User Interaction Design
Hewlett - Packard Company
1266 Kifer Road, MS-101G
Sunnyvale, California 94086
408/746-5028
mathis@hpuid.ptp.hp.com
To create such a story, we compiled news footage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles,
and combined it with
original video shot on location and in the studio. Digital matting techniques enabled us to place actors and
technology on the
scene and create a compelling "What if?" - what if people and agencies could use advanced information
tools, not designed for
emergency response use per se, to quickly determine priorities, establish communications and devise
solutions that would help
save lives in a disaster? We expect the video to work for us in three ways. First, it will raise awareness
about the potential of
future technologies to serve a range of user needs. Second, it can be a catalyst for discussion within our
company and in public
forums like SIGCHI. Finally, it can inspire us to think about our business in new ways.
FIGURE 1 Emergency Operations Center staff monitor relief crews using multimedia
workstations, hand -held applicances and
smart pervasive networks
FIGURE 2 Multimedia Information Collection Appliance being used to create and transmit
an emergency incident report
FIGURE 3 Personal Communication Slate being used to deliver a toxic spill report over real
time video phone with OCR and
pen-based annotations.
FIGURE 4 Handheld Language Translator demonstrating two-way natural language speeck
recognition and speech synthesis in
an evacuation scenario.
Abstract
SYNERGIES is a vision of how information products designed for everyday use will serve people in
extraordinary situations.
The year is 2001. Los Angeles is rocked by a major earthquake. Buildings collapse. Poisons fill the air.
But a new kind of
emergency response is underway. Equipped with various communications and information appliances
which can be rapidly
tailored to meet situation needs, a Neighborhood Emergency Team volunteer, a HAZMAT (Hazardous
Materials) team, and an
Urban Search and Rescue squad come to the aid of the victims. At the Emergency Operations Center, the
nerve center for
emergency planning and response, incidents are assigned priorities, resources are dispatched and logistics
are managed. The
underlying premise of SYNERGIES is that the most valuable information assets are informed people.
Technology's role is to
give people the facts they need to make decisions, and link them together to coordinate action. The interface
concepts shown
allow users to share information and communicate in the most direct and task-specific way possible.
Keywords
Future, vision, interfaces, earthquake, information appliance
Introduction
SYNERGIES focuses on the interplay of Measurement, Computing and Communication technologies, and
what we might
achieve with them in the years ahead. It portrays how a range of information tools intended for day-to-day
use could benefit a
community in a time of crisis. The community is Los Angeles, and the crisis is an earthquake. The year is
2001. The
technologies shown give people the facts they need, when and how they need them, so they can make
correct and timely
decisions. This is necessary in any critical situation, including business, but here the need is heightened:
lives are at stake, and a
community's well-being is on the line.
SCENARIO OVERVIEWS
The drama of SYNERGIES revolves around three parallel scenarios. The illustrations show conceptual
information products
used in these scenarios.
Disaster Response Coordination
The "Southern California Emergency Operations Center" is activated moments after the
quake, and becomes the focal point for emergency planning and response. It's here that incidents are
assigned priorities,
resources are dispatched, and logistics are managed. This scenario portrays how huge amounts of
information can be integrated,
filtered and presented to help emergency professionals quickly view the status of events and make correct
decisions. Figure 1
shows the EOC workstation console.
Emergency Rescue
An apartment building has been severely damaged. Although a seismic early warning system has given
many residents time to escape, several people have become trapped inside. The vignette focuses on how
future portable
information collection, communications and measurement technologies help a Neighborhood Emergency
team volunteer and an
Urban Search and Rescue squad detect and rescue those trapped. Figure 2 shows an Information Collection
device.
Hazardous Material Analysis
The earthquake has caused a freight train to derail, and a tanker
containing a hazardous
chemical has ruptured. The resulting vapor plume threatens a large, multi-lingual population. This story
shows how expert
systems, video conferencing and analytical technologies help people in distributed locations decide on a
course of action. Figure
3 shows a Communication Slate.
Neighborhhood Evacuation
A hazardous chemical spill has resulted in a need for an immediate
evacuation of a multilingual
neighborhood. Portable bidirectinals translators are used by law enforcement personnel to communicate
with residents using
real-time speeck recognition. Figure 4 shows a Portable Launguage Translator.
TECHNOLOGIES SHOWN
