No ordinary hack fest, AT&T IoT Civic Hackathon on April 20-21 in Indianapolis was geared towards First Responder technology. It was an event where FirstNet, law enforcement, fire, and EMS personnel gave insights and drove the inspiration behind innovative enhancements in the world of public safety mobile apps. They were looking for applications that will help them better respond to emergencies, fight crime, and make communities safer.
Fleet Complete team are no strangers to safety technologies, used in municipal and police fleets, so they went to Indiana to spend 24 hours in a challenge to develop something new. Participants were furnished with an AT&T IoT Starter Kit, code samples, and plenty of caffeine to stay awake through the long hours.
FirstSense app demo
What the Fleet Complete team came up with was FirstSense – an easy-to-use tool for firefighters to better control wildfires. Comprising multi-sensor devices and a mobile application to monitor real-time field data, FirstSense would serve as an easier and more cost-effective technological tool to oversee parameter variation and potential wildfire threats.
The hardware piece incorporates heat, temperature, humidity, and light sensors for a more holistic understanding of environmental conditions in a specific zone at the time.
FirstSense hardware piece
You can distribute – literally throw anywhere on the ground – the sensors across a risk-prone area and start receiving transmissions every 5 seconds, if you wish to (frequency is adjustable).
The app displays all sensor devices on one google-mapped interface, along with the four parameters next to them. If a parameter is above normal, the icon will flare up red to alert the user. In case of a fire, the app will instantly show the pin-point location of the fire source on a map.
While not revolutionary, FirstSense has received a very encouraging, positive feedback from the firefighter team on site.
It was complimented on the ease of design and usability – as opposed to the very expensive devices and software used in the industry today – and was deemed to be a great, affordable option to potentially increase access to technology for fire departments everywhere.
This was the point, ultimately. Safety should not be cost-prohibitive and, in that regard, it was a huge win for team Fleet Complete. They managed to instigate something that can potentially turn into a life-saving, low-cost solution that is accessible to the most remote, small communities not only in North America, but around the world.
Congratulations to our Fleet Complete developers team!
