International Journal of Informatics Society, VOL.12, NO.1 (2020) 17-27

17Industrial Paper

Proposal on Victims Information Management System
Kosuke Akasaka *, Takayo Namba **, Masao Isshiki*, and Keiichi Abe **Kanagawa Institute of Technology, Atsugi City, Kanagawa, Japan**Tokyo Metropolitan University, Hachioji City, Tokyo, Japan
abe@he.kanagawa-it.ac.jp
Abstract - In this paper, we propose a victims information
management system that collects and transmits information
on disaster victims and relief needs in evacuation refuges
even when the lifelines such as communication and electricity
are disrupted, assuming a large-scale disaster occurrence at
the Tohoku Earthquake level. In addition, we propose themanagement of the health status of the victims living in the
refuges, and also the function that can centrally manage therefuges around the country. Since the system scale of thedisaster victim information management system proposed by
us is large, this paper describes the realization of a system tomanage the information and health condition of victims in
refuges. Also, we will describe in detail the prototype
development and evaluation of the proposed system.
Keywords: Disaster, Refuge Management System, Victims,
Persons requiring special care, ICT, Solar Panel1

INTRODUCTION

At the time of past large-scale disasters such as the
Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, and the Tohoku
Earthquake in 2011, it took a considerable amount of time tocollect information on the victims [1]. In particular, refuge
administrators couldn't capture relief needs such as thepresence of refugees who need special care and their allergy
information. Also, due to the disruption of the infrastructure
at the time of disaster occurrence, managers were unable to
make the most of the Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) and its power, and they could not collectand transmit information on the victims promptly [1] [2].
In addition, past measures put more emphasis on disasterprevention (such as collapse of buildings) rather than
preparation for disasters (such as securing disaster supplies).
Therefore, the quality of life (QoL) of the victims has notbeen sufficiently considered in the long-term refuge life after
the occurrence of a disaster. In fact, in the Tohoku Earthquake,there were many victims who could not cope with the refuge
environment and suffered from health problems [3] [4].
Therefore, we developed the Refuge Management System(RMS) that consistently manages the health condition of
victims by collecting information on disaster victims andcreating an evacuation list using ICT even at the time of the
disruption of lifelines such as communication and electricity[5] [6]. The final goal of this study is to develop a system that
installs RMS in refuges all over the country, and uses cloudservers to centrally manage the disaster situation and relief
needs in each refuge area. We call this system the “Victims
Information Management System (VIMS)” and aredeveloping it. Since the development scale of the VIMS islarge, in this paper, we describe the contents of the researchand development project and the realization of the system tomanage personal information and health condition of thevictims in the refuge currently under development.

2

RELATED RESERARCH

After the Tohoku Earthquake, research on victims’ support
systems using ICT is underway by many researchers,companies and universities in various places [7].
Similar representative existing technologies include"Earthquake disaster recovery support system" provided byMicrosoft [8] and “information center victim support system"
provided for free by Nishinomiya city [9]. These systems
collect information such as the number of victims, theproportion of men and women, safety information, etc. On theother hand, these systems are not designed to pick up andmanage the needs information of persons requiring special
care (patients with allergic diseases or intractable diseases,
disabled people, elderly people who need nursing care,pregnant women, etc.) within the refuge. In addition, thesesystems have the problem that they cannot detect and manage
victims who have become ill due to a long-term refuge life.
Therefore, the problems of the various disaster victim
supporting systems are as follows.
① The existing disaster victim support systems cannot
operate when there is a power and communication
infrastructure disruption immediately after the disasteroccurs.
② The existing systems cannot adequately collect theneeds of persons requiring special care.
③ It is difficult to manage the presence of victims among
multiple refuges.
④ The QoL of the victims declines in refuge life.
⑤ It is impossible to centrally monitor damage situationof each refuge and relief needs in real time immediately
after the disaster.
The VIMS proposed in this paper aims to solve problems① to ④.

3

VICTIMS INFORMATIONMANAGEMENT SYSTEM (VIMS)

In refuge support, the measures to be taken in refugeschange with the passage of time from the occurrence of thedisaster. For example, even if the power and communication
infrastructure are cut off immediately, it is necessary to

ISSN1883-4566 © 2020 - Informatics Society and the authors. All rights reserved.

