Augmented Reality-Based Outdoor Navigation System for Urban Firefighting: A Case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Objective: This study aimed to develop an Augmented Reality (AR) based system for outdoor navigation to aid fire truck drivers in reaching incident areas during emergency response in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It involved developing three modules: an emergency incident reporting mobile application to improve incident localization, a route planning module to enable the visualization of routes and their conditions, and the AR navigation module to deliver real-time AR-based navigation instructions. Methods: Web AR technologies, specifically WebXR and Three.js, were employed to render AR navigation instructions based on a preselected route from the route planning module, which was developed using the Google Maps JavaScript, Places, and Routes APIs, and complemented with an added layer of house data by leveraging QGIS. Ionic Framework was used to develop the emergency incident reporting platform. The system’s effectiveness was evaluated through User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with 45 Dar es Salaam civilians and 5 fire brigade officers. Findings: The developed system improves incident localization through automatic location sharing via the emergency incident reporting platform and searchable address data via the custom geospatial dataset. It also improves the clarity of navigation instructions through its AR navigation module and routing decisions with its route planning module. During system validation, 91% of the participating civilians completed the emergency incident reporting task without prior training. Furthermore, all the participating officers reported clearer navigation instructions for the AR component, with particular appreciation for the route planning module. Although no direct comparison with existing methods was conducted, validation results revealed the system's potential in improving emergency response in Dar es Salaam. Novelty: This study presents a context-aware AR navigation system integrated with a custom geospatial dataset that lacks in most previous studies and existing solutions. This integration enhances incident localization, route planning, and navigation, essential factors in improving emergency response. Keywords: Emergency Response, Outdoor Navigation, WebXR, Augmented Reality, Urban Fires