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New app developed to locate people in areas with no phone signal
Researchers of the Universidad de Alicante (UA) have developed new technology that makes it possible to locate people who have suffered an accident in remote locations without a phone signal and where a speedy rescue is essential to save lives. The system can also be used in emergency situations that arise as a result of earthquakes, floods or forest fires, where mobile phone infrastructure is often rendered useless.
"We have designed an application (app) that can be incorporated to any Smartphone and that, without a signal, emits a Wifi signal which in turn acts as a distress beacon over a distance of several kilometers", explains the creator of the technology and professor at the UA's Department of Physics, Systems Engineering and Theory of the Signal of the Higher Polytechnic School, José Ángel Berná. This signal contains the location (coordinates) of the person who has suffered the accident or disappeared and is using the Smartphone emitter, along with a short message that "can be altered depending on the situation, with examples such as 'I am injured', 'I am disorientated' or 'I need help'", specifies Berná.
In order to detect the distress signal, the researcher has also created a light (half a kilo), portable receptor device which rescue teams or mountain shelters could use. This device has a small antenna and connects to the Smartphone of the search party. When an accident occurs, the victim only has to activate the mobile phone app, which will in turn emit the distress signal periodically – for hours or even days, even if he or she is unconscious – indicating the coordinates of its location.
The Network of Valencian Universities for the promotion of Research, Development and Innovation, RUVID, is a non-profit private organisation that was born in December 2001 through a partnership agreement between the five public universities from the Valencian Region.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday December 29 2017, @06:16PM (6 children)
I think the biggest concern is that you have no idea if anyone is actually using this app, so it's just one more thing that the search party might have to look for. They could be transmitting on wifi, they could be transmitting on ham bands, or FRS emergency bands, or...? Someone better be building an SDR device that can track all of those!
But if you use it in specific areas it could work...ie, you make it clear with signs/outreach that a certain national park or popular hiking spot is using this wifi system, and that hikers should install this app before they come. Then, you install a couple high gain antennas on the nearby high points. With the right antenna setup you can reach over a hundred miles with unamplified wifi...of course you've only got a good antenna on one side here, and you might not have line of sight, but if you do it right you should be able to cover at least a couple square miles per antenna. Or as pTamok posted below, use drones or balloons to scan as required.
As for battery life...that's easy enough to solve, you don't need a freakin car, you just need a battery bank. I often have a 10 amp-hour battery in my pocket beside my phone...it's a bit smaller than the phone itself, and that capacity is around three times the phone's internal battery. And I've seen some newer ones that can fit 15 amp-hours in a pocket. If you aren't using the phone for anything while hiking, leave it at home so you don't break it. But if you do plan on using it, you'd almost certainly want to bring a battery anyway, so that should easily triple the phone's runtime.
Finally...your phone is constantly sending out radio pings anyway. I don't see why periodic transmissions on wifi would drain it faster than the existing periodic transmissions on 3G/LTE. So if it normally lasts a day or two in your pocket, stick a battery in the other pocket and it might be able to transmit like this for a week.
Seems like the best system you can get without a purpose-made device...and those already exist for anyone who wants one, but I'd bet most hikers don't bother. And those aren't necessarily better -- some transmit your exact GPS location to a network of satellites, but others can only give an approximate area and rely on a separate radio beacon to guide rescue workers to you once they arrive. And those are usually designed to last 24 hours, so depending on what kind you get, that secondary beacon might not last long enough either. And at that point you might still benefit from this as a secondary emergency beacon that you can keep powered off until you hear helicopters...
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Friday December 29 2017, @06:21PM (2 children)
Amp-hour isn't the measure of stored energy, watt-hours is. Runtime will be based on watt-hours not amp-hours. You can roughly estimate the watt-hours given the battery voltage and amp-hour rating but it's nicer if the manufacturer reports it to you because that simple estimate is based on a static battery where it's operation is quite dynamic.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday December 29 2017, @06:45PM (1 child)
True, but I've never seen one that actually reports the capacity in watt-hours, they always use amp-hours at a given voltage (5V in this case). And it's not just USB battery packs either...from AAs to phone lithium cells, every battery I've ever seen reports the capacity as amp-hours at a voltage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 29 2017, @08:29PM
It's usually not at 5V, even when the labelling seems to claim that. Assuming it's not a complete fabrication to start with, it's generally the sum of the rated capacities of the Li-ion cells in the battery bank, and thus should be multiplied by 3.7V; the amp-hours at 5V would naively be calculated as 3.7/5, or roughly 75%, of this figure, but allowing for the inefficiency of the boost converter, you might actually get 60%.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday December 29 2017, @07:59PM (2 children)
Presumably someone going into the bush might happen to mention it, don't you think? You took the trouble to install it, why wouldn't you let people know?
But mere availability in any app store will have the entire country swamped with false alarms. It will become useless.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday December 29 2017, @08:05PM
Also, people going into the back country away from any other source of help already know about PLBs and
https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/personal-locator-beacons.html [rei.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday December 29 2017, @08:20PM
Right, but that means the person you told needs to first notice that you're missing, then give that information to rescue personnel, then they've gotta get the equipment to track it, and that takes time while your battery is draining. The faster they start looking for it, the better -- ideally before they know anyone is even missing if they can set up permanent receivers.
Much like the existing satellite beacons -- the satellites are always there, always listening, so as soon as you activate it the rescue team immediately knows your location. They aren't waiting around for someone to say "Hey, this guy went missing and by the way he's carrying a beacon".