ATLANTA — Thanks to two Georgia Tech students, firefighters may soon have a high-tech, video game inspired way to monitor their physical status while fighting fires.
Inverse.com reported the student’s device, called FireHUD, is a real-time display system that will monitor biometric data from firefighters and will show that information in a real life health bar, like in a video game.
The FireHUD display attaches to the side of an SCBA mask and reports the firefighter’s heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen level, body temperature. It also measures the external temperature.
The report didn’t say how the device will collect firefighter vital signs but that it will constantly update the information through the heads-up display. The data can be sent to a computer or through an app to allow officers or rehab sectors to monitor each firefighter.
The engineering students that created FireHUD, Zachary Braun and Tyler Sisk, won the university’s 2016 InVenture Prize along with $20,000 and free patent filing through the university.
“We’re going to work to further develop our product and try to get more feedback from firefighters and make it a reality,” Sisk said. “That’s our goal in the end.”