Firescape

Firescape is a method and device for integrating data obtained from a multitude of sensors of various types to provide 360-degree awareness of the conditions surrounding a firefighter.

Advantages:

1. Firefighters wearing masks have a very limited angle of view, but firescape gives them 360-degrees at a glance.
2. Because firescape is multi-modal, fusing information from a variety of sensors traking different aspects of the fire environment, it is very unlikely that all sensing modes will be blinded simultaneously. For example, large-particle smoke can blind visual and longwave IR sensors, but can be penetrated by sonar and has no effect on compass and intertial guidance systems.
3. Because it can use low-cost sensors, firescape does not suffer the high cost associated with conventional longwave IR (often called FLIR) imaging. Microbolometers can be used with firescape, but are not necessary; they only increase the spatial resolution of the thermal data.
4. Information overload is a serious problem, often resolved by "user intervention" to select among various data that could be displayed. Firescape requires no intervention from the firefighter, presenting very complex data in an intuitive way.
5. Firescape leverages high-performance mobile computation -- which leaves considerable felxibility in terms of changing or adding functionality using a firmware upgrade. For example, adding bio sensors and bidirectional digital communication with a console outside the fire does not require changing the basic firescape module.

The only thing set in stone is our name.