Fire Drill XR

Fire spreading in Fire Simulation mode
Smoke spreading in Fire Simulation mode
End screen in Fire Simulation mode after staying in the smoke for too long

Inspiration

If a fire started in your home, would you be prepared to escape? Most of us are not. In fact, more than 80% of us have never practiced a home fire drill, despite the USFA recommending people to practice their fire escape plan at least twice a year. With 59.1% of the 3,790 fire-related deaths and 54.3% of the fire-related injuries 13,250 are from households, people simply are not prepared to protect themselves during such a catastrophic event.

Current methods for fire escape preparation are not reliable. The USFA only provides simple guidelines and blank grid paper for people to draw their home escape plans. While other fire training apps have been made in XR, they have all been in virtual reality, prohibiting the user from properly planning an escape plan in their home. Through Fire Drill XR, users will be able to practice escaping a fire in their household, ensuring that they will be prepared if a fire ever ignites.

What it does

Fire Drill XR is a mixed reality app on the Meta Quest 3 that teaches users the basics of fire safety and escape. The app consists of four modes: Room Scanning, Safety Tips, Learning, and Fire Simulation. In Room Scanning, the user will scan their environment, while placing markers to indicate where any smoke detectors and exits are. In Safety Tips, the user will receive basic guidelines and recommendations for fire protection. In Learning, the user can practice certain fire safety tips in small modules. In Fire Simulation, the app spawns a fire randomly in the user's scanned environment. The fire will slowly spread throughout the environment, creating smoke and alerting the smoke detector. The user must do their best to reach an exit while avoiding the growing fire and smoke.

How we built it

We used the Meta Quest 3 and the Meta Presence Platform for its mixed reality capabilities to build our app. The app was made using Unity, Bezi, and Figma.

Challenges we ran into

For the UI and smoke effect, we wanted to add post-processing effects to create a cleaner and more immersive experience, but struggled to integrate it onto the Meta Quest 3. We also struggled to make the fire spreading as realistic as possible. One factor was due to the particle system, with too much fire causing the app to lag or crash. Initially, we also wanted the fire to spread based on the surrounding objects and materials (i.e. the fire would spread faster on wood than metal objects), but, after learning more about Meta Presence, had to narrow our scope.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have made a functional demo for the fire simulation, with fire progressively spreading throughout the user’s real environment and the user being able to interact with the fire, smoke, and exits.

What we learned

We learned how to use the Meta Presence platform by incorporating the several building blocks the platform has to offer. Additionally, we learned about practices used in other applications for realistic fire spreading.

What's next for Fire Drill XR

Fire Drill XR’s trajectory extends beyond homes into commercial and educational sectors. With plans for expansion, the app is set to become an integral tool in workplaces and schools, providing tailored safety solutions. Featuring advanced learning modules, realistic simulations, smart home integrations, and community collaboration, Fire Drill XR is poised to revolutionize safety training. As it broadens its scope to cover severe weather drills and lockdown scenarios, the app reinforces its commitment to ensuring preparedness in every aspect of safety, making it an indispensable asset for a wide range of users.