September 21, 2011

The PRONTO partners FDDO/IFR and UPB participated at the large-scale exercise “Stein der Weisen” ("Philosopher's Stone") at the training centre of the Fire Department of Dortmund in the city of Dortmund (Germany). The aim of this regular ABC-exercise, that comprised a decontamination scenario in which a victim had to be rescued and removed from a contaminated danger zone and handed over to the medical staff, included the testing of the cooperation between the corresponding fire brigade units and the corresponding rescue service units.

Concerning PRONTO, the exercise served as a pre-test for the upcoming field-tests of the PRONTO project. During the exercise GPS-, SMS- and TETRA-data and further observational data such as written descriptions, forms, and protocols of the exercise has been collected and processed by the University of Paderborn (UPB). The technologies used during the exercise “Stein der Weisen” proved to be successful and will be expanded in upcoming data collections.

All images courtesy of Helmut Kaczmarek (www.foto112.de). Additional photographic or video material about the large-scale exercise (in German language only) is compiled under foto112 and ot112 (courtesy of Olaf Tampier).

August 18, 2011

The 10th Project Meeting held on June 20-21, 2011 in Tampere, Finland, was hosted by PRONTO partner Mattersoft. 

On day one of the Tampere Project Meeting, an evaluation of the review report and a lessons-learned session was one of the major issues on the agenda. In addition, the roadmap and the objectives for the next project period were fixed and refined. Thereby, two major phases are upcoming: a field testing, which will be conducted between October and December 2011 and the development of the final showcase, which is expected to be completed in February 2012. The aim is to involve users in the improvement of the system, in particular with regard to user-oriented functionalities. As a result, two new features (traffic throughput and road weather condition) for the CTM demonstration case will be added by now.

On the second day, the two issues "Workshop on the IRM/MAP application" and the "refinement of the demonstrator roadmap" have been discussed, after status reports on the two demonstration cases ERO (Emergency Rescue Operation) and CTM (City Transport Management) had been given. Aside from short-term upcoming relevant matters, the consortium has already started to make arrangements for the Final Project Review Meeting and the corresponding Final Showcase.

April 12, 2011

PRONTO evaluates its research results in both demonstration cases: In January,  PRONTO partner Mattersoft conducted a workshop with end users of the City Transport Management (CTM) demonstration case. In April, several interviews are scheduled by the University of Paderborn and the Fire Department of Dortmund. The impact of PRONTO technologies for the tasks of different command levels is focused on by user-centred research. All activities are scheduled in a formative way. The events and use cases behind intelligent resource management will be refined to reach the ambitious PRONTO goals.

April 12, 2011

The screenplay of the showcase comprised the simulation of a fire rescue service operation. After an alarm was triggered by a fire detector, a fire engine arrived on the scene. A situation report on the house fire and the number of injured were transmitted to the operation control centre via radio. As a result, more fire companies equipped with GPS-sensors were sent to the operating location. Using the PRONTO demonstrator, the operation controllers were able to track the movements of the vehicles live and online with the help of the MAP-functionality and could make use of the IRM-module during the operation.

April 12, 2011

On April 5th, the Ninth Project Meeting was held in Dortmund (Germany) functioning mainly as a rehearsal of presentations and demos for next day's Second Review Meeting including the setup of the showcase.

On April 6th, 2011, the Second Review Meeting started with a welcome and introduction by the EC Project Officer. Following the progress presentations given by the different work packages (including demos i.e. of The Observer XT and Complex Event Processing), the EC Project Officer and the review team were invited to view a Live Demo at the new training centre of the Fire Department of Dortmund (FDDO). During a 60-minute showcase adapted to the ERO demonstration case, the PRONTO Second Integrated Demonstrator was featured.

In addition, a press visit and a photo session were arranged in the context of the Live Demo. Press articles about PRONTO were published in a German regional daily newspaper and on the website of the city of Dortmund, please switch to the category Press Room to read them.

After the Live Demo, presentations on the exploitation perspective and the dissemination efforts undertaken were held. Finally, a closed session for the reviewers and the presentation of their first comments rounded off an eventful and successful Second Review Meeting.

March 15, 2011

As reported in the February-Newsflash, the PRONTO system had been presented twice at this year's CeBIT 2011 exhibition in Hannover (Germany). At two different, but connected booths, the Joint Fraunhofer Stand and by the University of Paderborn C.I.K.  at the Joint Stands of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, visitors were invited to test the PRONTO first prototype by participating in interactive activities and attractions at both of the stands.

