders react and move in to save lives. They do what they can with the technology they have. 

Over the course of months or, in some cases years, authorities and NGOs attempt to bring the communities stricken back to life.

IMAGINE A FUTURE

Where things can be done faster and better.

Bridges can be built in a matter of hours or days...

Private companies can come into disaster zones and build homes immediately...

During and immediately after disasters strike people have to be rescued. This is the most important part of the whole disaster response--saving human lives.

What if technology that already exists could make doing this quicker and better???

What if drones were actually used to get people over collapsed or flooded areas?

What if a Google Glass or Holo Lens Helmet could help rescuers in a disaster zone find their ways to those that needed to be rescued??

What if the same technology were used to help rescuers avoid power and gas lines??

What if rescuers could approach a building that was collapsed and immediately pull up the construction blueprints to better plan and approach the rescue operations??

A whole city has been wiped out. The layout of roads is unclear. How do you navigate in this type of environment??

Rescuers going inside buildings may not have a clue where to go once inside. Being able to see how to navigate the interior would be a big advantage...

Whether its a mud slide, flood, hurricane caused incident or fire, when whole communities and land masses are wiped out it is hard to find what went where. How do you navigate total chaos? How do you locate people in a zone that has been so damaged that it is almost impossible to even know where the locations of things are?

Using augmented reality to help aid in rescues covers a lot of ground.

It can even be used to plan out entire rescue operations. The Microsoft Holo Lens gives the capability of entire environment, operating environment, sight manipulation. Where best to put resources, where best to look for survivors and where best to initiate operations can all be planned with augmented reality headsets.

Further, the ability of  augmented reality to give drivers of HAZMAT vehicles the ability to see out side of their vehicles without putting themselves at risk of exposure to the hazards in their operating environment is another plus of the AR systems.

So there it is. Even more uses for the technology we already have, but refuse to use on large scales, in rescue and disaster response.

Just another update in my ongoing adventure looking for new ways of doing rescue. No reason to not be using these technologies. Many of them were specifically created with applications for rescue in mind. Cost objections are not even real arguments for not using these technologies. Many of the companies that build these systems would gladly allow them to be used at no cost to the rescue organizations in need of them or at greatly reduced costs. Some will even provide the men and women to operate them as part of their corporate good philosophies in action.