First respondersU.S. firefighters and police turn to an Israeli app to save lives
When Hurricane Irma hit the Florida Keys in September 2017, the new First Response app from Israeli-American company Edgybees helped first-responders identify distress calls in flooded areas. When wildfires hit Northern California a month later, the app steered firefighters away from danger. This lifesaving augmented-reality app — designed only months before as an AR racing game for drone enthusiasts — is now used by more than a dozen fire and police departments in the United States, as well as the United Hatzalah emergency response network in Israel.
When Hurricane Irma hit the Florida Keys in September 2017, the new First Response app from Israeli-American company Edgybees helped first-responders identify distress calls in flooded areas. When wildfires hit Northern California a month later, the app steered firefighters away from danger.
This lifesaving augmented-reality app — designed only months before as an AR racing game for drone enthusiasts — is now used by more than a dozen fire and police departments in the United States, as well as the United Hatzalah emergency response network in Israel.
The app orients rescuers in confusing environments and helps them track rapidly evolving circumstances. Patent-pending algorithms collect real-time data from fast-moving cameras mounted on drones, cars or body-worn accessories, enabling three-dimensional elements such as street maps, power lines, infrastructure and distress signals to be layered over live video.
So how did a fun game turn into a serious rescue aid?
It all started in 2016, when Israeli dad Adam Scott Kaplan – a former executive of successful technology companies Xennex, Athoc, Digital Guardian and Tonian – caught the drone bug from his friend Menashe Haskin, who managed the Israeli development office of Amazon Prime Air and holds some 35 US patents in aerospace, video and vision processing, data processing and communication.
“I bought myself a DJI drone and began filming my daughter sea surfing,” Kaplan tells ISRAEL21c. “I quickly got bored, and — crazy entrepreneur that I am — I started flying between trees and rocks to compete with myself. But when a drone hits a tree, the tree wins. Menashe and I discussed it and decided to develop a game. DJI loved the concept and released it last May.”
As the first AR game for DJI drone users, Drone Prix AR was a smash hit especially with new drone pilots wanting to master their skills in a fun, safe and immersive way.
Edgybees, the company formed behind the game, is led by Kaplan (CEO), Haskin (CTO) and robotics and drone expert Nitay Megides (director of platform).
