Nick LaLone

Nick LaLone

My work focuses on how people and objects get to know each other. I work in crisis response, human-computer interaction, and simulation, all through the lens of play.

A Vision of Augmented Reality for Urban Search and Rescue

Published in Halfway to the Future, 2019

Recommended citation: LaLone, N., A. Alharthi, S., & Toups, Z. O. (2019, November). A Vision of Augmented Reality for Urban Search and Rescue. In Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019 (pp. 1-4). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3363384.3363466

Search and rescue (SAR) operations are often nearly computer-technology-free due to the fragility and connectivity needs of current information communication technology (ICT). In this design fiction, we envision a world where SAR uses augmented reality (AR) and the surplus labor of volunteers during crisis response efforts.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, crowdsourced mapping platforms, and concepts from video game mapping technologies can all be mixed to keep SAR operations complexity-free while incorporating ICTs. Our scenario describes a near-future SAR operation with currently available technology being assembled and deployed without issue. After our scenario, we discuss socio-technical barriers for technology use like technical fragility and overwhelming complexity. We also discuss how to work around those barriers and how to use video games as a testbed for SAR technology. We hope to inspire more resilient ICT design that is accessible without training.

Paper Available here

LaLone, N., A. Alharthi, S., & Toups, Z. O. (2019, November). A Vision of Augmented Reality for Urban Search and Rescue. In Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019 (pp. 1-4).