To establish end-user requirements recurring interviews and 
workshops were conducted with disaster managers and 
technicians from THW and training exercises observed. These 
revealed a number of areas for potential improvements that 
could be addressed through multi-touch table interfaces. In an 
iterative process these were refined into application scenarios 
from which concrete requirements were then identified. 
1.3 Goal 
The overall goal is to improve the management of large- 
scale disaster situations and complex emergencies by 
providing crisis managers with an interactive mapping system 
that aims to improve their effectiveness. With digital map 
repositories and the proliferation of new sensors the problem of 
disaster managers increasingly changes from one where 
information is missing to one where the required information is 
too difficult to access and analyse. 
2. STATE OF THE ART 
    
Fig. 1: THW rescue workers using conventional management 
tools 
2.1 Geo-Information in disaster management 
A critical factor in the management of disaster situations is the 
access to current and reliable data (van Osterom et. al., 2005). 
Potential data sources that can be used in disaster management 
can be distinguished according to their platform and sensor — 
ranging from existing maps and aerial images over the use of 
mobile sensors with the rescue personal (e.g. for status 
monitoring) to dedicated sensor platforms — e.g. airborne or 
space borne sensors. 
New sensors have many promising properties to capture the 
required data when and where required, e.g. in the case of SAR 
(synthetic aperture radar) geo-spatial data can be acquired 
irrespective of weather-conditions and visibility. Key challenge 
in data gathering and analysis are the control of such sensors, 
the real-time integration of the data and the automation of the 
data analysis where possible. The supply of spatial data for 
disaster management has been improved tremendously by new 
sensors (Video, SAR, LIDAR) and data acquisition platforms 
(satellites, UAVs). Satellite communications technology 
provides near-real-time access to pictures, videos, sensor data 
and other information worldwide. However, in many cases this 
is not well integrated into crisis management systems and often 
the capabilities to analyse and use the data lag behind the sensor 
capabilities. 
In the management of disaster situations much of the relevant 
data is of spatial nature (environment, location of resources) and 
one key challenge is to effectively integrate and unify spatial 
56 
data from different sources. Geographic Information Systems 
(GIS) are well established to deal with the acquisition, storage, 
analysis and presentation of spatial data and commercial GIS 
are established tools in the management of crisis situations in 
many agencies. Central challenges arise in the user interface, the 
integration of data and the integration with other systems. While 
the integration of static data from different providers is 
addressed by initiatives like INSPIRE (Inspire, 2012), a special 
challenge remains due to the fact that the data required during 
disasters, and other dynamic environments, requires high 
bandwidth sensors at the time of use (or close to it) that is 
difficult to handle, analyse and represent. Especially in dynamic 
crisis situations conventional cartographic displays and standard 
mouse based interaction techniques fail to address the needs of 
crisis managers that need to review a situation and act on it as a 
team. Similarly, current GIS interfaces are not well adapted to 
use "in the field" — the extension of GIS with novel techniques 
for real-time data handling and advanced interaction techniques 
is required to make the available information accessible and 
useful to the different user groups. 
2.2 Advanced interaction and visualization techniques 
Planning for and managing large scale emergencies is a 
complex activity and a system for disasters control management 
processes presents a number of spatially related problems and 
an overwhelming quantity of information. One of the problems 
in disaster management is to get an overview of the situation 
and to share relevant information with others. Access to the 
relevant information is critical due to effective, collaborative 
decision-making during emergency management situations. 
However, standard user interfaces are not well suited for 
multiuser access. In the recent years multimodal interfaces have 
acquired an important role in human computer interaction 
applications, e.g. under the heading of natural user interfaces 
(NUI), sometimes referred to as reality-based interaction (Jakob 
et. al., 2008] and tangible interaction (Ishii, 2008). 
While many benefits of NUI techniques have been 
demonstrated in research projects there are currently no 
established toolkits and design expertise on the use of such 
techniques in large scale interfaces for real-world applications. 
2.3 The useTable 
A representative example of emerging large-scale multi-touch 
interaction devices is the useTable developed at C-LAB 
(UseTable, 2012). The useTable is a flexible visualization table 
that supports multi-touch, tangible and pen-based interaction 
(Fig. 2). Compared to off-the-shelve solutions this approach 
enables us to adapt the technologies and techniques to the 
application and does not require the design towards the 
constraints of a given hardware environment. As part of the 
feedback throughout the design process the useTable has 
evolved into an interaction environment adapted to disaster 
management requirements. 
The useTable consists of a 55” display that offers full HD image 
projection. The projector is mounted beneath the surface and 
the image is projected to the top using two mirrors. For finger- 
tracking FTIR (Frustrated Total Internal Reflection) is applied 
and objects on the surface are tracked using a combined DI 
(Diffused Illumination). The camera on the bottom of the table 
is equipped with a corresponding IR filter and is connected to a 
tracking PC that applies the filter and tracking algorithms. The 
projection surface is equipped with an anti-reflex diffusor sheet 
that enabl 
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