CE#4: Tracking without a Phone Signal

Recently a professor at the UA's Department of Physics, named Jose Angel Berna created a app that is able to pinpoint the location of a person without using a phone signal. The application works by emitting a wi-fi signal that acts as a distress signal over a distance of several kilometers. The signal would contain the coordinated of the person and it comes with short message such as "I am injures" or "I need help". Then a group, in most cases a rescue team would have a light portable receptor device that would have a small antenna that can connect to the smartphone of the search party. This technology was created when natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes occur and people are missing,  but since mobile phone infrastructure is often useless in those cases this app would help the rescue parties. All that is needed to be done for the app to work is for the person in distress to activate the mobile app and the app will emit the signal periodically even if the person who activated the app is unconscious. There have been tests to see if the app functions correct, but it will take some time until the app is in full affect. However, this is beneficial because before tracking people using mobile phones would cost $80,000 and would require a helicopter, but now it would only cost roughly $600. This revolutionize how rescue teams track missing people in times of natural disaster.

I believe this application would be very beneficial for rescue teams because now they can pinpoint the exact location of a person. This could reduce the risk of death in a natural disaster because some people don't die at the exact moment the natural disaster occurs, they die because of suffocation since no one has found them.However, this plan can only be applied if a huge part of the population has this application because if only a few people have it then more likely than not the rescue teams will not use this method to locate them. I believe it would be more efficient if the application was implemented into the actual phone software and anytime there is no phone signal then the app would start asking if the person is in distress. Nevertheless, it cannot be doubted that this may potentially change how rescue times act in disaster times.

Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-12-app-people-areas.html

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