Tangible and wearable user interfaces for supporting collaboration among emergency workers

Abstract

Ensuring a constant flow of information is essential for offering quick help in different types of disasters. In the following, we report on a work-in-progress distributed, collaborative and tangible system for supporting crisis management. On one hand, field operators need devices that collect information-personal notes and sensor data-without interrupting their work. On the other hand, a disaster management system must operate in different scenarios and be available to people with different preferences, backgrounds and roles. Our work addresses these issues by introducing a multi-level collaborative system that manages real-time data flow and analysis for various rescue operators. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.