The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has made a number of improvements to its Watchtower mobile application, which connects to wearable technology that tracks the location and vital signs of first responders on a mission.
Released in February, the free app was initially tested on smartphones during the Next Generation First Responder Spiral 2 Technology Experiment in Grant County, Washington, in June 2017. Based on feedback received, DHS S&T has made a number of improvements.
“Responders across the nation face numerous on-the-job challenges,” DHS S&T Program Manager Cuong Luu said. “At DHS S&T, we make it our mission to look for solutions to these challenges — such as the ones this free app addresses — to help make responders as safe as we possibly can.”
The Watchtower app uses the GPS location data that is built into smartphones to identify users on an operational dashboard. This allows first responders and mission command to view the locations of other responders, vehicle locations in real-time through the app.
The app can also be connected to body-worn physiological-monitoring sensors via Bluetooth to track the heart rates, oxygen levels and other vital signs of first responders in dangerous environments, potentially saving lives.