Dalmation:

The men and women of the fire department risk their lives daily trying to put out fires. One of the biggest problems the Fire Chief and Captains face is keeping up with where the firefighters are. For large fires, just knowing which firefighters are still in the building can be a challenge. In many fire departments each firefighter has a card which they put on a board when they exit the structure. What we are proposing is a wireless sensor network system that will do much more than tell which firefighters are still in the building. The Dalmatian system, which will consist of a wireless sensors called Firemotes, a sensor/position unit call Firewalker, and a base station call Watchdog. Together these components will acquire a variety of data about conditions within the building and firefighters locations, transmit the data out of the structure, and display it graphically. In addition the network will be able to assist firefighters by guiding them out of smoke filled areas or to fall comrades.