Multimedia-Enabled 911: Exploring 911 Callers’ Experience of Call Taker Controlled Video Calling in Simulated Emergencies

Title of the Paper

Multimedia-Enabled 911: Exploring 911 Callers’ Experience of Call Taker Controlled Video Calling in Simulated Emergencies

Paper Information

• Field of Study: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Multimedia-Based Emergency Response System Design
• Keywords: Emergency response, 911 calls, non-standard design, video calling, user evaluation

Research Background and Issues

• Issues and Challenges:

  • Current 911 call systems typically support only audio calls, lacking multimedia capabilities.
  • In small-scale emergencies, the inability to efficiently utilize multimedia information such as video or images may impact emergency response effectiveness.
  • The impact of non-standard designs on user experience has not been thoroughly studied, especially when interface changes are required to adapt to emergency situations.

• Significance:

  • Multimedia can significantly improve the quality and speed of information in 911 emergency calls, aiding in event assessment and response.
  • Enhancing the 911 system can improve response efficiency, which is critical for the safety of both the public and emergency personnel.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Existing studies have explored the potential of video in emergency scenarios, such as helping emergency personnel quickly assess incidents, but there is still a lack of in-depth understanding of how users interact with video calling systems in emergencies.
  • This study extends the existing literature by observing user experiences with a prototype application (ME911) featuring video calling functionality in simulated experiments.

Solution

• Methods and Solutions:

  • A prototype ME911 application was proposed and developed, integrating multimedia functionalities and allowing call takers to control the caller’s interface.
  • The application supports the following features:
    1. Call taker guidance for camera operation.
    2. Call takers can control the caller’s interface functions, dynamically enabling or disabling specific features.
    3. Two-way multimedia sharing (between caller and call taker).
    4. Map-based caller location identification.

• Innovations:

  • Non-standard design: Interface functions are dynamically controlled by the call taker as needed, rather than being fully accessible from the start.
  • Integration of video and multimedia functionalities into 911 voice calls to improve the quality and accuracy of information transmission.
  • Focus on user experience in non-emergency scenarios, addressing a gap in the existing literature.

• Implementation Steps and Technology:

  • Developed a cross-platform application prototype using React Native, compatible with both Android and iOS.
  • Conducted controlled experiments in a multi-screen immersive environment simulating five small-scale emergency scenarios to test the application’s functionalities:
    1. House fire
    2. Truck fire on a highway
    3. Pedestrian suddenly collapsing
    4. Multi-vehicle collision
    5. Store robbery

Research Findings

• Specific Findings:

  • Design Requirements Exploration: Summarized non-standard design requirements for emergency scenarios, such as dynamic interface control and visual guidance.
  • User Experience Observations:
    • While non-standard designs caused confusion for some users, they effectively assisted task completion under call taker guidance.
    • Video guidance in emergency scenarios (e.g., CPR instructions) was considered helpful by users but posed implementation challenges.

• Advantages:

  • Compared to traditional voice-based 911 calls, the ME911 application improved the efficiency of information transmission and the ability to assess specific scenarios.
  • Callers received significant support for camera operation in emergency scenarios, particularly in noisy or hazardous environments.

• Experimental and Evaluation Results:

  • Participants exhibited higher anxiety levels under dynamic feature activation conditions but gradually adapted to the design through more scenario interactions.
  • Under fully open feature conditions, user experience was closer to conventional applications but required more guidance from call takers.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    1. The experimental environment simulated scenarios and did not fully replicate real emergency call conditions (e.g., real-world stress and environmental impacts).
    2. The design was tailored to Canada’s emergency call requirements, which may differ in other countries/regions.
  • Future Directions:
    1. Investigate how to integrate this design into actual 911 systems, including dispatch centers and other devices.
    2. Explore more complex scenarios involving additional emergency teams and system-level collaboration.
    3. Address deeper issues of privacy protection in 911 application design.

In summary, this study provides a design foundation for incorporating multimedia functionalities into 911 call systems and identifies several critical system-level requirements and user experience considerations.