Connecting, protecting, and informing the next generation of first responders
"Right now when a firefighter in New York goes into a subway tunnel, he can go 15 feet in and is out of communication range. Nobody knows whether he's alive, whether he's safe, or whether he has oxygen," says Amna Greaves, a technical staff member in the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Systems Group. This description highlights the need for tools that improve the communications, and consequently the safety, of first responders. Since last year, Greaves and her team have been working with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) First Responder Group's cutting-edge Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Apex Program to actively address this need with innovative technology that will provide response teams with situational awareness when traditional communications are restricted or disabled. The goal is to research and develop various solutions to problems faced by first responders in emergency operations.