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As part of the REACT research project, OCC developed new technical solutions to assist emergency services operators in the command and control room.
The tools explored by the project include voice recognition, Geographical Information Systems, pattern discovery using data mining techniques and web service integration through new standards.
One of the challenges facing emergency control room operators is that multiple calls may relate to the same incident. We developed a semantic analysis and classification process to identify related or duplicated words in descriptions of the incident.
Two incidents occurring in the same place at the same time often display a high probability of correlation. However, this information alone is often not enough. We also produced a call analysis system, which takes into account distance and time to calculate the likelihood of incidents being related.
Using new data exchange standards, REACT then makes information about an incident available to as many local emergency call services as possible.
The technology developed on the REACT project led to JIXEL (or jigsaw element), a suite of web tools allowing emergency services to manage incidents and to exchange information during rescue operations.
In April 2009, JIXEL was applied to the management of the L’Aquilia earthquake in the Calabria region of Italy. The Italian Fire Brigade has now adopted the REACT data exchange standard.
Our work on REACT led to us being invited to take part in the EmerGent project to explore technical solutions to the use of social media in emergency situations.
The REACT project received funding from the EC 6th Framework agreement IST-2005-033607.
Case Studies
One of the most significant sources of Big Data is social media: a continuous feed of unstructured, unvalidated, near real-time information about what people are experiencing. As part of the European EmerGent project., OCC is developing a cloud-based emergency management service to gather and mine social media.
News
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