CERMIT: Co-located and Remote Collaborative System for Emergency Response Management

For Emergency Response Management (ERM) personnel the processes of reaching common ground, a common operational picture (COP), and a common understanding of an emergency situation are of key importance. We present a concept and a system, called CERMIT to support co-located and remote actors in organizational ERM training and work practice. CERMIT is based on a shared geographical representation of the emergency situation. The goal of this project is to create a tool to better support so-called information loops and situation awareness among ERM actors. Each involved actor can contribute data to the representation, creating a common operational picture. Relevant data ranges from field unit reports to headquarters commands. A group of ERM domain experts gave input to our design choices. Our prototypical system consists of a multi-user tabletop interface and mobile devices. The up-and-running tabletop interface is based on the tracking of light pens while the emulated mobile devices utilize a touch screen stylus. Changes made on the tabletop interface are reflected on the mobile devices and vice versa. Networking software to connect tabletop and mobile devices has been partly realized.