System for broadcasting geolocation information in emergency situations via Wi-Fi interfaces of smartphones

Abstract

Emergency services for citizens continually improve their response times to a request for help. One of the improvements in the time of the response is the speed to communicate to emergency services the exact position of people seeking help and their status. The satellite positioning systems allow a citizen to know his position with a smartphone and communicate via mobile telephony with an emergency service (112). However, the mobile phone service is not available in mountain or sea areas and in major disasters (earthquakes, floods, etc.), but not geo-satellite systems such as Galileo. In these situations, it is vital to know the number of victims who need help and where they are for emergency teams to act in the most effective manner. The proposed system improves the effectiveness of emergency services in a situation where mobile systems are not operating, and it is necessary to know the location and number of disaster victims. The system consists, on the one hand, of an App available for a smartphone that allows the transmission of a Wi-Fi signal which includes the device geolocation (obtained with the GNSS receiver) and a short text message. This signal is transmitted continuously and in the absence of mobile phone service. On the other hand, it has been developed a portable receiver device, with a very low cost and weight, which provides a listing of the location of the devices requesting assistance in the environment of the receiver device.