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This DUCK Can Save Your Life?? - Call For Code

JonoT

 

Thanks, IBM for sponsoring this video! Submit your idea to Call for Code for a chance to win $200,000 to use on your idea and help saves lives after a natural disaster at http://ibm.biz/linus19

 

Project OWL was last year's winner from Call for Code that created their own inexpensive and simple yet effective communication mesh system for use in disaster zones where internet is not readily everywhere. It could save your life!

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"What is your emergency?"

 

"D E A T H"

"Mankind’s greatest mistake will be its inability to control the technology it has created."

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26 minutes ago, SkyHound0202 said:

"What is your emergency?"

 

"D E A T H"

"What do you need in the next 24 hours?"

 

"Financial Aid"

 

This is really good tech and needed, but I just can't help cracking up on that option. Like there's massive floods, landslides, aftermaths of earthquakes and the thing you could need in the next 24 hours is money.

It's not like any society would offer food, water, shelter, medical aid, clothing, transportation and simply everything people in distress need for free when there's even a small catastrophe and that those people actually need the supplies and help more than money. Like yeah, they will need money too, but that's not really something that someone would need in the distress situation where these would be used. It's not like dropping a bag full of money or throwing a credit card at people in distress would actually help them when the opportunities to use those are basicly gone.

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Is this something that SpaceX's starlink service could solve?

Just a thought I had, plus I guess it could provide internet connection

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Nitpick: those are not Arduino-boards, they are Arduino-compatible* boards and do not carry official Arduino-trademark. Also, for those who are interested, the boards they use in this project are Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 -- I've got one myself, so I recognized it instantly. (I use LoRa for all sorts of remote sensors myself. Really neat stuff.)

 

* Compatible in the sense that there exists an Arduino-core for them and they can be programmed via the Arduino IDE. It does not mean pin-compatibility or identical functionality with any specific Arduino-product.

Hand, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm and commonly thrust into somebody’s pocket.

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Something like this was actually used at ground zero on 9/11.  Back then, the first mobile radio-based Internet service, called Ricochet, had just gone broke.  The transmitters hung from light poles and were parasitic on them for power.  They each had fixed GPS coordinates, and formed an extended mesh network to pass Internet packets.  This worked surprisingly well, though it was slow even by the standards of the day (256Kb/sec).  However, although the Ricochet network had been shut down, it had not been physically decommissioned (in fact its transmitters were visible hanging on light poles for years).  So, a bunch of ex-Ricochet employees went down to the Ricochet network center closest to ground zero and reactivated it, and handed out Ricochet mobile transceiver cards to all sorts of first responders.  These cards fit into Windows mobile PCs, for one thing.

 

This worked brilliantly and gave the first responders network connectivity when everything else was down.

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1 hour ago, Mr. Protocol said:

Something like this was actually used at ground zero on 9/11.  Back then, the first mobile radio-based Internet service, called Ricochet, had just gone broke.  The transmitters hung from light poles and were parasitic on them for power.  They each had fixed GPS coordinates, and formed an extended mesh network to pass Internet packets.  This worked surprisingly well, though it was slow even by the standards of the day (256Kb/sec).  However, although the Ricochet network had been shut down, it had not been physically decommissioned (in fact its transmitters were visible hanging on light poles for years).  So, a bunch of ex-Ricochet employees went down to the Ricochet network center closest to ground zero and reactivated it, and handed out Ricochet mobile transceiver cards to all sorts of first responders.  These cards fit into Windows mobile PCs, for one thing.

 

This worked brilliantly and gave the first responders network connectivity when everything else was down.

That's fantastic. I'm sure those former employees were greatly appreciated. 

"Make sense? Oh, what fun is there in making sense?"
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Too bad for the main transmitter that "escaped". Colton could have shot some of the balloons to bring it down safely...but probably he enjoyed witnessing the first time that Linus "dropped" something upwards ;)

I like the idea with the transmitters, but in case of a flooding event, they should actually be mounted/tied to something because you wouldn't want all the devices to float away.

Battery life is a bit of a problem, but 12 hours can still be enough to save many people.

Concerning the project itself, I would go further and add a fleet of drones that can be used to initially deploy the "ducks". After this task is complete, the drones can be on standby to be sent to some of the senders of emergency calls, possibly even with small amounts of some needed supplies that can help until rescuers arrive.

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Radio hams have been providing robust wide area mesh networks for a very long time. These are used in normal daily activities like VoIP, web servers, file servers, BBS, and a multitude of other services. They also provide emergency response services for communication, web cams, and long distance links outside of the disaster areas.

All of this is done using cheap commercially available networking equipment and funded by the hams - services are free to access for licenced hams and emergency management is also provided access at no cost.

Some of the network areas have many hundreds of nodes and gateways alongside the long distance links making a system more robust than commercial infrastructure.

Another new expensive and impractical toy is not needed. The funding would be better spent supporting responders and those directly affected by the disasters - and maybe a little support for the hams who provide emergency communication services for their communities and beyond.

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8 hours ago, KA5BBC said:

Radio hams have been providing robust wide area mesh networks for a very long time. These are used in normal daily activities like VoIP, web servers, file servers, BBS, and a multitude of other services. They also provide emergency response services for communication, web cams, and long distance links outside of the disaster areas.

All of this is done using cheap commercially available networking equipment and funded by the hams - services are free to access for licenced hams and emergency management is also provided access at no cost.

Some of the network areas have many hundreds of nodes and gateways alongside the long distance links making a system more robust than commercial infrastructure.

Another new expensive and impractical toy is not needed. The funding would be better spent supporting responders and those directly affected by the disasters - and maybe a little support for the hams who provide emergency communication services for their communities and beyond.

How do I contact my local ham operator when my comms are down?

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The next would be finding a way to make the deployment automated, send them on drones and implement the solar power feature.

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