RUNES
Reconfigurable Ubiquitous Networked Embedded Systems

Dr Steve Hailes represented RUNES at the IEE Disaster Prediction, Detection and Recovery: Communications, Technology, Systems and Planning, which took place on Thursday 15 September 2005 in London.

The title of Dr Hailes' talk was "Emerging Technologies and Their Application in Emergency Planning" and he described the Mont Blanc tunnel fire disaster in 1999 from a timeline perspective. The response of the emergency services was ineffective in the initial minutes because of the lack of essential information. Moving forward to the present day, there is now a US initiative, SAFECOM, with the goal of enabling safety agencies to improve response through more effective and efficient interoperable wireless communications. Devices such as networked sensors and visualisation hardware could have helped in the tunnel disaster scenario and this type of equipment is already available, embedded in the everyday things we use. What we are lacking is corresponding progress in software and associated models. To this end the RUNES component model has been developed to address the requirements and challenges of a pervasive computing environment, particulary in response to the needs of Disaster Response teams.

A copy of the presenation is available here.