Dlouhy Demos iPad-Controlled Patient Compartment at RETTmobil 2013
German ambulance maker Dlouhy brought the patient compartment of a Dlouhy ambulance into the future at RETTmobil 2013, with a demonstration of an iPad/smartphone-based control system.
The prototype system provides wireless and Web-based control of the patient compartment’s lighting, climate controls and communications, plus it enables two-way exchanges of patient data from the vehicle to remote sites.
Functionally, the demo system shown at RETTmobil 2013 ran off an iPad tablet located in the patient compartment of the ambulance. A video of the demo can be seen at https://vimeo.com/68321134. The iPad interface features large iconic buttons that controls the cabin’s functions.
According to Dlouhy spokesperson Brigit Graf, the prototype system can deal with “the complete auxiliary functions that we are installing inside the ambulance.” These functions include the ambulance’s signaling system (visual and acoustic), internal and external lighting, heated box, AC and also control functions of the vehicle, which are supported on the Dlouhy CAN-Bus ambulance network architecture. Web access for record and other two-way data transfers are mad possible by installing a wireless telephony-capable mobile Web stick.
The current version is fixed to the Dlouhy ambulance; however, its system can be controlled via the vehicle’s mobile Web stick from any Internet-enabled device.
As for the system’s official title? “We do not have a particular name at the moment!” Graf replied. “It was a demo, showing how to control the CAN-Bus system inside the ambulance from a remote.” The good news: The prototype Dlouhy system is not iPad-exclusive. “Any tablet with Internet (wireless) access or a computer with an Internet browser can do the same,” she says.
At this time, the Dlouhy iPiad-based control system is only a demo, with no announced plans to bring it to market. However, the technology shown at RETTmobil 2013 demonstrates what is possible with today’s wireless equipment in EMS applications, and how ambulance control could be brought into the 21st century.
Other makers of advanced operation platforms are thinking along the same lines; Ferno, for example, will be expanding its Acetech vehicle monitoring and control system to bring vehicle informatics displays to users’ mobile devices.
