Increased situation awareness in case of emergency using the Smart Spaces paradigm and Augmented Reality techniques

(GSRT) funded project (1309-BET-2013)  – https://tsl.ds.unipi.gr/pyksis/

The purpose of the project is to increase the situational awareness of the passengers and the crew in a ship, in case of an emergency (fire, flood e.t.c.). It makes use of “smart spaces” based on sensor networks, computer vision techologies, as well as decision support and intelligent content distribution, utilizing augmented reality methods. The project will lead to increased passenger and crew safety and better accident response management.

The implementation of the project will allow better management of the process of dealing with accidents or safe evacuation of a boat in passenger shipping, leading to an increase in the sense of safety of passengers and crew. In such situations even trained crews are paid spiritually by the rapid changes in situations that occur during dangerous accidents in confined spaces and crowded conditions. So they often fail to react in a timely and correct manner. The solution proposed by the project is the holistic approach to the issue with the adoption of “intelligent spaces”.

“Smart Spaces” are a technological breakthrough in the ubiquitous and pervasive computing paradigm. The collection of data in the “smart space” is achieved without requiring the active participation of the operator, nor downloading applications or setting up (in an emergency there is no time). The space around it must be able to collect data, which will increase the available information about the situation in which it is located. This is achieved by using sensors located in space and utilizing wireless sensor networks, sensors that interact with objects carried by the passenger or even sensors integrated in the smartphone terminal, which the passenger already has (ie no custom terminal adapted to specialized use).

The utilization of the data that will come from the above sources is not easy to combine and utilize in emergency situations by the human-operator. For this reason there should be an intermediate level of data fusion from heterogeneous sensors that will lead to conclusions. The data generated will be fed into data fusion algorithms tailored to the needs of DSS decision support systems. The business status projection and dissemination system will be addressed to the ship’s executives and crew and will support decision making, while it will power the smart terminals as well as the augmented reality system.