Lastly, individuals trapped within collapsed buildings are helpless to alerting help. However since Pixie Engine can locate another Pixies exact location, including vertical distances, a victims location can be found instantly. This also cuts down on first responders efforts and time, allowing more people to be helped in a certain amount of time.

Again, another important factor that was highlighted during the video was the probability of being separated from your family members throughout the day. This helps to show how valuable Pixie would be during a disaster.

There are a few key elements of a disaster that were illustrated in the Preparedness Now video. One very important factor being the loss of cell phone use during a disaster situation due to towers becoming over loaded, if they have not been structurally damaged.

If if this was to occur Pixie would still be able to locate other Pixies within a 200 meter range. This would include family members exact locations and would even work underground.

As part of a preparedness program for the awareness of earthquake safety in souther California a young motion graphics professional teamed up with several experts to illustrate a what the situation would be if a rated 7.8 quake hit.

This video is extremely helpful for painting what a disaster situation could be like since most people have been fortunate enough to have no been directly effected by one.

Watch Movie Here.

Within the past 30 years north America, specifically the United States, has endured several major disasters. Although each situation has its unique needs and circumstances Pixie Engine would have connected individuals with each other and information during these times of need.

When considered for a disaster relief application Pixie is capable of handling emergencies on a micro and macro level. As an example a missing child only effects a certain amount of community members while something larger like a tornado effects a larger population.

Since Pixie is built on RF technology communicating with other Pixies needs to infrastructure, such as a cellphone towers, satellites, or a network provider. This makes it an invaluable tool when used to locate separated family members during a disaster, as well as a unique one compared to other current technologies.

The University of the Arts collaborated with Human Network Labs on a interdisciplinary student project called Studio next, which included Pixie Engine.

While conceptualizing applications for Pixie Engine the studio next team created three scenarios in which Pixie can be used. They included a social networking tool, a lost child locator, and a novel item location directory. As a final step to our conceptualizing process we created short videos to better describe the scenarios.

Now that the Studio Next project had passed Pixie Engine has moved on to a new stage of conceptualizing. Used for its unique way of communicating Pixie Engine is being proposed as a location device for family members that have been separated during a disaster.

As a member of team Pixie during the Studio Next project at Uarts I felt very lucky to have been part of a project that was so interesting. It was an easy decision for me to continue working with Pixie Engine technology when it came time to choose my thesis topic. For the past 8 weeks I have been researching and conceptualizing a proposal for HNL which includes using Pixie Engine as an emergency location device to help unite families during disasters.

Some beginning concept sketches.

Here are a few initial concept sketches that our team came up with to help illustrate our Pixie ideas better.

Since the possible applications for a technology like Pixie are broad and many our team was unsure where to start while brain storming concepts. One brilliant team member thought of listing categories that Pixie might fit into, and then branch off with possible applications within that category. For example we listed entertainment, weather, business, medicine, tourism, etc. Then within tourism we thought of Pixie being used as an application for you to know where a location to sight see is, or to give you on foot or driving directions, or to be a restaurant guide— all on your mobil phone.

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Here is some of the creative minds that make up the studio next pixie engine group. The rest of the team will hopefully be uploaded by this Tuesday :D