Coloured planes

Strange things happen when you talk to people. Of all the people I don’t talk about my work to, my brother is one of them. He’s never really shown an interest in what i do, probably because i’ve been brought up in a military family, and i’m the odd one out that likes “colouring in”… But a few days ago i spoke to my brother, and he asked what I was up to, and what my project was about (rather a rarity!) so i told him. The strange thing is, that he listened, and when i finished said “thats similar to what i do at work…”

My brother came out of the military and joined the Police Force, he proceeded to explain how when he would ‘storm a building’ that he would remember the orientation of the rooms during the briefing, and they would assign colours to each wall; North facing walls Green, South Red, East Blue, West Yellow, and that if they could give each other specific instructions where to meet, or even where they are when within the building. – Very important if you’re injured and need to give directions to someone on the outside of the building!

This however is a mental colouring system, one of which will only be successful if you are good at orientating yourself within an environment, and remembering where you are when walking through the space, and referring back to your mental nodes.

It would be interesting to see if the Fire Brigade have a similar method when they are entering a building, as they won’t have a floorplan, and cannot make any nodes before entering. If one of them gets into difficulty how do they know how to get out, or give directions to someone on the outside, especially when the building is full of smoke and flames?