When an accident occurs, it is very important to gather information about the situation. The INGENIOUS Helmet is being developed by our partners from KIRO to facilitate the collection of field information to assist First Responders (FRs) in emergency situations.

There are various helmets developed to meet the First Responders needs and help them conduct their duties. Therefore, it may be inefficient to separately develop different helmets in which electronic devices are integrated. For this reason, the INGENIOUS Helmet is being developed in a detachable form.

The INGENIOUS Helmet is being developed by dividing it into video module, audio module, and processing module, and each module can be described as follows.

1. The video module is responsible for acquiring the video information monitored by FRs. This module uses two types of cameras: EO camera and IR camera.
   • EO camera: It is used to show visual information in a normal situation. The information consists of an RGB image.
   • IR camera: It is used when the EO camera’s visual information is ineffective due to conditions such as smog.
2. The Voice communication module is developed for hands-free voice communication to gather information at the scene of an emergency.
3. The processing module was developed to handle all software for helmets including video data and WiFi communication.

SST #1 (Oct. 13-15/2021)

The INGENIOUS Helmet, which is being developed by KIRO, was demonstrated at Small Scale Test #1 (SST #1), which was hosted by our partners from Södertörn’s Fire and Rescue Service (SBFF) and held at the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency’s (MSB) national training site at Revinge, in the south of Sweden from October 11th to 15th, 2021. The voice communication module is under development and has not been demonstrated this time. In this demonstration, a maximum of two INGENIOUS helmets were used, and a demonstration of searching for a human life using a helmet in a heavy smoke environment and/or in a dark environment was presented. For voice communication, equipment provided by MSB (Facility management organization) was used.

Here are two representative results from various experiments:

Test #1 – Heavy smoke environment test scenario

The purpose of this experiment is to detect and rescue a survivor in a building full of smoke. As shown in the figure below, the test building has a complex structure and was filled with smoke during the experiment. In an environment where people can not see a single meter ahead, the demonstrator tries to find a human life by looking at a display connected to the helmet. The video of the FR helmet is to be sent to the Command Center to perform missions through mutual communication. Voice communication is possible with equipment provided by MSB.

As shown in the figure and video below, it was possible to identify the surrounding situation by using the IR camera image and find a person relatively easily.

Test #2 – Test scenario of simultaneous operation of two helmets

In this experiment, two demonstrators wore the helmets and performed a mission to find human life in a dark environment. As in the previous experiment, the video data of the helmets is sent to the Command Center, and voice communication between them is possible.

As shown in the video below, through the IR camera image it was not difficult to find the human hiding in the hanger.

Future Work

Through this SST #1 we confirmed the implementation of the basic functions of the helmet.

However, in order to be used in the field, we have also checked the items that need to be improved, and are as follows.

• Making modules more compact
• To apply two or more types of commercial helmets (including fire helmet)
• Completion of hands-free voice communication module