A 3-D Visualization System for Situational Awareness: Identifying, Locating, and Tracking People/Resources in Urban Area Infrastructures

In order to achieve the strategic plan for a more secure Emergency Preparedness and Response system for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), UtopiaCompression proposes to develop innovative 3-D visualization software system for identifying, localizing and tracking people/resources within buildings in urban area infrastructures. The proposed system will not only automatically collect and process available data/information (relevant to the incident site) for generating the building and terrain models, but also accept real-time measurements of people and resources within simulated urban area and building structures and provide an interactive visualization of the integrated information to the incident commanders for situational awareness (on an incident scene). The proposed technologies and software system will greatly benefit DHS by enabling far superior visualization and tracking capabilities within buildings, and will greatly enhance the effective decision making capabilities of incident commanders acting in search, rescue and task assignments. By enabling improved situational awareness to incident commanders regarding the location and infrastructural surroundings of resources, responders and victims during a national disaster or security incident, the proposed technology will greatly increase the effectiveness and speed of rescue operations and interventions, thus saving lives and decreasing costs associated with search and rescue and security related crises.