NEW FIRE FIGHTING TECHNOLOGY TO BE DEMONSTRATED AT PITT

PITTSBURGH, Mar. 10 -- New innovative communications technology for firefighters, developed by the Naval Surface Warfare Center for the Navy SEALs in cooperation with the Mid-Atlantic Technology Applications Center (MTAC) at the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire will be demonstrated Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2-5 p.m., at the University Club in Oakland. The event is open to the media.

The technology, originally developed to help Navy commandos communicate in adverse conditions, is a completely hands-off "head contact" microphone, mounted in the headband of a firefighter's helmet. What's new is that it transmits speech over two-way radio not directly from the voice but from the sounds resonating in the skull, and as a result is easy to use and greatly reduces unwanted background noises common at a fire scene.

Frank Downs, a research engineer at the Navy's Coastal Systems Station in Panama City, Florida, and inventor of the head contact microphone, will demonstrate the technology at the University Club along with Pittsburgh Fire Chief Charlie Dickinson. Firefighters, using the new microphones, will attempt to be heard over the din of running pumps, fire trucks, chain saws and other common fire fighting equipment.

"Good quality communications is one of the most serious problems facing firefighters today," said Robert Saba, Business Development Specialist at MTAC and the man responsible for getting Downs and Dickinson together. "Hopefully this technology and others developed through MTAC's Fire Fighting Task Force will make a real difference in keeping our firefighters safe and helping them do the job better."

While firefighter safety is always paramount, also important to fire departments faced with ever shrinking budgets is the cost of any new technology. Fortunately, it appears that this new microphone will be relatively inexpensive, on the order of a few hundred dollars per unit.

MTAC's Fire Fighting Task Force was created three years ago in the aftermath of the five-alarm Valentines Day fire in Brushton that left three Pittsburgh firefighters dead. Saba, and his colleagues at MTAC, were moved by the television coverage of the funeral days later and decided to do something. "In putting together the task force the first person we called was Charlie Dickinson," said Lani Hummel, Executive Director of MTAC. "We needed to know if this was the kind of thing firefighters would find valuable. Since that very first day Chief Dickinson's enthusiasm has been boundless."

Since then MTAC has put together a task force of nine major metropolitan fire departments and more than 20 research institutions including national, military and NASA laboratories, all looking for technologies that could bring about a safer environment for fire crews.

"We're looking at many other potential technologies to help our firefighters both here in Pittsburgh and nationally," said Saba. "But this new microphone is one terrific place to start."