Smart Building Technologies for Fire Rescue: A QR Code Enabled Notification System

This study aimed to shorten firefighter search times during indoor fires, allowing more people to be rescued, by enhancing disaster prevention capabilities using building technologies. In indoor fires, fatalities are often caused by the failure of firefighters to rescue individuals in a timely manner. The question of how to effectively increase the probability of survival while waiting for rescue behind closed doors warrants in-depth research and analysis. Therefore, to ensure that people live in safe environments, there is an urgent need to develop a building door panel material with an emergency call function to prevent such incidents from occurring. Utilizing the PRISMA method, we conducted a comprehensive review of the existing literature to identify the key issues and limitations associated with the current search-and-rescue techniques. Subsequently, the identified primary factors were analyzed using the TRIZ method to determine the key factors that influence the success of rescuing trapped individuals, and a notification system was designed to address this issue. Based on the premise that it is advisable to wait for rescue during a fire, we utilized a smartphone to scan a QR code and transmit the exact location information to the fire department. Through extensive participation and feedback from firefighters, we developed a rescue notification door panel and obtained a patent for it. This system can significantly reduce the time required for search-and-rescue operations in fire incidents. The experimental results show a reduction of one-third in search times.