Looking back, the consortium was very statisfied with the technical infrastructure that worked perfectly very well and with the large number of visitors who showed great interest in using and experiencing the showcased First Prototype and the PRONTO project itself.

March 15, 2011

The preparations for the Third International Workshop organised by PRONTO are on top gear! The international scientific workshop "User Centered Design Process for Emergency Management Information Systems: Methodology, Case Studies and Results" will be co-located at this year's ISCRAM 2011 conference.

For more detailed information about the PRONTO Workshop and the ISCRAM 2011, please click the ISCRAM-Logo or switch to the Meet PRONTO category.

November 09, 2010

The PRONTO consortium has initiated a collaboration with the IdF (Fire Service Institute of North Rhine-Westphalia) located in Münster (Germany). Within the frame of the data collection process for the ERO use case, PRONTO was allowed to observe training sessions at the outdoor training ground in Telgte (Germany) in September and October 2010.

Aside from the acquisition of TETRA data, a detailed documentation of "real events" including participations in the debriefings after every exercise was made possible in this way.

November 17, 2010

7th Project Meeting held on November 02-03, 2010 in Athens, Greece, hosted by NCSR "Demokritos".

Data acquisition for the two use cases and Workshops on Evaluation Issues were the major topics which have been advanced on day 1 of the Athens Project Meeting in November. Aside from that, the consortium was planning its dissemination efforts in 2011. Thereby, a first highlight of the upcoming year includes PRONTO workshops and showcases at the CeBIT 2011 exhibition.

On the second day, technical issues such as system architecture and system integration had been given priority to, before event definition issues and an outlook to the Second Review Meeting concluded a very fruitful and constructive project meeting.

September 15, 2010

The PRONTO project is in ongoing cooperation with the European project WeKnowIt. After co-organising the international workshop EVENTS 2010, now the focus is set on overlapping areas and mutual interests in Emergency Response (ER) scenarios. Currently, the Sheffield City Council has provided ER-related media data to the PRONTO consortium. In the future, the two projects will continue to make use of synergies by cooperating closely, exchanging further data material and pilot testing as well as by jointly organising future events and workshops.

June 16, 2010

June 16, 2010

On June 7th, the Fifth Project Meeting was held in Luxembourg with a strong emphasis on rehearsing the next-day First Review Meeting.

On June 8th, 2010, the First Review started with a welcome and introduction by the EC Project Officer. Framed by progress presentations given by the different work packages and a presentation held on the exploitation perspective, the EC Project Officer and the Reviewers were invited to view a Live Demo in which the PRONTO First Demonstrator was featured. A vehicle equipped with multiple sensors was prepared for a test drive around the parking lot of the venue, the EC building. As a result, the review team, situated in the EC Meeting Room, was able to examine live real-time event recognition results from the PRONTO demo system. Thereby, low level sensor data received from the vehicle was transformed into high level events which were displayed as utilisable information such as 'vehicle is driving unsafe', 'vehicle has low passenger comfort', 'vehicle is driving save but uncomfortable' or other corresponding high level events 

In addition to the showcase in the Luxembourg area, a second scenario in the Helsinki area was prepared, where the current movements of buses and trams were shown on a map of the city of Helsinki.

After a closed session for the reviewers and the presentation of their first comments, a fruitful and eventful First Review Meeting was closed late in the afternoon.

March 30, 2010

The 1st International Workshop EVENTS 2010 is coming closer!

After extending the deadline for paper submission up to March 19th, the Call for Paper is ultimately closed now. The organising committee gives thanks for the numerous proposals submitted and proceeds to the review phase.  

The workshop programme organised by WeKnowIt and PRONTO will include presentations from the following two invited speakers:

Christophe Dousson (France Telecom R & D): "Monitoring with Chronicles"
Larry S. Davis (University of Maryland): "Event modeling and recognition in video"

June 09, 2009

Seconnd Project Meeting held on June 15-16, 2009 in Helsinki, Finland, hosted by WSP Finland Ltd.

The focus of the second general project meeting of PRONTO will be on requirements analysis for the two uses cases emergency management and public transport. On the second day of the meeting a requirements analysis workshop together with Helsinki City Transport will be held.