ERC funds app to save skiers from avalanches
An app developed at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology and part-funded by the European Research Council has made it possible for skiers with smartphones to find people buried in the snow.
Someone saved from the snow within 15 minutes has a 90% chance of survival; after 45 minutes, the chance is diminished considerably. Consequently, it may make the difference between life and death if skiers themselves can find an avalanche victim before the rescue team has arrived.
Petter Wirfält, at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, said: “Far too many people die in avalanches each year. At the same time, more and more people have smartphones on them. Through this app we are developing, the person that has such a phone can simply carry a transceiver.”
The skiers must have the application installed and have the smartphone with them. This applies both to those who are searching and those trapped.
“All skiers, including winter sports enthusiasts and families with children on winter holiday trips, will be able to use the app,” Björn Ottersten, professor of signal processing at KTH, added.
The injured can be sought and detected through a single skier activating the app. The technology relies on wireless communication in the form of a transceiver in the phones of the victim and those searching. The positioning process operates quicker when several people are searching at the same time, since phones in the vicinity can exchange information. Each phone creates its own picture of where the avalanche victim could be found and the system can then bring together information from several different angles.
Technical tests on the device are now in progress and a prototype has delivered promising results so far. The technology can also be used for locating lost people, including children who have become separated from their parents.
