A Speech-Controlled User Interface for a CAFM-Based Disaster Management System

Abstract

Due to the numerous important decisions with major consequences which have to be taken within a short period of time in case of disasters like fire, terror attacks or floods up-to-date information about the site affected as well as positions and activities of the deployed rescue teams should be available in real-time. This information can firstly be gathered from Computer Aided Facilities Management-systems (CAFM-systems), which are based on the graphical and alphanumerical base data of the building, and are used to manage large real estates and infrastructural installations in developed countries nowadays and secondly by real-time data from master control systems and security installations of the building. Thirdly data from an “inertio-tracker” based on accelerometers and gyroscopes and used for tracking rescue teams within buildings or underground constructions can be implemented to superimpose the building data with actual position information.

The Institute for Building Informatics at Graz University of Technology in cooperation with the security industry is currently researching and developing such a CAFM-based Disaster Management System (DMS). The main challenges are locating and tracking persons, the local information management and the communication between the on-site staff and the command center. This paper gives a brief introduction and description of the whole system with a main focus of outlining the special aspects of an efficient and easy-to-use user interface.