Edinburgh Napier University

  A series of auditory cues were designed to assist firefighters with navigation and general safety in a fire emergency. Firefighters must maintain situational awareness at all times and this can be lost with disorientation, which is one of the main causes of injury and even death. Disorientation can be caused by restricted vision due to heavy smoke, a lack of familiarity with the surroundings as well as hearing and communication difficulties caused by the intensity of the fireground sounds. Five professional firefighters were interviewed to identify ways in which auditory affordances could be used to support their work. Existing sounds from both the emergency environment and those generated by firefighting equipment were assessed to determine their importance in maintaining situational awareness. Noise reduction technology was investigated, to assess its potential use in limiting the levels of noise exposure experienced. A series of auditory cues were designed to address the issues that were found using binaural spatialization and Augmented Reality methods. A prototype system was presented to firefighters to determine its effectiveness. The firefighters found that noise reduction would be effective in improving their situational awareness and ability to communicate effectively. Additionally, the firefighters found that spatially placed auditory cues had the potential to be effective in navigation and orientation in a fire emergency. The findings suggest that the use of noise reduction and auditory affordances have the potential to improve situational awareness for firefighters, increase safety and potentially save lives.