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When firefighters charge into smoke-filled buildings and basements where they can’t see beyond their own hands, a tiny tracker hidden in their boots, paired with a light-based guide in their gloves, maps every step they take in real time. The system, developed by a research team at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, helps them stay oriented, while commanders follow the exact position of each unit on a tablet. The smart gear was created hand-in-hand with firefighters, who had long been missing anything of this kind. “The built-in navigation can even lead rescuers straight to the person in danger. In a crisis, that can make all the difference in saving lives,” said Radek Soukup, one of the authors of the project.

The smart boots and gloves are expected to reach everyday service soon. “Right now we’re preparing them for certification, which is a time-consuming ordeal. For instance, the equipment must meet strict requirements for use in explosive environments,” explained Petr Kašpar from the Department of Materials and Technologies and the project’s second author. The gloves and footwear are slated for production by Holík International, while the navigation algorithms will come from the Italian company DUNE.

The promise of quick real-world deployment convinced the expert panel of the Smart Cities 2025 competition to award the Pilsen invention first place in the safety category. Director Kateřina Tomášková summed up the jury’s choice: “Who wouldn’t be struck by it? It’s about saving lives — and Pilsen keeps delivering. Almost every year, a project from Pilsen makes it to the top. The jurors come from the widest possible range of fields. We want those who feel the impact of these projects to be the ones who judge them.”

A strong local contender was also in the running for the safety title. The city’s IT administration, together with the Regional Emergency Medical Service, reached the finals with a drone system designed to deliver automated defibrillators to hard-to-reach locations at remarkable speed.

A special prize for agile piloting, highlighting hands-on experiments and “living lab” approaches, went to the nextdrop project, also born at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. “At Techmania, we installed technology that monitors the water infrastructure and protects the building from failures. At the same time, we created an exhibit showing how water is managed. It links consumption data from across the city — from housing estates, Tech Tower, even the Plzeň Zoo,” said co-founder and researcher František Mach. The initiative Pilsen City of Water is being developed in cooperation with the City of Pilsen, Vodárna Pilsen and the Techmania Science Center.