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Show HN: Offline SOS signaling+recovery app for disasters/wars

(github.com)
158 points nizarmah | 1 comments | 01 Apr 25 21:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

A couple of months ago, I built this app to help identify people stuck under rubble.

First responders have awesome tools. But in tough situations, even common folks need to help.

After what happened in Myanmar, we need something like this that works properly.

It has only been tested in controlled environments. It can also be improved; I know BLE is not _that_ effective under rubble.

If you have any feedback or can contribute, don't hold back.

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Sakthimm ◴[02 Apr 25 08:12 UTC] No.43554609[source]▶
My friend works at one of the world's largest steel plants and recently he was discussing some ideas with me about solving the problem of people disappearing during inspections and being found dead after a few days. Apparently it is a huge problem there that he wanted to build a startup around the tech.

I am saying this because I think your target market may not be people stuck under rubble, but large scale industries, construction site workers, miners, firefighters, who can install the app beforehand. Cheers.

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subscribed ◴[02 Apr 25 08:43 UTC] No.43554751[source]▶
I can imagine a firefighter, miner or steelworks worker relying on the smartphone in emergency. Like, seriously, a miner, half of a mile under the rock.... Carrying smartphone?

Heavy duty wearable tags and a dense network of wall-mounted relays pinging them and triangulating 24/7 can be the only solution. Sure you can use BLE beacons for that, and this is being solved with multiple competing products as we speak (look up "locating objects in warehouse"), but specifically for the human safety applications, they would have to be imposed by the regulators. Workforce is seen as disposable and nothing short of laws and regulations is going to force employers to improve safety.

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1. 6footgeek ◴[02 Apr 25 09:12 UTC] No.43554908[source]▶
Ex miner here (grasberg, Indonesia) - yes, we all had smartphones, at all times, and yes, we rarely had signal but if you went up to the surface / anywhere with signal, you would want your phone, so we all carried them.