The recent death of James Kim, who had gotten lost with his family in the snow covered and cold middle_of_nowhere Oregon reminded me of a proposal from years ago.
In the debriefings after 11-Sept, a bunch of cellular techies announced plans to come up with portable quasi-base stations which could be rolled out and used to "ping" cellphones.
In a situation like the World Trade Center, this would have been used for close-in searching -- that is, to let the emergency folk know there was an active cellphone thirty or so feet under the rubble to the right, helping them in the rescue and/or recovery.
In Mr. Kim's case, where his family was beyond range of any cellular tower, the portable stations would have been running around in rescue vehicles or aircraft, looking (initially) at a wider area.
I didn't see any mention of these in use, and haven't found any indication that they've been built.
Anyone have any updates? Thanks.
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