Emergency Communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing - Overall perspective and focus areas -

Emergency Communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

- Overall perspective and focus areas -

Shinyoung Lim (University of Pittsburgh)Tae-Hwan Oh (RIT)

Helena Mitchell (Georgia Tech)

KOCSEA 2010 - Emergency Communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

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About the Speaker• Focused Areas in Computer Science

for Assistive Technology and Rehabilitation Engineering– Home Networking – Pervasive Computing– Machine Learning– Information security– Cloud Computing and Smart Grid

• 20 year research experience at ETRI, Korea

• Joining 19 research projects • Transferring 12 cutting edge IT

technologies to 27 companies• 17 registered intellectual properties• Selected 63 academic journal and

conference papers

11/5/2010


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Emergency Communications

• Definition– Means and method of transmitting and receiving

voice, data, and video messages, information, and images critical to the successful management of an incident where communications infrastructure has been abnormally impacted or lost (FEMA* 2008)

• Benefits– Preparation, Prevention, In-advance/On-time

Awareness, Evacuation, Rescue, and Emergency Medicine Establishing Emergency Plans

*FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency11/5/2010


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FEMA’s Backbone of Emergency Response

11/5/2010

NRCC: National Response Coordination CenterNOC: National Operating CenterFOC: FEMA Operating CenterJFO: Joint Field Office


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Facts and New Act• Facts

– Estimated average of 110 ‘home fire deaths per year’ who were had a sensory disability. (in US)

– One-quarter of victims with physical disabilities were unable to act to save themselves. (NFPA, August 2009)

– The deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) are especially vulnerable in • on-time awareness of emergency alerts (i.e., 911 emergency notifications, • siren sound and voice notice/directions),• interactive communications between the DHoH and the first emergency

responders (i.e., fire fighters, rescue staff, and emergency medical professionals)

– Cause of fatal delays in their awareness, prevention, evacuation, rescue, and recovery from the disaster areas

11/5/2010


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Facts and New Act

11/5/2010


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Facts and New Act

• New Act– October 8, 2010: WASHINGTON,D.C. -- President Barack

Obama signed into law today sweeping new legislation authored by Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)

– The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (Rep. Markey introduced in June 2009)

– Will enable Americans with disabilities to use a wide range of devices and services needed in the digital era, including smart phones for accessing the Internet, closed captioning for online video, audio descriptions of television programming, audible emergency alerts and other technologies

11/5/2010


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Barriers• Emergency preparedness

– Environment Assessment– DHoH mobility to egress and their preparedness

• Emergency awareness / prevention– Inaudible of siren and inappropriate placement of fire/smoke flash lights– TTY, Text messages, social networks, and text-to-Voice converter not working

• Emergency evacuation– Estimated time to egress in dynamic disaster situation– Optimized route to egress

• Rescue– Caught in fire/disasters due to delay in awareness– Location, disaster, and injury updates of the DHoH are inaccessible to rescue staff

• Recover– Most first responders are unable to understand sign language– Voice communication is unavailable to the DHoH

11/5/2010


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Research Focus• Focus Area-1: Environment Assessment for

Emergency Prevention and Preparedness

11/5/2010


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Research Focus

• Focus Area-2: Reliable Emergency Message Delivery and Reporting

11/5/2010


1111/5/2010

Situation: 911 Detects fire near Debby’s house and

sends fire emergency message to Debby

‘Emergency Alert Receiver’

911 Fire Emergency Message: Code 91100

‘Emergency Messenger’

Debby ‘s phone receives 911 message

LED light Blinker

Vibration Alarm

i-EC Emergency Message Delivery Activate ‘Emergency Messenger’ due to 911 Fire Emergency (House on the Fire!)

Bluetooth channel

Debby’s Wrist Alarm Vibrator Wakes her up

Bluetooth channel

Debby’s Portable and rechargeable flash light on her bedside starts blinking


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Situation: Debby caught in her house and send rescue message to 911 first responders Voice-to-Text Converter

Text-to-Voice Converter

Communication Interfaces

Screen shot of ‘Icon-based Text Generator’

Debby: I am at street view window on right side from your view on third floor

911 Fire fighter: We will send two men to get you out. Please, bend yourself down and stay two steps away from the window.Using ‘Icon-based

Text Generator’

Using 911 Fire fighter’s terminal

Debby is at the window side on the third floor

11/5/2010


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Research Focus• Focus Area-3: Interactive Communication

Method for Emergency Evacuation

11/5/2010

Space Sensing – Static and Dynamic Context

Fire Spreading Estimation (Dynamic Context)

Temperature and Toxic Gas Distribution Map

Available Evacuation Routing Algorithms

Decision of Evacuation Routing to Egress

DHoH’s Walking Speed Estimation


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Research Focus• Focus Area-4: Survival Rate Enhancement in

Fire Emergency

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Research Focus• Focus Area-5: Emergency Medical

Communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

11/5/2010


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Research Focus• Focus Area-6: Nonstop Network Devices for

Emergency Communication Infrastructure

11/5/2010

Radware FireProof Application Switch I 2.4G Wireless IP Camera(conceptual image, not fireproof)

Documents

Emergency Communication for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing - Overall perspective and focus areas -