18

K. Akasaka et al. / Proposal on Victims Information Management Systemquickly grasp the situation of the victims in the refuges andinform external organizations of the situation after theoccurrence of a disaster. On the other hand, there are many
victims who are forced to live in refuges even after the
restoration of infrastructure is completed and a long time has
passed since the disaster occurred. For such victims, refuge
managers need to manage their health status and prevent
infections, economy class syndrome and so on. Furthermore,
it is also necessary to grasp the damage situation regarding
the collapse of the houses owned by the victims with thepassage of time.
Therefore, in this research, as shown in Fig. 1, research anddevelopment are being carried out in the following fourphases aiming for the realization of the final goal, VIMS. We
assume that Phase 1 of VIMS will collect victim information,
send it to Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters, andmanage it in shelters immediately after a disaster occurs. We
suppose in Phase 2, there are determined the transported
destination and refuge spaces of the victims appropriatelyfrom the disaster situation and medical condition of them. We
assume that in Phase 3 we will manage the health status ofvictims in long-term refuge life in real time. In Phase 4, we
will devise a system that is able to monitor centrally thedisaster situation and relief needs in a large area refuge. The
main feature of VIMS is the support and management ofvictims in single system, from the immediately after a disasteroccurs to the long-term shelter life. This feature is not foundin the existing technology, so it can be said to be a greatstrength of this research.
Specifically, we will develop the Refuge Management
System (RMS) corresponding to Phase 1 to Phase 2 shown in
Fig. 2 and aim to install the proposed RMS at evacuation sites
all over the country. The final goal is to realize a system thatvisualizes the disaster situation of refuges nationwide and therelief needs information of the victims by listing the victim
information collected by the RMS as a cloud server by
wireless communication etc. and mapping it with map
information. In this paper, we describe the research results of
Phase 1 and Phase 2 of this research project and the overall
concept of the information management system of the victims
in the refuge.

Figure 1:

Outline diagram of VIMS

Figure 2:

4

Phased timeline

REFUGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM(RMS) DEVELOPMENT
CORRESPONDING TO PHASE 1

Chapter 4 describes the design concept and systemdevelopment for the RMS corresponding to Phase 1 of the
VIMS research and development.

4.1

Concept of RMS for phase 1

We designed RMS with the following concept.
I.

The system user
The administrator of the RMS is preferably a civil
servant etc. Because, the administrator deals withvictim information.
II. Collection and management of victim information
We assume that the installation site of the RMS has
a capacity of about 1000 individuals per refuge, suchas schools and community centers.
III. Power supply of RMS
Lead battery units charged with electric current
generated by solar panels are used as the power sourceof the RMS. this makes the RMS available even when
the infrastructure is not working.
IV. Data collection content
The contents of data to be collected shall be thename, address, gender, age, nationality, emergency
contact information, damage situation, and stockpile
status of evacuation supplies, items requiring longterm care (pregnancy, chronic illness, and allergy).
These items of information concerning the necessary
nursing care were added to the questionnaire because
they were actually used at the refuges of the Tohoku
Earthquake. Additional items to be entered include aUser Identifier (UID) to identify the victim and aquestionnaire to confirm the health condition. These
information is input by victims themselves or staff
members who support refugees.

International Journal of Informatics Society, VOL.12, NO.1 (2020) 17-27

V.

Identification for victims
As a method to identify each victim, we use the
UID of NFC (Near Field Communication) or RF-ID
information with a full-color LED light-emitting
wristband distributed in the refuge. By using thesedata to manage entry and exit in the refuge, we cangrasp the situation of the victim's presence in the
refuge and track transfer of other victims to otherrefuges.
VI. How to send victim information
We consider two patterns of transmission methods
for victim information when the communication
infrastructure is not working. The first method is toconnect a wireless unit (simple type radio, amateur
radio) to the RMS. By this method, we can send
information to the national disaster response
headquarters using character data in JSON format or
CSV format through any communication protocol.
Another way is to save it in a USB flash memory andtake it out. After the infrastructure is restored, thesystem can acquire the victim information through theInternet.

Figure 3:

RMS corresponding to Phase 1

Figure 4:

RMS prototype

19

VII. Communication method between RMS andvarious information terminals
When inputting victim information, Wi-Fi is used for thecommunication between the information terminal such asa smartphone and the RMS. If the number of connections
with information terminals is insufficient, we can increase
the number of repeater devices.

