LifeBelt: Crowd Evacuation Based on Vibro-Tactile Guidance

To increase crowd evacuation efficiency in emergency situations, the authors developed a wearable computer, LifeBelt, to guide individuals from emergency situations to escape. The LifeBelt collects position and orientation information about individuals from embedded sensors, shares this information with a background emergency coordination system, receives an individualized optimized escape strategy, and guides the individual via vibro-tactile stimulation, indicating direction and distance to the recommended exit. Simulation models indicate that the number of successful evacuations per unit time improve significantly using the LifeBelt technology.