Disaster relief workers may soon benefit from a new 'smart' suit being developed by I-Garment. The suit is intended to help remedy safety and communications problems faced by fire fighters but I can see its utility for humanitarian disaster response as well.



The suit is intended to address three familiar problems;

1. the unavailability of standard communications means during disasters,
2. the lack of information as to the whereabouts and safety of relief workers during emergency efforts, and
3. the problem of acquiring and distributing timely geospatial data during an emergency.



If one were to combine the suit with CSIRO’s proposed power generating shirts it could even be self powered.

Tags: Tools, Technology, GPS, GIS, Communications