NIST Launches Contest to Leverage IoT and Augmented Reality to Combat Disasters

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is launching two new “Chariot Challenge” contests aimed at boosting emergency response by leveraging the internet of things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR). The problem NIST is working to address is that today, first responders do not have convenient access to the critical information they need to make informed decisions during emergency disasters. To address this, NIST is launching an IoT contest to generate smart city data to help simulate disasters, as well as an AR contest that promotes the utilization of IoT data in AR interfaces to better help first responders.

The IoT contest will give researchers the opportunity to build solutions that provide first responders access to data streams from IoT devices, smart buildings, and smart city systems. According to NIST, “these systems would allow our public safety community to optimize resource deployment and decrease the time it takes for incident command and boots-on-the ground first responders to make live-saving decisions.”

The AR contest is meant to give developers the opportunity to leverage augmented reality technology to convey actionable information to first responders without distractions or cognitive overload. According to NIST, “these solutions can significantly improve a first responder’s situational awareness allowing them to more effectively plan and respond during incidents. Today, however, current advancements in AR technology have been largely unavailable to first responders.”

For more information on how to enter the AR contest, visit: https://www.chariotchallenge.com/how-to-enter-ar-page/.

For more information on how to enter the IoT contest, visit: https://www.chariotchallenge.com/how-to-enter-iot-page/.