SixthSense: Smart Integrated Extreme Environment Health Monitor with Sensory Feedback for Enhanced Situation Awareness

Abstract

Natural disasters occurring in inaccessible rural areas are on the rise, leading to the multiplication of first responders’ missions. However, engagement in fighting wildfires or participating in rescue missions includes risks for the well-being of the engaged first responders. Consequently, a system that monitors their actions and provides real-time and actionable information without obstructing their operational capacity is needed. The EU-funded SIXTHSENSE project aims to improve the efficiency and safety of first responders’ engagement in difficult environments by optimizing on-site team coordination and mission implementation. The project proposes an innovative wearable health monitoring system based on multimodal biosensor data that enables first responders to detect risk factors early on and allows real-time monitoring of all deployed responders. This paper is an introduction to the overall concept of the project, to the methodology and the system architecture, moreover details on Alpha version of SixthSense prototype are presented.