Can Google Glass Help First Responders?

Robocop may not be real, but his efficiency is something worth aspiring to. Through the use of Google Glass, communications vendor Mutualink may soon give public safety and military personnel a chance to capture some of the half-robot, half-man’s technological capabilities.

Showcased from August 18 to 21 at the annual Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) conference in Anaheim (CA), Mutualink demonstrated how Google Glass could serve real-time information to public safety officials using their interoperability communications platform. Google Glass doesn’t change how their system works, he said. In many ways, it’s just another computer, but with the important difference that it frees up the hands of the person using it. In one demonstration, the company illustrated how Google Glass and their network could allow video or a map to be shared during a mock school shooting. “We really saw firsthand that first responders inside a school need to have timely and situational awareness and they need their hands. Both of them,” he said. Google Glass’s heads up display (HUD) allows users to look to the right in their peripheral vision and view information that is being served to them, like maps, blueprints, surveillance video feeds, or other documents. Information can also be returned back to command and control from the field. As for Google Glass, Col. Corval said he anticipates the most useful component of the system will be the ability to capture data from the point of view of first responders. The initial purchase of Mutualink equipment will be installed at the Integrated Command and Control Center in Rio de Janeiro so that security, fire and emergency supervisors and dispatchers can easily share information.