Israel Aerospace Industries Develops Cellphone Search-and-Rescue System

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed a search and rescue system which works by homing in on the cellular devices of survivors in disaster areas, Globes reported on Wednesday.

The system, called RES-Q-CELL, supports world-wide cellular networks (GSM, UMTS, LTE) and provides passive and active capabilities by activating all cellular phones in the disaster area, and performing quick identification and accurate location of mobile devices.

It helps emergency responders to locate survivors by detecting mobile phones within a predefined wreckage area, identifying the phones, and providing highly accurate 3-dimestional, dual axis, geolocation of survivors.

It is designed for operation in a full range of disaster scenarios, including earthquakes, storms, floods, tsunami, building fires, terrorist attacks, and more.

The system can be installed on a variety of platforms, including commercial vehicles, armored vehicles, tactical aerostats and helicopters. It is operated from a laptop and has the capability of functioning even when cellular networks collapse.