4.2

Refuge Management System (RMS)

In R & D for Phase 1, we prepared an outline design of the
refuge management system. The outline is shown in Fig. 3. A
commercially available microcomputer board Raspberry Pi
Model B (RPI) was used for RMS hardware. We installed anembedded Linux OS (Raspbian) on this hardware anddesigned a system that can launch Graphical User Interface(GUI) applications. The reason for adopting embedded Linuxon hardware is to save power of the RMS itself. The power
consumption of an ordinary notebook PC is about 40 ~ 50
[W], which can be reduced to about 1/10 by using RPI. In
addition, with regard to the information input of evacuees
described in Design Concept Ⅳ, it is necessary to allow for
the input of refugee’s information from a web browser on asmartphone or mobile phone owned by the victims. Therefore,
we constructed a web server using apache2 and developed a
PHP application for a disaster victim information input screen.
As shown in Fig. 3, the refugee’s information registration
application was developed using a server-side application that
does not depend on the client environment so that victim's
information can be input from the WWW browser installedon the client side.
Victims are requested to input personal information suchas the name, address, gender, and age using the input screen
shown in Fig. 4. In addition, we have added selective buttons
asking whether or not the respondent is a pregnant woman, aperson with a disability, or requires nursing care, etc., as well
as check boxes to input food allergy determined by law [13].
(Wheat, egg, milk, buckwheat, shrimp, crab, peanut, etc.) In
consideration of a more detailed description and answer
which doesn't correspond to any items, we have also provided
a text box for free description. By summarizing suchinformation, it is possible to create a victims roster including
the relief needs within the RMS. Based on the above, we willrealize a system that picks up the relief needs of the affected
people, including those with special needs, and will
eventually solve Problem ② in Chapter 2.
By the way, the system of Phase 1 assumes operation at an
actual refuge. Therefore, the system must be able to operate
even when the power infrastructure is not working. Therefore,
we will develop a battery unit with a solar panel and a leadstorage battery as the power supply of the RMS, and use two
or more such battery units to operate the system. The
operation method is described in the next section.
In addition, we developed a method for managing theevacuation using the RMS in preparation for the case where
victims irregularly enter or exit from the refuge. We
conceived the idea of using NFC cards which the victims
usually carry with them. Typical examples of the NFC cards
include Edy and Suica etc., and the total number of NFC cards
issued in Japan was 33.346 million as of January 2017 [11].

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K. Akasaka et al. / Proposal on Victims Information Management System

From such background, we thought that we could use an NFC
card effectively as a victim's personal identification. Enteringand exiting of refuges for victims is done by holding the NFC
card over the NFC card reader. By associating the UID of
NFC with the already registered victim information in the
RMS, it is possible to quickly manage the entry and exit ofeach victim.
The refugee’s roster created by the RMS is organized as anelectronic file, and can be saved in a CSV format and a JSON
format on an electronic medium such as a USB flash memory.
As a result, the data list of evacuees can be taken out toexternal facilities such as the disaster response headquarters.
In addition, amateur radios and simplified radios which areavailable for the communication even during a large-scaledisaster can be connected to the RMS with a serial cable tosend a relief request to the disaster response headquarters.

4.3

RMS Prototype to Phase 1

Figure 5 shows an outline of the proposed RMS prototype
system. The RMS consists of an RMS server, a battery unit,
an NFC reader panel, and a wireless communication device.
The main power of the RMS server is supplied from thebattery unit. By connecting this unit to a solar panel, thegenerated electricity can be stored in the lead battery. The
lead battery unit is made of an attachment case containing alead storage battery and a thin solar panel, making it easy tocarry. The battery unit requires a minimum charging time of
5 hours under fine weather condition. In order to operate theRMS power supply in the long term, we developed two leadbattery units which should be used alternately.

Table 1: Criteria and classification of triage
for persons requiring special care [12] [13]color
classification
1(Orange)①③

RMS prototype②④

Figure 6:

Replacement method of the battery unit

Person who
needs urgent
treatment

2(Pink)

Person who
needs fullassistance indaily life3
( Purple)

Person who
needs someassistance indaily life

4
(Blue)

People who
can act
without
problems

Decision Criteria
Injuries with bleeding
Fever, Diarrhea,
Nausea, Vomiting,Dialysis patient ，Oxygen suction patient
Person who can't eat,walk or excrete
independently
Bedridden person
Pregnant women
Infants under 3 yearsof ageHalf paralyzed person
People withintellectual disabilities
Wheelchair user
Person who can walk
independently

Area

Hospital

WelfarecenterSmall room(classroometc.)

