We live in an age of acute awareness of the potential for catastrophic events. Recent events have demonstrated the need for reliable, integrated and automated communications and sensing systems to support situation assessment and response to large-scale emergencies. This research effort contributes to three critical areas of technology that can be used to improve our nation's ability to address these needs: reliable communications, environmental and physiological sensing, and automated information processing. Key to our research plan is an integrated development approach that includes algorithm development, simulation, hardware implementation and field-testing.

The system employs wireless networking, portable computing devices, and reliable messaging technology as a framework for information analysis, information movement, and decision support capabilities. Physiological status assessment is based on a medical model that relies on input from humans and a pulse oximetry device. Our physiological status determination methodology follows NATO defined guidelines for remote triage and is implemented using an approach based on fuzzy logic. The prototype system is capable of monitoring and assessing physiological parameters of individuals, transmitting pertinent medical data to and from multiple echelons of medical service personnel, and providing filtered data for command and control applications.