The challenges of clearly assessing and communicating on the scene for first responders can cause delays that may mean the difference between life and death. Along with visual obstacles for firefighters and law enforcement officials, conditions and circumstances do not always allow verbal information sharing.
Verizon innovators together with developers at Kopin think they have the solution. To help firefighters see through thick smoke and easily share information with colleagues in the field and command center, they’ve developed a prototype Golden-i headset “Hands-Free” computing device. Verizon and Kopin demonstrated the prototype at CES and it’s featured in firefighting scenes in some Verizon Powerful Answers television ads.
“As soon as we saw Golden-i in 2011, we saw a great opportunity to develop a solution for public safety agencies with connectivity using our 4G LTE network,” said Ted Stecko, Verizon Innovation Center Business Manager.
Golden-i consists of an operating system with a comprehensive set of built-in applications and multiple headset computers designed to communicate with each other. Unique to Golden-i is its tiny optical display unit that sits about three inches from the face, but packs the viewing equivalent of a 15-inch screen at about 18 inches in front of the eye. The viewer can see in the dark and through hazards such as smoke, fog and read temperature of objects, and they can share the view with their colleagues.
“The optical display is an extremely important feature of the device,” said Stecko, explaining that speech as well as head motion can control what appears on screen.
Today’s Golden-i evolved from an earlier prototype developed by Kopin. Shortly after Kopin began collaborating at the Verizon Innovation Center in 2011, Verizon identified a use case for the solution for firefighting and application development work began. Today, the 3- to 6-oz., self-contained mobile computing device is significantly lighter and has less bulk, at about 1/3 the weight and size of the original headset, which relied on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. The revolutionary device enables real-time video streaming and allows access to documents, Internet, building schematics, e-mailing while responding to an emergency – all hands free. It includes a 14 megapixel camera on one side and infrared technology to see through smoke, fog and some objects by sensing radiated body heat. It also can passively monitor, record and send the user’s vital health statistics to an onsite fire chief and command center.
The opportunity to apply the technology to solve business challenges in other industries beyond public safety is limitless, according to Stecko. He envisions next generations of Golden-i getting down to the size of an earpiece headset with audio and display booms that extend around the face.
