Qwake Tech’s AR Helmet Helps Firefighters See Through Smoke

FireFighters use their hands to detect surface in burning buildings. How safe is that? C-Thru eliminates this by outlining burning buildings and projecting useful data on a head-mounted AR display.

C-Thru creates an Augmented Reality based solution that it projects on its screens to help Fire-Fighters navigate through smoke-filled rooms. The traditional solutions require the Fire-Fighters to carry a hand-held device. Furthermore, before every move Fire-Fighter make, they need to take a look into the hand-held device and try to remember where the hazardous locations are inside the smoke-filled rooms.

This entire process sacrifices human cognitive abilities or at least stops them from performing at a 100% accuracy. This is where C-Thru introduces a new breakthrough to existing technologies. The C-Thru headset comes with a Dedicated High-Speed Thermal camera mounted on it. Moreover, it applies neuroscience principals to computer vision and augmented reality to enhance Cognitive abilities which help to increase the accuracy of human decisions in critical situations.

The handheld cameras are usually 2-3 pounds. And while carrying it, Fire-Fighters cannot use that hand for other tasks. Sometimes firefighters will also use their hands to touch the walls to get clear directions inside burning buildings, which can never be a formal way of working. C-Thru projects a clear outline of the burning buildings so that the Fire-Fighters do not have to rely on an unconventional method of navigating through burning buildings.

C-Thru

The C-Thru headset is a futuristic one. It works by taking input from the thermal imaging camera, head-mounted projection display, cloud computing, toxicity sensors, selective active noise cancellation, edge detection, and an AR display to help Fire-Fighters move through smoke-filled rooms. All of which are integrated with one thing in mind, to help Fire-Fighters make the right decision and moves by providing them with the right information in real-time.

The headset collects data and sends it to the Smoke Diver Leader’s handheld device. The information is processed and sent back to the helmet as a newly generated 3D wireframe. The headset projects all the information on the AR display right in front of the eyes. Furthermore, the headset highlights key details with bright edges. According to Forbes, this helmet will help Fire-Fighters get out of fire five times faster. 

Wrapping Up!

Qwake Techs’ C-Thru is their first product. The company is already preparing for improving their technology by integrating object identification and other features to their solution.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. shweta

    very informative…..

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