Large room

Figure 6 shows the procedure for replacing the RMS leadstorage battery. The system user confirms that the voltage ofthe battery unit in use has fallen by looking at the indicator
lamp of the battery (Fig. 6 ①). The user then connects the
charged battery and performs manual circuit breakerreplacement. This makes it possible to replace the battery
without shutting down the server power (② and ③) . At thesame time, the user charges the low voltage battery using thesolar panel (④). By alternately performing these operations,
we enabled the RMS to operate for a long time. We actuallyoperated the system using this method for a week. As a result,
there was no problem with the RMS MCU. Also, we
confirmed that the operating time can be extended without
shutting down the system power.
This will allow the RMS to operate even when the powerand communication infrastructure are disrupted, and webelieve that we can solve Problem ① in Chapter 2.

5

Figure 5:Class

RMS DEVELOPMENT
CORRESPONDING TO PHASE 2

Chapter 5 describes the contents corresponding to Phase 2of the VIMS research and development. Specifically, wedeveloped a system to perform color coding according to thephysical and mental condition of the affected people,
including persons requiring special care. In addition, we will
explain the method to guide victims to appropriate living
spaces in the refuge based on judgment from their physicalconditions.

5.1 Triage for Persons Requiring Special Care
As prior research corresponding to phase 2 of this paper, M.
Ohara. et al. proposed "Triage for persons requiring special
care" [12] [13]. Table 1 shows the criteria of triage for
persons requiring special care proposed by M. Ohara. The
table provides decision criteria for the leader of the residents
to decide the room allotment for persons requiring special
care when entering the evacuation refuge and the priority ofInternational Journal of Informatics Society, VOL.12, NO.1 (2020) 17-27

21transfer to the welfare evacuation refuge. It is different fromthe Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment method. The
proposed triage method uses four colors: orange, pink, purple
and blue. Because of this, the colors do not mix, so the two
triage methods can be used simultaneously.

5.2 Problem of the proposed triage andsolution
This time, we considered an RMS that incorporated the"triage method for persons requiring special care " proposedby M. Ohara et al. In small-scale refuges, medical staff may
not be present. Even under such circumstances, we consider
it is necessary to use the proposed triage to makeclassification decisions according to the condition of theaffected person smoothly. So, we have devised a system thatwill determine color classification automatically to someextent even without medical staff, by having the victims
respond directly to an electronic questionnaire.
Considering persons requiring special care to change theircondition, our proposed electronic questionnaire form (equestionnaire) is a system that can respond anytime during
the life of a refuge after a large-scale disaster. This makes it
possible to constantly monitor and check the health status of
the victims.
A full-color LED light-emitting wristband is used as amethod for identifying the condition of the victim. As a result,
the target person in victims can be instantly identified by thecolor of the LED light, so refuge staffs can quickly navigate
them to the appropriate refuge space. However, if the subject
is color-coded by triage, the surrounding eyes may beworrisome, which may lead to mental and psychologicalstress. For this reason, we have developed a system thatallows victims to identify triage colors by emitting light only
when necessary using a full-color LED light-emitting
wristbands distributed by the refuge staffs.

5.3
Positioning of Related Research and
Our Proposal Methods Concerning Triage
By the way, various companies and universities are
currently studying electronic triage devices for use inemergency medical environments during disasters [14] [15].
A typical example is the “Electronic Triage Tag” developed
by T. Higashino et al [16] [17]. This is a system in which asensor device with a small CPU is installed in a device thatmeasures the pulse, respiratory rate, blood oxygen
concentration (SpO2), etc. of injury persons. This enabled
START (Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment Triage) method
assessment to be performed on the device. In addition, it is asystem that can monitor the position and medical condition of
the victim in real time by transferring their data to the server
via the ad hoc network.
Compared to these studies, our proposed system has many
similarities in terms of managing the health of victims using
triage. However, the proposed system has a different use fromthe traditional electronic triage system. This is based on the“triage method for persons requiring special care” proposedby M. Ohara, and is intended for all victims living in refuges
for a long time after the disaster.

Figure 7: Victims Management Triage
Therefore, in the phase-2 system of this proposal, we havedevised a system of additional functions combining the "triage method for persons requiring special care " proposedby M. Ohara with the RMS of phase 1 and a full-color LED
light-emitting wristbands described above.

5.4

Victims Management Triage（VMT）

The method proposed by M. Ohara is a two-stepclassification method including the "primary triage" to judge
by appearance, followed by the "secondary triage" based on
the decision of medical staff [13]. On the other hand, thetriage we propose is a three-stage system, which we call theVictims Management Triage (VMT). Figure 7 shows the
VMT system. Section 5.3 describes how to use the VMT.
Figure 7 shows the management method in the refuge using
the VMT. This system should be used at least three times toperform three types of triages which we call “First Triage”,“Second Triage”, and “Third Triage”. "First Triage" is an
initial classification by refuge administrators and staff.
"Second triage" is done by the evacuees themselves byentering the questionnaire. After that, the method of making
a judgment based on medical examination by a doctor etc. iscalled "Third Triage". We describe the method of each triage
below.
In the first triage, the refuge manager and staff will
determine the triage classification from the appearance for all
victims entering. At this time, the staff will distribute a fullcolor LED light-emitting wristbands (VMT wristbands) to all
victims. The reason for judging the status of evacuees only byappearance in the first triage, is to prevent congestion at theentrance and reception of the refuge.
After several hours from the start-up and looking at the people
inside the refuge, the second triage is performed at anarbitrary timing. In the second triage, victims can enter
mental and physical information by selecting the item of thee-questionnaire table from the RMS registration application
shown in Fig. 8. Concretely, they register their personal
information (name, address, disaster situation etc.) in the
RMS, and at the same time, make an inquiry by self-reportwhich inputs the health condition such as the presence orabsence of injury or disease.
The third triage is to re-determine the classification from theinformation obtained by the second triage and from the22

K. Akasaka et al. / Proposal on Victims Information Management System

consultation of victims by a patrol doctor and medical staff.
Because the conditions of all victims change with the longterm life in the refuge, the e-questionnaire table can always
be changed by the victims themselves, and the color of thetriage can be instantly updated according to the condition of
the person requiring consideration or the judgment of thetraveling doctor.
At this time, the refuge administer can easily find theperson who corresponded to the 4 triage colors by turning on
the switch of their VMT wristbands. As a result, the staff will
be able to quickly guide the victims to the appropriate
evacuation space. On the other hand, when the transport
destination such as a hospital or a welfare facility is not ready,the victim turns off the light of the VMT wristbands andstands by at a waiting place or the like until the preparation iscompleted.

Table 2: Classification colors
for VMT and handling method
Medical Questionnaire MQ1: Two or more items selected from fever, headache,abdominal pain (diarrhea), and nausea.
 MQ1: A total of four or more items selected MQ4: “Treatment required within 3 days” selected1(orange) MQ2: “Inoperable without assistance” selected for two or
more items

2(pink)

 MQ1: 1~3 items selected from the 7 items
 MQ2: “Some actions require assistances” selected for
two or more items (Accepting up to one caregiver) MQ3: Pregnant woman (9 months ~) or a family with an
infant MQ4: “No treatment required within 3 days” selected The person who should move to a private room
according to judgment by the administrator based on thecontents of the description column

3(purple) MQ3: Pregnant woman (~8 months)
 Person who can stay in a large room according todecision by the administrator or medical staff based on
the content of description

4 (blue)

5.5

Figure 8:

Screen of Medical questionnaire

Figure 9:

RMS for Phase 2

Class(Color)e-questionnaire table from the RMS

Figure 8 shows the registration screen of the electronicquestionnaire. By answering this electronic questionnaire, theRMS automatically performs the VMT. Table 2 shows triage
classification criteria for the answers of the electronicquestionnaire.
As a specific criterion for the triage from e-medical
questionnaire, the e-medical questionnaire form has fourquestion items: "MQ 1: health information", "MQ 2: presence/ absence of assistance in daily behavior", "MQ 3: prepartum/ postpartum women", and "MQ 4: existing medical treatment(such as a chronic illness) ". We will explain each check itemin detail. In MQ 1, the respondent is asked to select any
symptom that applies to him/her from the seven items of fever,headache, abdominal pain (diarrhea), nausea, dizziness,cough (sputum), and runny nose. MQ 2 is a question about
whether the respondent requires assistance in any of the three
items of walking, meals, and excretion. The answer isselected from three options: "no problem", "some actions
require assistances", and "inoperable without assistance".
MQ 3 is an item that asks whether or not the respondent ispregnant or has any infant, and if applicable, whether the
pregnancy period has exceeded nine months. MQ 4 is an itemthat asks whether a medical treatment such as dialysis andmedication is necessary, and whether the treatment isnecessary within 3 days. Also, in consideration of detailed
descriptions and answers that do not correspond to any items,
a text box for free description is provided. The RMS
automatically determines the color of the division into thetriage based on the criteria of Table 2 from the answer resultof this e-examination table.
It is thought that this will solve Problem ④ " The QoL of thevictims declines in refuge life " mentioned in Chapter 2.

