Thesis Project: A wearable computing device for firefighters
Abstract:
A firefighters environment is chaotic, organized confusion. Smoke and protective
equipment impair all of their senses causing undue stress. A high level of arousal (calm or excitement) with negative valence (pleasure or displeasure) leaves them working with impaired memory and concentration. They often experience disorientation, tunnel vision and audio exclusion.

Performance with high arousal and low valence is poor. Decision-making is impaired. Information overload causes mental fatigue. Their biggest fear is not knowing where a fire is and thinking they may have to fight their way back out of it. However, fear is a motivator that is essential and integral.

A wearable computing system was designed to augment the senses in order to increase valence, decrease arousal, enhance performance and assist in decision-making without contributing to cognitive fatigue. The system evokes feelings of security, orientation and trust in order to slightly reduce arousal and increase valence. It is comprised of three components:

• An application for fire prevention and dispatch that allows them to scan, modify and send blueprints.

• A wearable device for captains that measures spatial temperature, elapsed time, air supply and spatial location.

• An application for the safety chief that displays the collective information of all captains in relation to the blueprint.

When designing an interface, designers need to consider the emotions involved, context of use, the users goals, the environment the user is working in, senses relied upon or impaired, level of arousal and valence and the optimal level for the task. For a firefighter, a successful design could be the difference between life and death.