Because First Responders, and the Communities they serve need access to Actionable Content
FireCast® Platform
iCode is developing a secure and scalable technology platform that is operationally responsive to the needs of today’s Wildfire Fighters and the Communities they serve. The FireCast® Platform can be used to augment legacy information systems which are not positioned to rapidly adapt to changes in the number of individuals, teams, and resources joining and leaving today’s mutual aid incidents.
The overall FireCast® Platform is comprised of three categories (or tiers) of networked software components deployed to mobiles devices, edge computing devices, and resources residing in the cloud. Respectively, this includes the FireCast® series of mobile apps; the FireCast® Gateway; and the FireCast® Cloud.
While our FireCast mobile apps provide all users access to an extensible set of actionable Common Operational Picture (COP) and Situational Awareness (SA) capabilities, different editions are tailored to address the unique mission needs of different end-user communities. These mission tailored FireCast apps include:
FireCast® PRO - for FirstNet-enabled first responders
FireCast® Wildfire Fighter - for Wildland Firefighters providing Mutual Aid
FireCast® Community Edition - for members of the community
Using an ethernet connection to a locally provisioned FireCast® Gateway, organizations can reduce network loads that would otherwise impact their public-facing web services while securely servicing the dynamic information needs of first responders and volunteer organizations providing Mutual Aid. These gateways transcode information native to a commercial notification, collaboration environment, a proprietary CAD solution, or other content management system to open information standards supported in the FireCast® Cloud.
Upon receipt of an incident or significant event, the FireCast® Cloud issues push notifications to subscribers, and publishes digital content for use by those using a FireCast mobile app and by FireCast®-enabled subscribers equipped with a local FireCast® Gateway.
FireCast® Pro edition mobile app for Apple iOS and iPadOS devices
Our FireCast Pro edition apps are compatible with Apple’s iPhone and iPad mobile devices running iOS 14 and above.
The FireCast® Pro edition app provides joint teams of Fire, EMS, and Law Enforcement personnel originating from different jurisdictions - and organizations spanning local, regional, tribal, state and federal levels, the capability to securely access, display and interact with digital content. This FirstNet-enabled app facilitates near-real time shared situational awareness through an actionable Common Operational Picture (COP), so that participants can Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act as a mission-focused Team-of-Teams.
The companion FireCast® Wildland Firefighter apps for organizations who often operate in remote locations, or where broadband communications opportunities are problematic or simply do not exist. The technical advantage offered is the ability to dynamically form ad-hoc mesh communications networks between the clusters of phones/tablets firefighters take with them into the field. This FireCast® app will also incorporate features to exchange actionable content over low-earth orbiting satellite communications networks.
Finally, someone is making an app for those living/working in Wildland Fire prone areas!
While the FireCast® Pro and FireCast® Wildland Fire edition apps are designed to empower those who protect us, iCode’s latest app focuses on empowering the community. Our FireCast® Community Edition app provides a means for emergency response organizations to rapidly distribute authoritative digital content that the public can act upon moments after it is made available. Instead of spending precious time navigating their internet browser between a series of websites trying to find updates to previously posted information on Fire Locations, Fire Perimeters, Evacuation Areas, Evacuation Routes, and Shelters, FireCast® users are able get this content streamed directly to their personal devices. Not only does this reduce the number of repeated interactions across the internet, it greatly reduces the time necessary to distribute actionable content to those in harm’s way.
Digital content received through these FireCast® apps is conveniently contextualized via an interactive COP (or Map) that takes into account the user’s current location - even while in motion, or a location of their choosing. Convenient Heads Up Display (HUD) style extensions to the FireCast® toolbars provide users with an easy way to transition between different location aware readouts including the traditional Degrees, Minutes, Seconds; Decimal Degrees; and Street Addresses formats; but also the emerging What Three Words (W3W) global location standard.
FireCast® apps address the operational need to deliver authoritative content to tens of thousands of users moments after it is collected.
FireCast® Gateway
Our small, portable, battery-powered, edge computing platform is available for Airborne, Ground Vehicle, Command Post or building-based deployment needs.
Interoperability between existing and emerging Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems, existing solutions incorporated within Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs), and remote sensor feeds are key!