International Journal of Informatics Society, VOL.12, NO.1 (2020) 17-27

5.6 RMS and triage wristbands Prototype
System of VMT
An outline of the VMT prototype proposed in this paper isshown in Fig.9. The VMT is a system that adds the proposed
VMT operation functions and the LED wristband to the RMS
of Phase 1. The information input screen of a person requiringconsideration and the questionnaire for confirming the healthcondition can be accessed from a WWW browser installed on
an information terminal such as a smartphone. In addition, theadministrator distributes VMT wristbands to all evacuees. In
order to identify persons who are color-coded, we devised
VMT wristbands so that it indicates the color code of each
person by LED emission and helps to smoothly guide theperson to an appropriate refuge spaces. We adopted
IEEE802.15.4 standard wireless communication forcommunication between LED wristband and RMS. The
reason for adopting this standard is that it can be connected
to more than 40,000 nodes theoretically in addition to lower
power consumption than the Wi-Fi standard.
Figure 10 shows an overview of the LED wristband systemdeveloped this time. We used a commercially available
microcomputer AT mega328P for the wristband MicroControl Unit (MCU). Also, the development of the AT
mega328P microcontroller was done in Arduino-like C
language. We also used IEEE802.15.4 standard XBee for thewireless communication module of this system. We
communicated by defining the Xbee on the RMS side as thecoordinator and the Xbee on the full color LED wristband
side as the device.
Figure 11 shows the communication procedure between
the RMS and VMT wristbands. We designed the RMS totransmit a request command to VMT wristbands so that theemission color of the LED can be changed as needed. We
defined the command length of this system as 10-bytecharacter data. The 10-byte character data includes 7 bytes as
the device number, 1 byte as the color code, and theremaining 2 bytes as the delimiter (combination of CR and
LF). The device number is the unique ID of VMT wristbands
and is treated as hexadecimal characters. The color code is O,
P, M, or B in order from class 1 to class 4 for VMT in Table
2, and the system lights the LED in the color corresponding
to the input code.
Figure 12 shows a wireless communication system
between the RMS main unit and a VMT wristband. Wirelesscommunication between devices is performed by the RMS
main unit acting as the coordinator and a VMT wristband
acting as the end device. Also, if data on a VMT wristband isdifficult to reach, the refuge manager can use a router device
for relaying. This enables the system to communicate withall victims.

623

introducing the outline of this research and the demonstrationof the prototype. Chapter 6 describes the contents and resultsof the questionnaire evaluation regarding them.

6.1
Questionnaire Evaluation on Phase 1
Prototype
Questions in the Phase 1 prototype (RMS) correspond toquestions Q1.1 to Q1.3 shown in Table 3. The questionnairetarget was 38 individuals who visited the RMS exhibits. In
this questionnaire, Question 1.1 (Q1.1) and Question 1.2(Q1.2) are four choices. Also, we asked the respondents todescribe and answer Question 1.3 (Q1.3) arbitrarily. For the
results for Q1.1 and Q1.2, the number of answers to thequestion is treated as a score, and the result of them is shown
as a column graph with each average score (the full score is
4.00 points) in Fig. 13.

