| Demonstration for Emergency Information Sharing Hits Home Run |
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ObjectFX, Inc., the leading provider of spatiotemporal technology, was honored to participate in the recent Unified Incident Command and Decision Support (UICDS) project. UICDS is sponsored by the Science and Technology Directorate of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and is being executed through a contract with prime contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)[NYSE:SAI]. The UICDS project successfully conducted a demonstration of the prototype reference implementation of the national architecture for emergency information sharing. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) hosted the demonstration at the Virginia Emergency Operations Center (VEOC) in Richmond on April 29. The UICDS prototype implementation integrated information from 23 commercial, government and academic technology provider applications, demonstrating how this information is shared among applications and the jurisdictions they serve. The demonstration included six incident vignettes occurring in a simulated East Coast storm, with each vignette showing information sharing among five to seven applications currently in use by police, fire, emergency medical, emergency management, and other response organizations. ObjectFX solutions served as the lead technology in one of the six incident vignettes, which successfully demonstrated the value of sensor integration through advanced spatiotemporal management of video sensors, based on ObjectFX SpatialRules , showing how multimedia assets can be integrated with incident monitoring and management. ObjectFX solutions also provided the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Observation Service (SOS) for its demonstration. SOS is an approved OGC standard defining a web service interface for the discovery and retrieval of real time or archived data produced by a variety of sensors. This standard enables SpatialRules to provide a service that responds to UICDS client requests for observation access to a given sensor. Within the demonstration, information sharing, as provided by UICDS, increased the value of the shared information and improved the effectiveness of incident management. Inherent in the shared information and various systems integrated through UICDS is location information. Nick Thomey, CEO, ObjectFX, noted, "ObjectFX SpatialRules exploits this location information to produce spatiotemporal data integration and awareness within the UICDS system, enabling the system to automatically detect and act upon real-time location data to better manage the incidents under its control. This capability was integral in the demonstration's ability to deliver on its mission." Chip Mahoney, the SAIC Project Manager for UICDS, said "The UICDS prototype demonstration illustrated how a wide variety of applications can share information through a diverse set of interfaces, data formats and networks using non-proprietary, open standards. From long-standing applications like computer-aided dispatch and asset management to more recent video surveillance and detection technologies to new situational awareness tools, the UICDS Architecture Specification helps accommodate the information exchanges emergency managers and responders need to save lives, protect property, and minimize economic loss." James W. Morentz, Ph.D., Director of UICDS Outreach, said, "Despite all the efforts devoted to data interoperability in recent years, the 23 technology providers represented in the demonstration came to the UICDS program with virtually no instances of sharing data with each other. Using the software development kit for the UICDS middleware and the National Information Exchange Model data exchange formats, these "first adopter" technology providers successfully demonstrated nearly one hundred real-time information exchanges. This demonstration points the way to a successful continuation of this government-sponsored, technology provider-driven information sharing across the full range of prevention, protection, response, and recovery." UICDS is a middleware foundation that enables commercial and government incident management technologies to share information and support decisions for the National Response Framework and National Incident Management to prevent, protect, respond, and recover from natural, technological, and terrorist events. About ObjectFX ObjectFX provides flexible, scalable enterprise solutions that support missions where analysis and visualization of location and timing are critical. The firm's geospatial platform solutions enable organizations to leverage the full value of dynamic spatial and temporal data to gather intelligence, monitor and improve operations, and respond more quickly to changing conditions. Working closely with our customers in the Intelligence Community, Defense, and Homeland Security, ObjectFX solutions deliver customizable, responsive solutions fusing Intelligence from multiple sources to support mission planning, situational awareness, and battlefield visualizations. For more information please visit www.objectfx.com . |
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