Unique Solution for First Responders Demonstrated

Unique Solution for First Responders Demonstrated

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An innovative personnel location technology has been recently demonstrated as an emergency response, showcasing its capabilities during a simulated HAZMAT scenario at the US Port of Houston that included federal, state, and local public safety agencies.

This is part of a collaboration between the DHS S&T and the local public safety and emergency agencies in developing capabilities that could assist first responders at the scene of an emergency. Situational awareness, responder physiological and patient monitoring, real-time location tracking, and enhanced communications were identified as priority concerns.

DHS’s NGFR (Next Generation First Responder) program is focused on developing, adapting and integrating technologies to make first responders better protected, connected, and fully aware. TRX Systems showcased its NEON Personnel Tracker, a 3D mapping, and location solution that improves operational efficiency, command effectiveness, and safety for industrial, security, public safety, and defense applications.

Personnel Tracker delivers seamless indoor and outdoor location, including delivery of real-time 3D location of personnel operating indoors, underground, and in other GPS-denied environments.

It is an Android application tightly integrated with the NEON Location Service where a suite of patented algorithms fuse inertial sensor data, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi readings and inferred map and building data to deliver reliable 3D location. Personnel wearing a small, NEON Tracking Unit and carrying an Android device can now be tracked and located in real-time and for after action review.

Ultra-wideband or Bluetooth beacons may be implemented for initialization of location and to enhance location precision. The Android based NEON Location Service is also available for integration with 3rd party applications via the NEON API, according to the company website.  

During the demonstration, NEON was implemented as a location service running on the mobile devices carried by the first responders. Its location data was integrated with various situational awareness applications to enhance coordination of responding teams consisting of more than 40 first responders and improve overall incident response effectiveness, according to prweb.com.