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I work in 911, Telematics, alarm, PERS space. We are a PSAP (Public Safety Answer Point) The device might send a Geocode, but reverse geo-coding (turning a lon
by bungie4 8y ago
I work in 911, Telematics, alarm, PERS space. We are a PSAP (Public Safety Answer Point)
The device might send a Geocode, but reverse geo-coding (turning a long/lat into a human readable place) is a highly inaccurate thing. Secondly, most responders have no means of turning a long/lat into a point on the map, short of using their personal phone. Next, altitude is not factored in. Imagine being in a downtown office building. If nobody is downstairs to guide responders, or if the caller was unable to speak, they will have a really difficult time determining just which building/floor you are in.
Its all gotten much worse with the advent of mobile/VOIP and now, WIFI phone systems where your phone can move. Its a system ill equipped to handle it.
- Terretta 8y ago> ”reverse geo-coding, turning a lat/long into a human readable place highly inaccurate ... no means of turning a lat/long into a point on the map” Three words for you ... https://what3words.com https://what3words.com
- antsar 8y agoThat helps with communicating the lat/long, but not with determining where that actually is. With what3words, not only are first responders still required to use some mobile device, but they're also reliant on a proprietary service (read: point of failure).
- bungie4 8y agoExactly.
- matte_black 8y agoThere should be no point of failure. By using the same hashing algorithm to produce 3 words worldwide, anyone with the same seed could produce coordinates for any words. Or the 3 words for any coordinates.
- tpetry 8y agoBut navigation systems in an car do work on streetnames and numbers ;)
- Terretta 8y agoNot in many parts of the world.
- bonestamp2 8y agoIt's just the method for communicating the destination coordinates quickly and accurately. Google Maps can do the actual routing from there.
- ihuman 8y agoA public-domain alternative to that would be a Geohash[1]. Instead of 3 words, its a string of letters and numbers. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash
- alasdair_ 8y agoOr just state an appropriate S2 cell.
- alasdair_ 8y agoHow does this help a responder determine if the location is on the first floor or the 57th?
- bonestamp2 8y agoI was going to suggest this, or a standard like it, too. Sure, it doesn't help with altitude, although maybe a fourth word could be added for that, and "what floor are you on?" is a simple question to ask and understand the answer to anyways. If people can be dispatched to a location, getting the altitude a few minutes later is still a good use of time. Not to mention, if you're in a tall building you've also probably got extra coworkers or neighbors to go to the elevator or go to the ground floor to help the responders get to the victim quickly. Also, phones could be configured to automatically and quickly read the 3 words as soon as they connect to 911 so if they're calling a 911 call center that has not adopted any location technology the information can still be transmitted quickly, accurately and automatically in under 2 seconds to any phone without proprietary software on the receiving end.
- monochromatic 8y ago> reverse geo-coding (turning a long/lat into a human readable place) is a highly inaccurate thing Why? That sure seems like it should be trivial. > altitude is not factored in Why not? GPS can tell you your altitude.