Increasing demands on relief units due to very diverse and often dynamically changing security circumstances as well as a desire for efficient workforce distribution require judicious use of new information and communication solutions. Spontaneous demonstrations, "flash mobs" or e.g. the incidents around the academic ball in Vienna are difficult to plan ahead spatially and therefore, there is often a considerable lack of information for various missions. Data and information for a targeted and efficient leadership are usually not available in a timely manner and at the required quality or cannot be timely distributed to individuals and teams, which makes the selection and coordination of appropriate measures in case of critical situations much more difficult. Effective interaction between different units or task forces is an essential factor for an optimized operational command and thus for a targeted and efficient use in different security scenarios.
TETRA is the digital radio standard for emergency responders (BOS) in Austria and in many EU-member states and offers a secure transmission technology. There are international efforts to increase the range of TETRA to allow for improved transmission of digital data. As the core of 4C4FirstResponder a flexible multimedia communication solution (Communication-Manager-Module) is envisioned, which will integrate TETRA with broadband and ultra-broadband technologies such as 3G, LTE, WiFi and WiMAX. This allows for a scenario-based and time-efficient coordination of first responders and task forces (police, firefighters, ambulance, relief organizations, security personnel, etc.). Based on a stable multi-channel communication solution, as well as technical solutions for near real-time information retrieval via multiple sensors (audio, video, etc.), the most time-critical "Command & Control" tasks of the lead forces or commanders can be systematically supported. Innovative solutions will be developed and tested by using mobile security forces as "human sensor" to enable a stronger and more efficient interaction between an operations center and the mobile teams.
The development of a "media communication module" permits the inclusion of "social media" channels to access current "community" information as well as the targeted dissemination (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) of safety-related information, and disclosure of information to specific target groups. The integration of special groups such as Team Austria, Andritz citizens' initiative, etc., in this communication network allows a scenario-based alignment of the developments. The acceptance of the communications solutions and the need for a demand-oriented and role-based integration of rescue organizations and groups involved will be extensively studied.
Empirical documentation of the role- and group-specific variables of the parties to an emergency event will be a feature of the project These empirically secured individual perception profiles shall be put in a so-called “convergent representation of the situation over¬view” to counter the risk of the formation of false reports toward the affected population in event and crisis situations.
Coordinator
DI Alexander Almer, JOANNEUM RESEARCH Forschungsges.mbH, DIGITAL
Partner
Lakeside Labs Gmbh
IFR - Ing. Richard Feischl
Eurofunk Kappacher GmbH
Dräger Safety Austria GmbH
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz; Institut für Soziologie
User
Bundesministerium für Inneres- BMI; Sektion I
Freiwillige Feuerwehr Gumpoldskirchen,
Contact
DI Alexander Almer
JOANNEUM RESEARCH – DIGITAL – Institut für Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien
Steyrergasse 17, 8010 Graz, AUSTRIA
Tel.: +043 316 876 1738 Mobile: +043 699 1876 1738
Fax: +043 316 876 1720 E-Fax: +043 316 876 9 1738
E-Mail: alexander.almer@joanneum.at
Internet: http://www.joanneum.at/digital