Figure 10:

Figure 11:

A full-color LED light-emitting
wristband system

Communication procedure between
RMS and VMT wristbands

QUESTIONNAIRE EVALUATION OF
VIMS

At Kanagawa Institute of Technology Academy Festival
and open campus, we conducted a questionnaire evaluationof the prototype system for the RMS which is the solution
method of Phase 1, and the VMT which is the solution
method of Phase 2. We conducted this questionnaire after

Figure 12:

Wireless communication system between

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K. Akasaka et al. / Proposal on Victims Information Management System

Table 3:

Questionnaire questions on VIMS prototypes
Contents

Q1.1

Did you understand the outline of RMS?
4：Good3：Neither
2：Poor
1：Very poor

Q1.2

Do you feel like using this system when a large-scale disasteroccurs?
4：Good3：Neither
2：Poor
1：Very poor

Q1.3

Please tell us about opinions and requests about RMS.
(descriptive expression)

Q2.1

Was it easy to input evacuation information and fill in emedical questionnaire form on the RMS?
5：Very good
4：Good3：Neither
2：Poor
1：Very poor

Q2.2

Do you think that VMT is necessary after listening to the
explanation of the electronic triage for persons requiring
special care?
5：Very good
4：Good3：Neither
2：Poor
1：Very poor

Q2.3

Do you think the quantity of items in the VMT evacuation
information and e-medical questionnaire form isappropriate?

Too much
Much
AppropriateLess
Too less

Q2.4

What other kinds of people do you think need consideration
other than the consideration items listed in "Decision
Criteria" in Table 1 (of this paper)?

In Q1.1 "Do you understand the outline of RMS?” 29
answered “Very good” and 8 answered “Good”. It was foundthat 97% of the visitors understood the system. Also, theaverage score for this question was 3.74 points.
In addition, for Q1.2, “Do you feel like using this system
when a large-scale disaster occurs?”, 21 visitors responded“Very good”, and 9 responded “Good”. On the other hand, it
was thought that about 20% of the visitors could not decide
to use this system because there were 7 non-responders. The
average score for Q1.2 was also 3.64 points, and it was foundthat more people felt dissatisfaction than Q1.1. We asked thereason for one visitor who answered "Poor" in this question.
As a result, he said “Because RMS and battery unit are a bit
heavy.”
Furthermore, the following answers were obtained in
response to the question Q1.3 “Please let me know if you haveany feelings, opinions or requests about the refugee
management system”.

Pet information should also be included in theRMS.
It is better to reflect facial pictures on the RMS.
The system should also be available at a time otherthan when a disaster occurs.

6.2
Questionnaire Evaluation on Phase 2
Prototype
Questions in the Phase 2 prototype (VMT) correspond toquestions Q2.1 to Q2.4 shown in Table 3. The questionnairetarget was 20 individuals who visited the RMS exhibits. The
answering method was to distribute the questionnaires asking
questions Q2.1 to Q2.4 and to have the visitors fill in thequestionnaire after the demonstration, as in the method
described in the previous section. Questions 2.1 (Q2.1) to 2.3(Q2.3) are five choices. Also, we asked the respondents todescribe and answer Question 2.4 (Q2.4) arbitrarily. For the
results, the number of answers to the question is treated as ascore, and the result of them is shown as a column graph witheach average score (the full score is 5.00 points) in Fig.
14(Q2.1&Q2.2) and shown as a pie chart Fig. 15(Q2.3).
As for the medical questionnaire about Q2.1, 10 visitors
responded “Very good”, 6 visitors responded “Good”, 2
visitors responded “Neither”, and 2 visitors responded “Poor”
about Q2.1 "Was it easy to input evacuation information andfill in e-medical questionnaire form on the RMS?". Also, theaverage score for Q2.1 was 4.20 points.
Next, about Q2.2 "Do you think that VMT is necessary
after listening to the explanation of the electronic triage for
persons requiring special care?”, 14 visitors responded “Verygood”, 6 visitors responded “Good”. There was no one who
answered "Neither", "Poor" and "Very poor". Also, theaverage score for Q2.2 was 4.70 points.
On the other hand, about 50% of the respondents answered“appropriate” to Q2.3 "Do you think the quantity of items of
the VMT evacuation information and e-medical questionnaire
form is appropriate?” The remaining 50% answered "toomuch" or "much".
As for Q2.4 “What other kinds of people do you think needconsideration other than the consideration items listed in"Decision Criteria" in Table 1 (of this paper, section 5.1)”,
there was an opinion that “children unattended by theirparents also need consideration”.

Figure 13:

Results of Questionnaire (Q1.1 & Q1.2)

International Journal of Informatics Society, VOL.12, NO.1 (2020) 17-27

25

As a result of conducting the questionnaire about the
prototype system of Phase 1 and Phase 2, it is thought thatmany people highly appreciated the significance of the
proposed VIMS system. Also, the average score was high inboth Phase 1 and Phase 2. Above all, in the questionnaire on
VMT in Phase 2, it was found that 100% of people understoodthe necessity of this research.
On the other hand, as there were also suggestions regarding
this system, we also felt that it is necessary to study andimprove it in the future.

