National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) staff recently developed virtual reality environments designed to support industry in designing user interfaces for use by first responders.
These interfaces could include visual indicators, sounds or voice commands that could be embedded in, for example, firefighters’ masks or smart glasses worn by emergency medical technicians. These tools might provide first responders with information such as the temperature of a room or a warning that the oxygen in a backpack tank is low.
The NIST project aims to enable the industry to make better, more cost-effective interfaces that can be brought to market more quickly.
“There is currently no method like ours to test and measure user interfaces for first responders,” Scott Ledgerwood, NIST project leader, said. “We want to enable development, testing and rapid prototyping of these interfaces in a safe, controlled and repeatable environment.”
Interfaces for first responders typically cannot be tested in real emergencies because doing so could expose first responders to unacceptable risk. Virtual reality provides a safe way to test these innovations.
The software programs developed by NIST staff include firefighting scenarios in a hotel, a mountain home, and an office environment.
NIST plans to develop methods and criteria for evaluating interfaces and to create additional virtual scenarios for a various first responders categories and a range of headsets and graphic engines.
“The goal is to make this virtual environment in such a way that anyone who has access to a headset could download our scenarios and use them at their own locations,” Ledgerwood said.