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Situational Awareness

June 14, 2017

Blueforce Command Center and BlueforceEDGE now Available on Microsoft Azure Government Cloud

by Michael Helfrich
in IoT, M2M, Sensors, Situational Awareness, Surveillance

Blueforce Command Center and BlueforceEDGE are now available on Microsoft Azure Government Cloud via the Microsoft managed services CSP program. Microsoft Azure Government Cloud is the most trusted cloud for mission-critical government workloads. Microsoft Azure Government delivers a cloud platform built upon the foundational principles of security, privacy & control, compliance, and transparency. Federal and state/local agencies can utilize Blueforce products on a physically isolated instance...

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May 14, 2017

Drones, Robotics, and non-Human Platforms: Blueforce Changes the SWaPP Equation

by Michael Helfrich
in autonomous agents, CBRN, Distributed Sensing, Fusion, HAZLOC, IoT, M2M, Sensors, Situational Awareness, Surveillance

Drones and autonomous platforms continue to be of huge interest to commanders because they provide ground truth intelligence (to a degree) because of actual eyes-on the incident. What is validating to us is that more and more commanders see the drone platform as something more than mere imagery collection. If you are the incident commander on a train derailment, understanding whether or not the tanker...

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May 6, 2017

Blueforce Adds Support for BodyTrak Non-Invasive Precision Physiological Monitoring and Comms Wearable

by Michael Helfrich
in CBRN, Distributed Sensing, Fusion, Heat, IoT, Occupational Safety, Sensors, Situational Awareness, Wearables

Blueforce customers live in a world where Command decisions drive mission success or mission failure, and where life and death is a function of actionable information getting to the right person at the right time. Most often, the perishability of tactical information is measured in minutes. A robustly networked operational environment coupled with the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the game specific to real-time...

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April 23, 2017

Beating the Heat: MEDWAR 2017 with BlueforceWBGT

by Michael Helfrich
in CBRN, Distributed Sensing, Emergency Notification, Heat, IoT, Lone Worker, Occupational Safety, Sensors, Situational Awareness, Surveillance, WBGT

Blueforce was proud to take part in MEDWAR 2017 SOUTHEAST as a guest of VCOM/Auburn. Exposure to extreme heat is a reality of any form of public safety/military training and unit preparation for operational missions, MEDWAR included. Many heat illnesses are preventable, and none should be fatal. Leaders must assess unit's missions and training requirements against the risk associated with operating in warm weather environments....

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Beating the Heat: Preventing Heat-Related Illness with Blueforce

by Michael Helfrich
in Distributed Sensing, Emergency Notification, Heat, IoT, Occupational Safety, Sensors, Situational Awareness, WBGT

Thousands of workers fall victim to heat related injuries annually. Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion can occur quickly and early signs are often ignored as workers are focused on accomplishing their assigned tasks. These injuries can occur when work is being done outside and inside and are a major concern of EHS groups across a wide swath of industries. The fact is that heat related...

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April 22, 2017

MEDWAR SOUTHEAST 2017: Decentralized Command and Control on a Single Pane of Glass View

by Michael Helfrich
in autonomous agents, Distributed Sensing, Emergency Notification, Fusion, IoT, K9, Recovery, Sensors, Situational Awareness

It was 2008 when we first heard it: "I've got multiple deployed teams, vehicles, scores of unattended ground sensors, K9's, and aviation platforms to manage during my incident or mission. And I also have scores of applications that I have to look across and assimilate to make a decision that impacts a small patch of the deployment area. It has become impossible." ...

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MEDWAR Southeast 2017: Blueforce Tested

by Michael Helfrich
in BlueBeacon, CBRN, Emergency Notification, Fusion, IoT, Occupational Safety, Sensors, Situational Awareness, Wearables

What is your definition of a fun weekend?  How about - strains/sprains, dislocations, fractures, soft tissue wounds, lacerations, burns, punctures (with and without embedded objects), blisters, infection, frostbite/extremity immersion, and more? This is what MedWar SOUTHEAST is all about; Hundreds of first responders competing in the woods of Fort Gordon, Georgia. MedWAR teaches and tests wilderness medicine knowledge and skills.  The event uses scenarios and questions which...

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March 27, 2017

Leveraging your Smartphone for “Man-Down” Detection Using Blueforce Tactical

by Michael Helfrich
in Emergency Notification, Hybrid Life Support, Occupational Safety, Recovery, Sensors, Situational Awareness

For years, firefighters have leveraged PASS devices (Personal Alert Safety System) which are also referred to as distress signal unit (DSU) when going into building fires or other dangerous IDLH environments The PASS device sounds a loud (95 decibel) audible alert to notify others in the area that the firefighter is in distress, usually triggered by a lack of motion by the firefighter for a...

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July 30, 2016

Tactical Dashboard Video: Seeing is Believing

by Michael Helfrich
in CBRN, Distributed Sensing, Fusion, IoT, K9, Sensors, Situational Awareness, Surveillance, Uncategorized, Wearables

It's a great thing when imagery can "say" everything that needs to be said.  It speaks for itself.  A dashboard video used during a USG training event is embedded below.  The Blueforce Command Center dashboard in the video shows members of a tactical team breaching a building with support from a K9 unit and shows the following: Real-time Incident Map: Top left, shows all team members,...

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