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Nah, this is too simple and too cheap. Knowing how governmental agencies work, they will opt for some augmented reality heads up display that will show each firefighter where they are, where the exits are, and where each of their teammates are in the building as well as schematic of the building.
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@Noobs-R-Us: and because it's the government doing it, it will only work occasionally and each fire house will only be able to afford one.
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@Noobs-R-Us: You've got that backwards. The way agencies work, they go with the low-bid, regardless of safety. When choosing between cheap and safe, the government always goes with cheap.
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@OMG! Ponies!: I seem to "recall" $500 toilet seats and $1000 hammers back during the Reagan years?
get it? I said "recall" Reply
get it? I said "recall" Reply
@Noobs-R-Us: You really are a noob. Firefighting is a business that describes itself as "hundreds of years of tradition, unimpeded by progress," for a reason.
We don't buy every new gadget that comes on the market for two main reasons.
First, we know what works and are skeptical of anything that promises to "revolutionize" the business because we've seen so many of those products fail. Even products that DO work, like thermal imagers, took years to become an accepted part of our equipment.
Second, the fire department is usually the least well funded department in the town. The trucks look big and shiny, but they get used until they fall apart -- and sometimes after. And they're filled with hand-me-down tools that have been in the department for years.
Would a HUD with reporting GPS be a nice tool to have? Sure. But the cost of such a unit would be astronomical and it would be unlikely to survive the kinds of conditions we routinely put our equipment through. That's a combination that makes it unlikely to ever be adopted. Reply
We don't buy every new gadget that comes on the market for two main reasons.
First, we know what works and are skeptical of anything that promises to "revolutionize" the business because we've seen so many of those products fail. Even products that DO work, like thermal imagers, took years to become an accepted part of our equipment.
Second, the fire department is usually the least well funded department in the town. The trucks look big and shiny, but they get used until they fall apart -- and sometimes after. And they're filled with hand-me-down tools that have been in the department for years.
Would a HUD with reporting GPS be a nice tool to have? Sure. But the cost of such a unit would be astronomical and it would be unlikely to survive the kinds of conditions we routinely put our equipment through. That's a combination that makes it unlikely to ever be adopted. Reply