Technology Challenges by the Public Safety Communications Research Division

The Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Division is housed within the Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) at the of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It has been issuing technology challenges since 2017 towards imagining the application of emerging technology in the public safety domain. They are designed to explore how specific technologies could be deployed and to generate the research and. Below are five of the current and past challenges.

Augmented Reality, which most of us have been exposed to through Pokemon™, has the potential to be a powerful tool in the hands of our first responders. At this time the biggest obstacles to useful implementations are Imagination and supporting data. This project helps to solve the imagination problem while pointing us to the kind of data that needs to be realized.

The Chariot Challenge invited teams to build public safety focused augmented reality solutions. The challenge was broken into two contests;

Build Augmented Reality Interfaces for First Responders
Emulate Smart City Data for Disaster Scenarios

Read about this challenge and watch an overview and recap video: 2020 CHARIoT Challenge: Advancing First Responder Communications

Computer Vision is a fast growing area of functionality with advances in equipment for generating streaming video and algorithms for processing that stream into useful information.

This challenge explores the deployment of computer vision in the very messy environments that first responders find themselves operating in while in the field

Read about this challenge and watch an overview and recap video: 2020 Enhancing Computer Vision for Public Safety Challenge

Mobile Fingerprinting is a powerful tool for speeding police investigations in the field. Handsets are already being delivered with fingerprint recognition for security purposes. Leveraging this capability for investigations brings the possibility of greatly reduced time to complete the identification task while relieving the first responder from the requirement of carrying an additional piece of equipment.

This challenge explores this possibility in a concept paper phase and a prototype phase.

Read about this challenge: The Mobile Fingerprinting Innovation Technology Challenge

Haptic Interfaces are devices enable the delivery of spatial information to a first responder without requiring visually focusing on a screen or inteeracting with a keyboard or device screen.

The Haptic Challenge evaluated the technology in two key areas:

Performance in virtual reality scenarios for Law Enforcement, Emergency Medical Services, and Fire Fighting.
How technology embedded in a firefighter's turnout coat might assist in a realistic scenario.

Read about this challenge: 2019 Haptic Interfaces for Public Safety Challenge