7

Figure 14:

Results of Questionnaire (Q2.1 & Q2.2)

Figure 15:

Figure 16:

6.3

Results of Questionnaire (Q2.3)

Attendance management method of victims
in refuges nationwide

Conclusion of Questionnaire Evaluation

CONCLUSION

This paper described the realization of the Victims
Information Management System (VIMS), which centrally
manages the disaster situation and the relief needs (including
the need for relief for persons requiring special care) in refuge
areas around the country. Since this VIMS is a large-scale
system, we are conducting research in four phases, andpromoting development toward the final goal of realizing the
VIMS. Therefore, in this paper, we described in detail Phases
1 and 2 completed as prototype development.
In Chapter 4, we proposed an RMS corresponding to Phase
1 (“The existing disaster victim support systems cannot
operate when there is a power and communication
infrastructure disruption immediately after the disasteroccurs”), and a method for collecting and sending the relief
needs in conjunction with a solar charging unit. We also
proposed a system to manage entry and exit in refuges using
UID management owned by the victims.
We proposed VMT for Phase 2 (“The existing systems
cannot adequately collect the needs for persons requiring
special care”) in Chapter 5. Specifically, we have proposed asystem that mechanically determines the health status ofvictims from electronic questionnaires, and selects and guides
the victims to evacuation spaces according to the patients'
status.
In addition, a questionnaire survey on the prototype
development of Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the VIMS researchand development confirmed the effectiveness of this
proposed system because many people answered that this
proposed system is necessary.
Therefore, it is thought that Problems ① to ④ of theexisting victim support systems mentioned in Chapter 2 canbe solved by the contents of Phase 1 and Phase 2. The solution
to Problem ③ was not described in detail in this paper, but asshown in Fig. 16, we consider that this can be solved byinstalling the proposed RMS at refuges around the country as
well as connecting the RMS via a network and centrally
managing it with a cloud server. By using the UID of thevictims and the evacuation entry and exit management
information, system administrators can track victims andcheck their presence.
In the future, we plan to study a system to acquire biologicalinformation of the victims in the refuge corresponding toPhase 3 and manage their health. In addition, we aredeveloping an application that visualizes disaster informationand disaster relief needs in a unified manner by mapping on
a map the disaster victim information obtained from the RMS
in various locations corresponding to Phase 4.

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(Received November 22, 2019)(Revised February 5, 2020)
Kosuke Akasaka received the B. E.
degree from Kanagawa Institute ofTechnology in 2018. He is currently
engaged in research on ICT disastersupport management systems at
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Graduate Schoolof Engineering, Kanagawa Instituteof Technology.
Takayo Namba received Ph.D.
from Nagano College of Nursing in2009. She was a professor of thefaculty of nursing, Kanagawa Institute of Technology from Apr.2017 toMar.2019. She has been a researcherof the faculty Health Science sinceApr.2019. Her research interests
about Elderly Abuse and Co-dependency, Educational program and Visiting nurses. She is amember of the Japan Academy of Nursing Science and
the Japan Society for Health and Welfare etc.
Masao Isshiki Ph.D Prof. Professorof Kanagawa Institute of Technology
since 2011. Director of Smart House
Research Center since 2012. JSCA
HEMS-Task Force chairman since2011 and also working for many
chairmen of METI, MIC and MLIT.
Project professor of Keio University

International Journal of Informatics Society, VOL.12, NO.1 (2020) 17-27

since 2009 to 2015 responsible for W3C/keio sitemanager. Fellow of ECHONET Con-sortium. Masao
holds a Ph.D. degree in heat transfer engineering fromthe Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology,
and a master's degree in mechanical engineering fromthe University of Tokyo Institute of Technology. He
currently lives in Tokyo, Japan.
Keiichi Abe received Ph. D. in
informatics from Shizuoka University in 2012. He has been an associate professor of the Faculty ofCreative Engineering, Kanagawa Institute of Technology since 2016.His
research interests include smart
system using IOT technology, Interactive system using Robot and CG,
and Victims Information Management System at Large
Scale Disaster, HEMS. He is a member of Information
Processing Society of Japan, the institute of Electronics,
Information and Communication Engineers of Japan anda member of IEEE.

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