RESCUECELL: Using Cell Phone Detection Technology to Safe Lives
Avalanches, earthquakes and collapsed buildings are claiming an increasing number of lives related to urbanization, climate change and tourist: • Since 1900, avalanches claimed 1,201 lives in Europe, affected 13,199 persons and cost €775 million in damages. • From 1998 to 2009, earthquakes have taken 18,864 lives and caused over €29 billion in damages in Europe. Search and Rescue tools remain complex and expensive, with limited range and accuracy, require intense training and put rescuers themselves at risk. The RESCUECELL team of eight companies identified an innovative way of detecting mobile phones of buried people in avalanches, earthquakes and collapsed buildings. With the help of European funds, the team started developing and testing the RESCUECELL technology in 2013. By the end of 2015, the team will develop the prototype of a supplementary, cost-effective, robust, safe, lightweight and reliable search technology that can easily be transported to the affected zone, covering the entire area. This novel portable kit for emergency search services will be able to locate missing people swiftly and accurately. To achieve this goal, eight SMEs, Research Centres, Universities and national organisations from six countries are collaborating: Engineerisk SAS (France), SMI Communication (Germany), Hellenic Rescue Team (Greece), Rubin (Hungary), Mira Telecom as well as Ministry of Administration and Interior (Romania), and CRIC as well as UPC (Spain) are collaborating. Please do not hesitate to contact us at info@rescuecell.eu or visit our website www.rescuecell.eu for further information. RESCUECELL is a “Research for the Benefit of SMEs” project with a budget of 1.4 million euros. The European Commission, through the FP7 financing programme, has provided 1.1 million euros to co-fund this project.
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom