Firefighter Helmet Project

“they just know how to look at the whole environment”

tomlmartin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:20:55 +0000

It’s not firefighting, but I think there are meaningful lessons for our project in this study of Marines finding IED’s in Iraq and Afghanistan. I particularly liked the part about looking at the whole environment versus treating the windshield of the Humvee as a video screen.

Victim location: More through the wall stuff

tomlmartin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:54:30 +0000

Here’s another project that can track people through a wall. The interesting feature of this one is that it looks like it only needs the system to be deployed around the perimeter, rather than having a handheld radar that someone holds up to the wall. Maybe you could put these on the firetrucks?

Handheld, through-the-wall radar

tomlmartin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:02:38 +0000

Here’s a handheld, through-the-wall radar for the police and military:
http://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/prism_200.html

Going along with Kenny’s superhero theme, here’s an article about the radar that’s title says it makes you “feel like Superman”:

http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/Prism-200-Through-Wall-Radar-Makes-You-Feel-Like-Superman-959-01.html

Some pictures of helmets from around the world and from earlier times

tomlmartin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:20:17 +0000

Take a look at http://homesforheroes.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/short-sales-helmets-and-earthquakes/

He has pictures of firefighter helmets from various countries and one from Chicago in the 1800′s that I think you’ll find interesting…

Temperature Sensors?

vtmultidisciplinary — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:23:25 +0000

I was talking with a designer from Dell computer company who described a project he had worked on at a previous job. They designed a warning system for firefighters that sensed temperature and alerted them with a flashing light mounted to the underside of their helmet brim when environmental temperature reached a danger point (he couldn’t remember what that temperature is). The reason for this sensor was because their heavy protective clothing insulates them and they aren’t aware of temperature changes (sudden or otherwise) until it’s too late to react. IDEA: an ongoing visual display of ambient temperature and warnings when danger points are reached. Can ambient temperature shifts (or pressure shifts) predict changes in the fire (‘the turn of the monster’)?

-Ron Kemnitzer

Society of Fire Protection Engineers

hokiecpe — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:20:22 +0000

At the career fair Tuesday I came across the VT Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE). Quoting from their literature their mission is to:

“advance the art and science of fire protection engineering and….promote fire safety awareness through prevention, protection, and education.”

I talked about the class and they were excited about what we were doing and wanted to help out. They could be very useful for additional contacts within the University and also with the local fire department.

Their website is quite broken but the contact information is there.

Additional Links:

SFPE National

-Jason

A hands-on interface…

tomlmartin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:51:48 +0000

I came across a tangible interface this morning based upon mud: http://tomgerhardt.com/mudtub/

I didn’t see a description of how the mud senses the position of the user’s hands, but I think the output was created using a tool called Processing (http://www.processing.org/), which in turn is based upon John Maeda’s Design by Numbers
(http://processing.org/discourse/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1248899805).

Blogging Primer

vtmultidisciplinary — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:40:18 +0000

Blogging Primer

Blog Information: Posts, Videos, & Pictures

Blog Posting Guide

1. Create a WordPress account.

Sign into WordPress.
At the top of your screen, click on “New Post”.
Give your post a title.
. Write your post.
Select the appropriate category from the “Categories” menu on the right(i.e. Articles, Design References, etc).
When you’re finished, hit the “Save and Continue Editing” button.
After your post is saved, hit the “Preview” button up at the top-right to review your post for errors and to make sure it looks the way you want.
When you’re done editing your post, click “Submit to Review.” An administrator will then review the post and publish it to the blog.
After you’ve posted, make sure to comment on your classmates’ posts.

Adding Pictures to Your Post

Click on the “insert image button”, which has a small image of a tree on it.
Type the web address of the image you’re inserting in the Image URL box and hit OK.
You can also change the image’s alignment (i.e. right, left, center, etc), as well as its size in this window.

Adding Video to Your Post

Scroll down to immediately below the editing box; click on the “Videos” tab.
Paste or type your video’s URL in the provided box.
Position your cursor in the text of your post at the location where you want the video to appear.
Click the “Send to Editor” button. The video should appear in your post.

Project Brief

vtmultidisciplinary — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:47:37 +0000

The ‘deliverable’ of this class will be a world-class design for a Firefighter’s Helmet. As a team, we will design and document a technology-imbued helmet with user-friendly features, technologically advanced materials, and leading edge design. We will produce a final presentation package to be used as an entry document for major design competitions such as the IDEA Award, ID Magazine Annual Design Review, the Red Dot Competition and others.

Firefighter Helmet Project

vtmultidisciplinary — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:53:15 +0000

This is a multidisciplinary product development project made up of selected faculty and students from the Computer and Electrical Engineering, Industrial Design, and Marketing programs at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.