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Landmarke: an ad hoc deployable ubicomp infrastructure to support indoor navigation of firefighters

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Abstract

Indoor navigation plays a central role for the safety of firefighters. The circumstances in which a firefighting intervention occurs represent a rather complex challenge for the design of supporting technology. In this paper, we present the results of our work designing an ad hoc ubicomp infrastructure to support navigation of firefighters working in structure fires inside the zone of danger. We take a wider approach, complementing the technical questions with the development of effective navigation practices based on technology available today. We provide an overview of the complete design process, from the theoretical and empirical underpinnings to the construction and evaluation of three iterations of the platform. We report the results of our evaluation and the implications and tensions uncovered in this process, and we discuss the challenges and implications of it for the design of ubicomp for firefighters.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Institute of Firefighters of Nord-Rhine Westphalia and the Fire Brigade of the City of Cologne for their invaluable support and great engagement in this project. This work is partially supported by the German Ministry of Research and Education as part of the Landmarke project (contract no. 13N9916).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT, Sankt Augustin, Germany

    Leonardo Ramirez, Matthias Betz & Volker Wulf

  2. Department of Information Systems and New Media, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

    Leonardo Ramirez, Tobias Dyrks & Volker Wulf

  3. Department of Germanistics and Applied Linguistics, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany

    Jan Gerwinski

  4. TecO, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Markus Scholz

Authors
  1. Leonardo Ramirez
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  2. Tobias Dyrks
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  3. Jan Gerwinski
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  4. Matthias Betz
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  5. Markus Scholz
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  6. Volker Wulf
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Correspondence to Leonardo Ramirez.

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Ramirez, L., Dyrks, T., Gerwinski, J. et al. Landmarke: an ad hoc deployable ubicomp infrastructure to support indoor navigation of firefighters. Pers Ubiquit Comput 16, 1025–1038 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0462-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-011-0462-5

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