WirelessWERX, with wireless indoor location services (ILS), at ASIS 2009 launched SiteWERX - the industry's most precise indoor location technology for the mobile 911 caller. SiteWERX can locate a mobile 911 caller down to the building, floor and room.
"A 911 dispatcher's greatest fear is not getting help to a victim quickly enough," said Carl Simpson, executive director of
Steve Artim, CEO of WirelessWERX, explained, "Today, more than 50 percent of 911 calls are made on mobile phones and half of those are made indoors. The 911 system was created more than 40 years ago to address the landline environment. With more and more people relying only on their mobile phones, a 911 call location accuracy becomes a top concern for public safety and security personnel. WirelessWERX is powering the emergency system with the industry's most accurate indoor location. And this precise location information can be the difference in a life or death situation."
Currently, 911 call centers - or PSAPs - use GPS and triangulation to locate a mobile 911 caller. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandates PSAPs to be able to identify a mobile 911 caller's location within an area of confidence of 50-150 meters. However, results can yield a location as far as 300 meters, an equivalent of three football fields or three city blocks. Today's current systems do not provide indoor location, making it difficult for first responders to find callers in multistory buildings or dense environments like cities and college campuses. Whether the caller is in the basement or on the seventh floor, SiteWERX pins down a mobile phone caller's location to within 10 meters (about 30 feet) and includes building, floor and room number.
SiteWERX is deployed as an in-building wireless node network. These location nodes are installed in a room or hallway. A Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone runs SiteWERX's application, which sits dormant until a caller dials 911. The location node network software manages the nodes and sends location information to a 911 communication center. When a wireless 911 call is made, the caller's building, floor and room location is automatically sent to the responder.
WirelessWERX is demonstrating its solutions portfolio for indoor location services this week during ASIS International in Booth 2284.