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Public safety

Public safety communications research

SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT: PSCR HAPTICS CHALLENGE

A phone mounted on a metal arm shows a thermal image of several people standing in demo area.
Credit: S. Trunnell/Corner Alliance

Sensing through the smoke — in a dangerous environment with low visibility, firefighters can’t always rely on their eyes alone. That’s where haptic feedback comes in, a technology that leverages sensory cues (like a cellphone’s vibration) to communicate with its users. This could be the next frontier in situational awareness for first responders, so NIST is on an expedition to find out more.

Recently, NIST’s Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division put haptic solutions to the test as part of the final phase in our Haptic Interfaces for Public Safety Challenge. Our team used the thermal tick camera shown above to keep track of what was going on in the demo area, which was otherwise filled with smoke and not visible.

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News and Updates

Rendering of a building made by a 3D point cloud

Using Lasers to Save Lives

Scenario: you’re driving to your new job at a university campus and using your Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled smartphone to tell you—and your car—how

Industry Impacts

Photo of NIST scientists with the PSCR Deployable LTE Cell-on-Wheels

First Responder Communications

First responders must be able to communicate during an emergency. Too often in critical situations, communications among public safety agencies are hampered by

Projects and Programs

Wildland firefighter

Public Safety Communications

To provide the public safety community with a better understanding of what to expect from new and emerging networking technologies, and accelerate the

Public Safety Communications Research

The primary objective of the Public Safety Communications Research program is to lead the development of wireless telecommunications and information technology

Publications

PSCR 2020_PSCR Program Overview

Author(s)
Dereck R. Orr
PSCR’s Division Chief, Dereck Orr, shares an introduction to PSCR 2020: The Digital Experience and a brief overview of PSCR’s history. Attendees hear important

Software

PSCR Haptic Challenge Environments

This Unreal Engine project has been created specifically for the PSCR Haptic Challenge. It features three different first responder scenarios that will be

LTE Coverage Tool

This experimental application was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Public Safety Communications Research Division (PSCR)

Tools and Instruments

LTE Coverage Tool

This experimental application was developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Public Safety Communications Research Division (PSCR)