Extreme Endeavors

Electronic Life Line

Imagine crawling across the floor of a dark, smoke-filled room on the sixth floor of a building that is engulfed in flames and as unfamiliar to you as a new algorithm. As smoke billows from the top of the building and flames lap the sky illuminating the black night in an orange glow, you are forced to resort to your sense of touch as your only guide along a constant maze that is now distorted by the bursts of black smoke that have filled the room like a dark and menacing spirit.

You crawl along as the smoke presses closer to the floor, feeling along for signs of animate and/or inanimate objects. There is always the conflict that one must battle when they place themselves in these conditions. The age old struggle that transcends legends beyond the realm of mediocrity is one juxtaposed against the inclination to flee the imminence of death or stay and save lives. You choose, no matter how overwhelming the odds seem, to stay and search for lives that may be trapped in the building. Your future is always uncertain.

By now your radio is useless to you. You have traveled into an RF blind-spot that prevents your radio's signal from transmitting because of the multipathing environment caused by the materials that make-up the structure of the building, as well as all the other materials that have fallen into the way because of the destruction caused by the fire. You are virtually alone and no one really knows where you are or in what condition your health might be.

Extreme Endeavors is working to change this scenario. For the last several years the company has been developing a system called the Electronic Life Line. Because much of the research in the past twenty years has pointed to overexertion as a major cause of sickness and death for firefighters working in extreme conditions, Extreme Endeavors has been developing a technology that will monitor the physiological parameters of individual firefighters and transmit that data beyond a structure where it can be reviewed by a team-leader at a base-station.

By building on new acoustical sensor technologies provided by the Army Research Laboratory, Extreme Endeavors has been developing novel ways of learning about the physiological conditions of a person based on their vital signs. Additionally, this technology has required Extreme Endeavors to research new ways of transmitting data beyond structures that are generally not conducive to this process. This has led Extreme Endeavors's developers to outline methods for the improvement of communications technologies using a cognitive-based design.

The significance of this type of technology is that it will allow on-scene commanders to make better decisions about the well-being of their personnel. The system will help with the tracking of firefighters when they are searching through areas that are unfamiliar to them and allow for better on-scene organization and management. The ultimate goal for the device is to save lives and provide firefighters with the comfort of knowing that they are not alone when they find themselves in the harrowing conditions caused by a large structure fire. With continuing support from the National Institutes of Health: National Personal Protective Technologies Laboratory, Extreme Endeavors is moving closer to realizing the dream of improving the way firefighters live and work.