Title :
A Cloud-Enabled Building and Fire Emergency Evacuation Application
Author :
Poy, Hector Moner ; Duffy, Brian
Author_Institution :
United Technol. Res. Centre, Cork, Ireland
Abstract :
Mobile devices and applications designed to assist people during emergencies are becoming more common, but their utility depends heavily on the availability of network and appropriate services. This article presents the rescue worker interface (RWI), a cloud-based service to support fire wardens in the event of a building fire emergency and to assist them in carrying out evacuation tasks in a timely, efficient, reliable, and collaborative manner. Fire wardens equipped with handheld devices can monitor and control building systems in real time via the cloud. Specifically, they can view building evacuation status, fire evolution, building occupancy, and the location of other fire wardens. These capabilities provide them greater control and situational awareness to face the emergency and manage the building egress with reduced risks.
Keywords :
cloud computing; emergency management; fires; groupware; human computer interaction; mobile computing; risk management; RWI; building evacuation status; building occupancy; building system control; building system monitoring; cloud-based service; cloud-enabled building emergency evacuation application; cloud-enabled fire emergency evacuation application; evacuation tasks; fire evolution; fire warden location; handheld devices; mobile devices; rescue worker interface; risk reduction; situational awareness; Buildings; Emergency services; Fires; Middleware; Mobile communication; Pervasive computing; Servers; Wireless sensor networks; building evacuation; cloud; mobile application; pervasive computing; remote monitoring and control; wireless sensor networks;
Journal_Title :
Cloud Computing, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/MCC.2014.67