C-Thru Head-Up Display Lets Firefighters See Through Smoke

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Innovative edge-finding AR eyepiece lets firefighters see through smo
A background in extreme exploration
First responder tech

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“When you’re inside a structured fire, it’s difficult to see because there’s smoke everywhere and your senses are impaired,” Sam Cossman, CEO and co-founder of Qwake Technologies, told Digital Trends.
To help, Cossman and his colleagues have developed a smart helmet device called C-Thru, a head-up display which fits over one eye within a regular firefighter’s breathing apparatus.
While firefighters have long carried thermal cameras, these have been handheld devices with small displays that require their users to look away from the scene directly in front of them to be able to use them.
“We’re taking complex information from an environment that could potentially be hazardous or life-threatening, and extending your natural abilities with the use of sensors,” Cossman said.
Thirty-eight year old adventurer Cossman said that the impetus for his work at Qwake started half a decade ago.
“My background is in extreme exploration,” he said.
“We started to wonder what would happen if we … [provided] all of them with it — and then connected them.”
“I was looking for a tool that would help myself and my team to navigate more effectively in that environment.”
“It was touting the promise of similar functionality to [what we’re creating in 2020], but it wasn’t yet real,” Cossman said.
“He and I started looking at what it would take to make it real.”
The C-Thru system isn’t just about providing firefighters with hands-free thermal vision.
“We started to wonder what would happen if we didn’t just provide one firefighter with this augmented reality tool, but all of them with it — and then connected them,” Cossman said.
“That’s when we started realizing that what we were building wasn’t just a vision assistant for one person but an entire visual communication platform, where people would be able to use a whole new visual language to transmit directional cues between parties.”
Qwake isn’t the only high-tech initiative seeking to help out firefighter

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