How can mixed reality enable training on a fire pump? Three motivated students from the Code & Context Bachelor programme pursued this question last winter semester 2024/25 in a Project Launch with their simulator P.A.U.L.A. (Pump-Action User Learning Application). Friederike List, Annika Hayd and Florian Krawinkel experimented with haptic materials and sensors and overlaid their prototype with an interactive virtual model. This was modelled true to scale on the basis of a 3D scan of a real fire pump.
Today, the system was put through its paces. Two real experts from the Cologne fire brigade, Dirk Leißner and Frank Birkenhauer, joined us: ‘The current system is a promising demonstration of how the combination of haptics and virtual training can work – and where there are still problems.’ The optical tracking of the mixed reality glasses was not always as accurate as expected. ‘But I can simply use it without any additional requirements for Wi-Fi, computers or other sensors,’ say the experts from the Cologne fire service.
The fire service hopes that the new system will help haptic-orientated people in particular to learn the necessary steps more quickly if they also have something to feel. ‘Our trainees often have a manual background and like to get their hands dirty,’ says Leißner. The system is soon to be made accessible to a larger group on site in order to test the efficiency of the approach in more detail.