Our software-based FireCast® Gateway components are designed to minimize the time and cost of FireCast-enabling legacy CAD systems, and netted computing infrastructures found in most EOCs. FireCast® Gateways can be leveraged by organizations who need to extend the reach of their existing CAD / EOC solutions well beyond what is used on a routine basis, to accommodate secure interactions with mutual aid responders originating from external organizations when the need arises. FireCast® Gateways integrated within these environments provide a means to ingest content collected and distributed by FireCast® mobile applications and other “external” FireCast® Gateways - including airborne FireCast® Gateways collecting and forwarding Fire Perimeters, participating in a shared event / incident.
Our FireCast® Gateway software components are typically integrated onto small ruggedized embedded computing / Internet of Things (IoT) devices (as illustrated above) which are ideally incorporated within PSAPs, EOCs, Battalion Chief’s Trucks / mobile Incident Command Posts, Fire Apparatus, EMS vehicles, and even in fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. For example, a recent aerial firefighting application involved the integration of an externally mounted turret-based Electrical-Optical / Infrared (EO/IR) sensor carried aboard Law Enforcement, Search and Rescue, and Firefighting aircraft used in conjunction with wildfires in Southern California.
Today these airborne EO/IR sensors remain under direct control of aerial firefighting crewmembers, often through an AeroComputers UC-6000 mission computer. In these cases, a companion FireCast® Gateway is used to store and securely forward digital content (formatted as vector-based polygons) representing the perimeter of wildfires down to the FireCast® Cloud. Once received, it can be instantaneously distributed across the network of FireCast apps subscribed to receive this time-sensitive content. Each airborne FireCast® Gateway can also be used to deliver data/information back to the aircrew for synchronizing the location of other aircraft, ground vehicles, and responder personnel distributed across the wildfire area of operations. In the future, options designed to facilitate requests from designated remote FireCast app users (e.g., Battalion Chiefs) can be executed via the FireCast Gateway, freeing up the aircrew to focus on other mission priorities.
When paired with onboard airborne EO/IR Sensors controlled by the aircrew, iCode’s FireCast® Gateway autonomously processes, stores, and forwards digital content to the FireCast® Cloud without additional human intervention. Responding to digitized updates it receives, FireCast® Cloud services distribute tactically actionable content directly to FireCast® app users combating wildfires, those engaged in evacuating people, and those staging mission-critical resources - regardless of which jurisdiction they originated from. The delay (or latency) between airborne sensor acquisition to end-user receipt is often measured in single-digit seconds.
FireCast® Cloud
Responses to wildfires occur around the clock. What is needed is a means to rapidly “connect” first responders in a secure manner regardless of the jurisdiction they originate from, without direct intervention from a systems administrator (human). This is what the FireCast® Cloud is designed to do. Our FireCast® Cloud is built upon a collection of software services distributed across resilient computing platforms, primarily comprised of Amazon® Web Services (AWS) and Google® Cloud Platform (GCP) services, to form a Data Exchange HUB. These cloud-based services augment and extend disparate computing and data resources, aggregating the authoritative content sought by those participating in wildfire responses. Furthermore, bi-directional feeds provide the mechanisms necessary to route data collected in the field back to PSAPs, EOCs, ICPs, and Battalion Chiefs. FireCast Cloud services provide users access to content originating from orbiting Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellites, and near real time Fire Perimeters observed from Infrared aerial sensors outfitted on crewed and unmanned aircraft.
We also incorporate Identity and Access Management (IAM) mechanisms to authenticate each participant attempting to join the FireCast® Cloud, ensuring the right individuals have access to the right resources at the right times for the right reasons. IAM helps us maintain the integrity of the data/information/content exchanged across the FireCast Platform at all times.
Full Motion Video (FMV) content acquired by manned aircraft and small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) can be digitized in near-real time to create Fire Perimeters outlining a fast-moving wildfire. With FireCast, this actionable insight can be delivered and viewed in a fraction of the time once thought possible.
FireCast® Early Adopters
The FireCast® Platform is designed to evolve in support of emerging needs of today’s first responder community and to those that they serve. If you or your team is ready to explore the art of the possible, send us an email or sign up to be a FireCast® Early Adopter.