Firefighter Creates Glass App To Improve Job Safety

Everyday we find new examples of how Google’s Glass can be used to improve daily life, work and activities. Until a while ago we were hearing stories only from developers and tech enthusiasts that usually see a lot of potential in any new type of hardware, but now regular people have begun to take a stand and prove Glass’s utilities in their lives. You probably know about the teacher who uses Glass in order to improve her teaching skills or about disabled people helped by Glass to live an easier life. This time, we are going to tell you about a fireman who put his developer skills to work and created a Glass app that could save people’s lives in the near future. It is the case of firefighter Patrick Jackson, from Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Being a daytime firefighter and a nighttime developer isn’t easy and requires a lot of determination. While working for the fire department in Rocky Mount, Jackson had an idea meant to make a firefighter’s work easier, faster and maybe safer, not only for him but for people involved in fire accidents as well. If used right, it could also mean more lives saved on the field and more accurate actions and decisions. The Glass beta app we’re talking about is sending notifications with ongoing incidents and emergency calls (with a map to the location, address and possible notes from the 911 call-center) to Jackson’s Glass. At that time he has the possibility to select an incident and use the navigation system to get there. Another interesting app he built in addition is the Find a hydrant app, which is able to identify fire hydrants and point towards the nearest found in the incident area.

And this only gets better, as he has plans for two more apps meant to ease and coordinate a firefighter’s work, which are even more interesting than the first two. Jackson will soon add to his Glass an app able to sketch the blueprints of a building with vital information such as emergency exits, floor plans and so on. The info will appear on the firefighter’s Glass before he gets to the location so that he would be prepared. The second app he is developing to secure the entire plan is one able to draw the logic scheme of a vehicle and what it contains, so that the team would know exactly how to cut the machine parts in order to free a trapped man for instance. Jackson says that it would offer a bigger precision when using the jaws of life tool.

Even if Jackson didn’t obtain a Glass device by entering the competition and pointing out his solid plans in making this type of job easier and safer, his apps could certainly improve the work with hazardous disasters and save more lives if implemented right in this industry. Frankly, this Glass software has the biggest chance to prove the world the potential of this device and how looking behind the curtain can actually put things in a brighter side. If you put all of Jackson’s apps to work together, the firefighter with such a Glass could be easily placed on a superhero pedestal; after all, seeing through buildings, vehicles and knowing instantly about every fire incident, does raise one to that naming isn’t it?