Innovation Toronto
Now Reading
A Drone That Finds Survivors Through Their Phones
Innovation Toronto
Dark Light
  • Follow
Subscribe
Innovation Toronto
This unassuming material is capable of capturing or releasing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in response to moisture swings.
Pulling carbon dioxide out of the air using moisture
A more efficient way to capture fresh water from the air
Bringing transformative potential to agriculture with a natural technology for ‘dimming’ genes
Staving off coral reef collapse via a new technique
Producing energy from evaporating tap or seawater with new nanoscale devices
Setting the stage for regenerative therapy by turning skin cells into limb cells

A Drone That Finds Survivors Through Their Phones

July 18, 2014
During his semester project in Computer Science, Jonathan Cheseaux developed a system for locating a person via his or her mobile phone with a drone. This device could be used to find victims in natural disasters.

During his semester project in Computer Science, Jonathan Cheseaux developed a system for locating a person via his or her mobile phone with a drone. This device could be used to find victims in natural disasters.

Following an earthquake or another natural disaster, it is often difficult to know the position of victims under the rubble

A drone makes large circles in the sky. With two powerful antennas, it sniffs the data packets emitted by mobile phones. On the ground, an interface developed specifically for this project makes it possible to track the flight of a small robotic aircraft in real time from a computer. Colored dots visible on the screen map indicate the spotted phones. The vehicle tightens its flight around the selected device to indicate its position. “In the best tests we have performed, the place indicated was within 10 meters,” says Jonathan Cheseaux who worked on this project for his master’s degree.

https://youtu.be/7ysg-m7kV14

Following an earthquake or another natural disaster, it is often difficult to know the position of victims under the rubble. At a time when most people, even in poor countries, have a mobile phone, the team of Mobile Communications Laboratory had the idea of using them to know the position of victims and thereby facilitate a search. When WiFi mode is activated, the devices emit data packets at regular intervals so that it’s possible to know various parameters, including the power received by the antenna connection. This can vary depending on the surrounding terrain, the weather or interference. It is also weaker as the layer of rubble over a person is thicker—another important factor.

But there is little similarity between these signals and a distance in meters that would make it possible to know directly the position of the device. With the drone, it is the GPS points of the captured signals from several places that locate the phone. These benchmarks are considered the center of circles which could potentially find the phone. The intersection of the latter determines the location of the phone and, therefore, probably the person. “By refining the system to automatically eliminate weaker signals, the system has become even more accurate,” explains the master’s student. “Flight tests have located a cell phone on campus with high accuracy.”

“The drone’s WiFi antenna could be replaced by Avalanche Victim Detectors (DVA) which would enable the rapid and inexpensive deployment of the first avalanche searches,” predicts the student, who is also an amateur mountaineer.

Read more . . .

 

The Latest on: Rescue drones

[google_news title=”” keyword=”Rescue drones” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]

via Google News

See Also

Inventors unveil drone for heart attack victims

 

The Latest on: Rescue drones

via  Bing News

 

Tags
What's Your Reaction?
Don't Like it!
0
I Like it!
0
View Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll To Top