Expected Results

BRIDGE will deliver socio-technical innovation in multi-agency emergency collaboration. Ethnographical work will construct a deep understanding of the First Responders’ domain, also in terms of social, legal and ethical issues. The technical platform will deliver:

• Methods and tools that support run-time intra- & inter-agency collaboration;
• A middleware allowing data, system & network interoperability;
• Advanced human-computer interaction techniques for effortless exploration of high-quality information enhanced organizational workflows & communication processes.

BRIDGE Innovations

BRIDGE will provide the following innovative tools:

• Ubiquitous Computing and Work Practices of First Responders:
  • Integrate laboratory tools into everyday working practice;
  • Provide an instrumentation of the reality;
  • Make information tangible through wearable tools.
• Context-Aware Middleware:
  • Overcome common usability problems with context-aware software;
  • Provide transparency and user control;
  • Treat uncertainty and associate quality meta-data.
• Actor-Agent Networking:
  • Form a sound theory for systems of actor-agent teams and communities;
  • Take into account human cognition, social norms and culture, as well as technological advancements;
  • Implement and test related empirical (cognitive) actor-agent team models.
• User-System Interaction:
  • Consider the individual’s perceptual and cognitive capabilities;
  • Advance emerging technologies (e.g., projector phones);
  • Assess impact and role of new technologies in the real context of use.
• Decision and Collaboration Support in Command and Control:
  • Address different phases of emergency management: Training, preparedness, response, etc.;
  • Combine several decision-making approaches and user-modeling;
  • Enable resource-efficient and quality-improved performance.

Benefits for First Responder Community

BRIDGE aims for support in rapid decision making during a large-scale, multinational crisis response. The results should:

• Enable more-efficient performance;
• Reduce workload;
• Improve quality and efficiency of situation assessment, decision making, and timeliness and effectiveness of communications and coordination;
• Optimize the use of resources;
• Strengthen competitiveness of EU technology and service providers in knowledge-based economies and the public sector.

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