The Department of Homeland security awarded Qwake Technologies a $1.4 million contract to accelerate the commercialization of the C-THRU Visual Communication platform, an augmented reality helmet targeted at firefighters which uses computer vision and augmented reality (AR) to boost situational awareness when lives are on the line.

Firefighter guided by AR HMD from Quake Technologies.
Qwake was co-founded in 2015 by Sam Cossman (CEO), John Long (CTO), Mike Ralston (COO), and Omer Haciomeroglu (Head of Design), who have a background in scientific exploration, neuroscience, firefighting, and product design respectively.
“Over the last 30 years, firefighting technology has been incrementally improving, but now we have a real paradigm shift in how information is collected, shared and acted on – promising dramatic improvements in safety and efficiency,” noted Cossman. By creating a better tool for firefighters, resources can be used much more efficiently to put fires out thereby protecting more