On February 22, 2024, the Advanced Telecommunications and Research Institute International (ATR) Japan, in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Region 7 and CVISNET Foundation Inc., conducted a Workshop and Actual Demonstration of the Front-Line Operation System (FLOS) at the DOST 7 Conference Room, S&T Complex, Sudlon, Lahug, Cebu City.

The FLOS is a new technology from Japan that uses a portable local ICT system to automatically handle disaster information at the front-line level. It uses a hands-free acquisition feature that allows for the semi-automatic collection of disaster information through cameras and speech recognition. FLOS also performs automatic analysis by recognizing objects in captured camera images and matching them with relevant information acquired from external systems. The system facilitates intelligent sharing by superimposing external information (disaster and damage information) onto the disaster site image, which can be utilized for onsite decision-making, such as identifying route openings.

The workshop was attended by over 30 individuals from government and non-government agencies. Its purpose was to give an actual demonstration of the FLOS technologies and discuss possible use cases in the Philippine scenarios. The organizers also aimed to identify stakeholders who would commit support towards the project implementation of the research and development. Engr. Jesus Zamora Jr., DOST-7 Regional Director, gave the opening message during the program. Mr. Jeffrey Llanto, CVISNET Executive Director, presented the project background. Dr. Toshikazu Sakano, Director of ATR Japan, discussed the current features and technologies of the FLOS and its actual demonstration. An open forum and the presentation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Stakeholders were also done during the program. The event was capped off by the signing of the MOU between ATR Japan, DOST 7, and CVISNET for the 5-year Front-Line Operation System Research and Development Project at UCC, Ayala Center Cebu.