Building tactical information systems for public safety officials:

Abstract

The Building Tactical Information project begins the process of developing technology and standards to realize the vision of making real-time building information accessible to emergency responders to enable safer and more efficient emergency response. This project addresses both the information needs of the fire, police and emergency medical services and the technology needed for moving building data out to emergency responders. A workshop was held to gather information on first responders' building information needs, and presentation standards have been examined based on emergency responder needs while enroute to an incident and on-scene. A technology data path is proposed that will allow information collection and transport to the emergency responder. A security analysis addresses the security concerns of the information transfer. A demonstration of the technology, with a decision support system transmitting real-time building information to first responders, was held at NIST and forms the basis for a documentary video.

Towards Smart Fire Panels

“…Since Nelson's first suggestion, [1] NIST and many affiliated organizations have been working toward building support for the idea in early conceptual discussions at international technical conferences in the late 90s [5,6,7] and keeping stakeholders apprised through standards committees and publications of developments in the area [8,9,10].…”

“…Holmberg et al wrote "Building Tactical Information System for Public Safety Officials. Intelligent Building Response (IBR)" [8]. It is a technical summary of the project by the same name sponsored by National Institute of Justice (NIJ).…”

Development of a Cyber Physical System for Fire Safety

“…Guidance of how to color code these warnings are provided in Appendix C, the NIST Experimental Implementation Report [18]. The interface is shown as a single floor building plan with various colors indicating different levels of alarm in each compartment.…”

“…While real-time fire information visualization is important, the history of a fire event can also provide important information about the [18]. NIST identified the enroute presentation to be about the area surrounding the building, where the incident was located and the presence of unusual hazards [18].…”

“…Also, the first temperature warning threshold used by the NIST study is 50 C and requires a breathing apparatus for fire fighters [18]. Madrzykowksi observed various fire training scenarios and determined that temperatures in excess of 260 C and with heat fluxes in excess of 20 kW/m 2 would result in a survival time of less than 30 seconds for someone that was in full personal protective equipment (PPE) [23].…”