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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 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%.