Life Safety & Security January 2021

industry. The heavy weight of the equipment
combined with high costs and a lack of
experience of how to deploy the technology,
meant in the early days they were often left on
the shelf.
Today it is a different story. Manufacturers
recognised the need to educate and assist
their customers in understanding the real
benefits of the technology and how it could be
used which slowly helped TICs to grow in
popularity. Since then significant investment
has helped manufacturers to deliver more
affordable, easy-to-use technology so TICs
are now widely used by firefighters, not just
for finding fires but for much more, including
monitoring convection, establishing how
swiftly a fire is moving and locating victims.
In recent years, robotic technology has been
paired with TIC equipment, to enable
firefighters to reduce the human exposure to
associated dangers of a blaze, demonstrating
how technology can be used to protect rescue
teams where possible. However, when
firefighters do need to enter a hazardous
environment, TICs can be an essential tool.
Despite their popularity, current practice using
TICs still leaves many firefighters doing their
job in the dark. More often than not when
firefighters enter a scene, one member of the
team will use a hand-held thermal imaging
camera to navigate through the scene, assess
their surroundings, and perform search and
rescue. This firefighter will simultaneously
communicate what they can see through the
thermal imaging camera to their colleagues
behind them who are working in darkness,
therefore acting as their 'eyes' and navigating
them safely. This is useful because it leaves
the other firefighters with the use of their
hands but this is at the expense of their sight
Scott Sight is integrated into firefighters'
masks, giving them back their sight in the
dark.
What if every firefighter could see clearly in
every situation?
In recent years, collaboration between the fire
& rescue services and manufacturers has
become central to innovation in the industry.
Fire and rescue services have become more
proactive in identifying their own needs by
working in cross-functional procurement
teams to put together meaningful
specifications and demands. With their
confidence in the use of TICs growing, and the
price of the technology coming down,
firefighters began asking whether this
technology could be made even more
accessible and easy to use.
Scott Safety set about exploring this question
through its 'Firefighter of the Future' initiative
which brings together a group of firefighting
experts with the sole focus of harnessing the
latest technology to benefit firefighters. The
ultimate question was, 'could thermal imaging
be integrated inside the self-contained
breathing apparatus (SCBA) mask, so that
every firefighter could see clearly in every
situation?'
This challenge was delivered to Scott Safety's
'Firefighter of the Future' group in late 2014,
and the team set to work, with the vision to
create a product that was reliable, intuitive,
durable and that would give customers realtime,
actionable situational intelligence. The
result of this focus was Scott Sight – an
advanced, hands-free, in-mask thermal
imaging intelligence system
By integrating a thermal imaging intelligence
system into the masks, firefighters get back
their sight, providing them with a clear,
unobstructed view of their surroundings in
real-time. This also gives them back the use of
their hands which allows them to safely
navigate a scene and speed up the rescue
process, thus vastly improving their safety
and mobility.
When it is used as a supplement to existing
hand-held technology, wearers are provided
with hands-free visibility in often inhospitable
situations. This enables the wearer to stay
focused on the fire, hazards and casualties
while also providing the means to identify a
secondary egress in the event of a sudden
change of circumstances..
Setting the stage for future innovation
This wearable technology is a good example
of what can be achieved when the fire &
rescue service and manufacturers work
closely together. The collaborative
relationship will ensure that any technological
developments can be harnessed to make
firefighters safer and more efficient.
Wearable technology is advancing at such a
rate it is almost impossible to predict what the
future holds but market intelligence specialist
CCS Insight predicts (1) that in 2020, 411
million smart wearable devices will be sold
worth a staggering $34 billion. It is likely that
this is just the beginning; in the future
headgear could potentially integrate a plethora
of traditionally handheld technologies, freeing
up safety professionals to get on with their
jobs more efficiently.
Hands-free thermal vision
Article Update
Scott Sight is lightweight and powerful,
weighing just 240grams and producing a
160×120 resolution at nine frames per
second through an infinity lens to ensure
firefighters see a crystal clear picture without
causing eyestrain. Scott Sight's adjustable
view, user interface options, and hot spot and
temperature settings means it is also
configurable to the individual wearer's needs.
Scott Sight is auto-dimming to prot.
Scott Sight is also compatible with the AV
3000HT Face Piece; a high performance ect
against changing light conditions.positive
pressure face piece manufactured using
innovative materials that have been
engineered to provide enhanced thermal
durability and improved wearer safety.
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