Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Emergency System On Parade -- Maryland's emergency-management agency tests GPS system for use by first-responders

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 09:17:53 -0500

Emergency System On Parade -- Maryland's emergency-management agency tests GPS system for
use by first-responders

March 10, 2003 2:32pm

INFORMATIONWEEK, Page 54, March 10, 2003

Icy winds whipping off the Chesapeake Bay chilled thousands of heavily clad spectators
along a three-mile-long parade route in
Annapolis, Md., moments after the swearing in of first-term Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. Wintry
temperatures don't qualify as an
emergency. Still, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency used the parade to test a
NASA-funded, state-of-the-art
emergency-management system designed to aid first responders when natural or man-made
disasters strike.

MEMA's main duty is to coordinate responses to major emergencies and disasters in
Maryland. The inaugural parade proved to
be a good occasion to test the emergency-management system, which combines the latest in
global-positioning-satellite
communications, cellular-phone, geospatial, and microelectronics technologies.

MEMA gave GPS-enabled cell phones to 10 of its employees working the parade. One of a
dozen satellites orbiting the earth
captures each cell phone's location and relays that information back to a command center.
The Earth Alert Emergency
Management System, being developed by 3e Technologies International Inc., combines that
data, collected in an Oracle
database, with information received through a cellular network to map the exact location
of each unit and display it on a PC
screen. "You can see when someone crosses from the left to the right side of the street,"
says MEMA operations coordinator
Clint Pipkin. The phones can be programmed with applications that let first responders
share information about a disaster with
the command center.

On inauguration day, MEMA's job was to keep the parade moving on schedule and to look out
for anyone in the crowd who
might be, in Pipkin's words, "funky or screwy." MEMA set up a command center in the state
Capitol, where agency managers
strategically positioned personnel on the street, monitored their movements, and verified
their readiness. Watching agents move
in real time on maps generated in a browser, managers could instantly reposition officers
by voice or text messages so they
could respond to incidents, perhaps mitigating problems. The test of the system was
simple: Show the precise location of
agents and whether they're on or off duty. More complex testing of programmable,
interactive features will begin in April and last
for a year.

If the Earth Alert system is deployed in Maryland, the main user wouldn't be MEMA, which
has a staff of only 40, but the
hundreds of state, county, and municipal first-responder agencies. MEMA's endorsement of
the system would be critical,
Pipkin says.

Though any Web-enabled wireless phone can be used with Earth Alert, MEMA and 3e
Technologies use Motorola i88s phones
over a Nextel packet-data network employing the Global Systems for Mobile Communications
protocol. Besides text
messaging, the Motorola units can be programmed in Java 2 Micro Edition, used for cell
phones, PDAs, and consumer
appliances to provide pop-up menus on a small display screen in which the emergency worker
would be able to respond to
predetermined questions.

Pipkin envisions the Earth Alert system being used for emergencies that affect a specific
area, such as a tornado, rather than
one that blankets an entire region or state, such as a blizzard. "In a blizzard," Pipkin
says, "there isn't anything to geo-locate;
snow falls everywhere."

For emergency workers, the Earth Alert system offers two critical features: a device to
communicate warnings to properly
position individuals before an event happens and a tool to collect timely information
after a disaster hits.

For instance, the system can capture weather forecasts that identify the spot a tornado
most likely would hit and notify the
nearest first responders, sending them instructions using the GPS-enabled cell phones'
text-messaging capabilities. To
coordinate feeds about weather forecasts, traffic and road conditions, and other
emergency-related information, 3e Technologies
established a data-fusion center in western Pennsylvania, which will serve as a model site
for future response call centers.

MEMA will use the system mostly after an emergency to gather information that could lead
to a gubernatorial emergency
declaration or presidential federal disaster-area decree, Pipkin says. "During an event,
senators, congressmen, governors, and
the president all want to know how much devastation is out there." Without automation,
damage assessment is a
time-consuming, paper-driven process that often takes hours, or longer. Automating it
provides that information immediately.

Pipkin meets with 3e Technologies' business-unit manager Chris Sluss at least once a month
to recommend ways the system
can be improved. Among the suggestions: create a menu-driven app that lets on-site
responders answer questions such as the
extent of destruction, kind of structure damaged, type of debris, and amount of insurance
coverage. The first responders don't
need to know the address because location information is captured in the handset, which is
relayed to the back-end system via
the GPS.

3e Technologies foresees devices such as radiation or chemical detectors being linked to
cell phones through a Bluetooth
connection, then sending data to the back-end system that would map out locations and
patterns of contamination.

Through the government's Small Business Innovative Research Program, NASA, with additional
money from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, gave 3e Technologies $8 million to develop Earth Alert. In
return for its investment, initially
made in 1998, NASA gets rights to distribute the technology to first responders. "3e [can
still] commercialize it and make
money; that's the whole idea," says Fred Schamann, program manager for Earth Alert at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

3e Technologies is dreaming up applications for the commercial and even personal markets,
such as programs to let insurance
adjusters file real-time claims reports or parents track the whereabouts of their children
who carry GPS-enabled cell phones.
The technology could also be used by 911 operators to pinpoint the exact location of
emergency calls placed through cell
phones.

Whether for commercial or emergency functions, keeping the technology simple and intuitive
is key. "It needs to be something
people will use in their day-to-day jobs," Schamann says. "You can't give people something
they have no feel for."

http://informationweek.com/

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