Investigation of Information Requirements for Smartwatch-Based Evacuation Support System.

Mobile computers are becoming rapidly miniaturized and widespread in the form of smartwatches. During a disaster, people are expected to wear and use smartwatches to evacuate from their current locations to a safe place. However, the small size of the screen of a smartwatch is a problem when used to guide an evacuation. The end goal of this study is to develop a smartwatch-based evacuation guidance system, and this paper describes the potential of smartwatches for guiding an evacuation using limited information provided on a small screen. In other words, we investigated what type of information on the smartwatch can be used to realize a safe and effective evacuation. As the minimum necessary information, we focused only on the directions from the current location to the evacuation site and any danger zones. In this paper, we present the results of an experiment conducted to verify the evacuation behaviors of the participants using our prototype system. The results show that the proposed system can guide the participants to the evacuation site. In addition, we show that while the two pieces of information presented are the necessary minimum, additional information regarding danger zones is also required.