GPS location for android devices when calling emergency

GPS location for android devices when calling emergency

When the police, fire brigade or ambulances need to respond quickly to an emergency call, accurate information about the caller’s location becomes a crucial thing as it will help up with the arrival time and thus proper assistance to the incident.

Keeping this is mind, Google has introduced a model of location tracking through GPS. It beams your location to emergency service automatically as soon as you call them. It sends upon indoor and outdoor locations such that help can arrive at soonest and at exact location.

Google product manager Akshay Kannan said: “When emergency services get a call, they need to know the caller’s location to send help and save lives. Today, over 70% of calls to emergency services come from mobile phones, but locating these mobile callers can be a major issue. Accurate emergency location can be the difference between life and death.”

According a report by the US Federal Communications Commission, enhanced location accuracy “which results in reducing wireless E911 response time by one minute can result in saving over 10,000 lives annually”.

Kannan asserted: “This feature is solely for the use of emergency service providers, and location is never seen or handled by Google. It is sent from your handset to emergency services only when you explicitly place an emergency call, either directly or through your mobile network.”

Now when it comes with the use of technology, the base concept is to use Wifi, Data or cellular tower, which is having the best connectivity at that moment, such that the exact location result could be fetched to the helpline. For now it has started over UK 999 and US 911 and it is expected that soon this feature would be adopted to all the regions and networks available across the globe. Next comes with the device compatibility point, so this feature would be supported by all devices on OS 2.3 and above i.e. it would be supported by 99% of the Android phones running now. Google said the feature is activated when supported either by users’ network providers or a government’s emergency infrastructure provider. The initiative is a collaborative effort of Google and various mobile network and emergency service providers.

There is a remarkable point over the user’s location, i.e. this feature would be solely used in case of emergency by service providers, and location is never seen or shared by Google in any case. It would be sent from your Android device to emergency services only when the user explicitly places an emergency call, either directly or via mobile network.

This helps in keeping all the ethical points in consideration and maintain the privacy of the location of the user’s. There is something similar Apple’s Watch OS3 going to have, it would be having a side button which would be continued pressing for six times to activate the emergency services and this will push a request over “Emergency SOS” button, which will make a call to 911/999/112 with your location via the iPhone data or any other Wifi network if available.

This will bring up a revolutionary change over usage of Android phones over another productive way.

Hoping for a world – wide implementation soon !