Cellphones could unite to broadcast disaster alerts

Cellphones could sound the alarm in the event of a disaster and pass on the alert from phone to phone - even if most of a cellphone network is down. So says Motorola in a new patent application, reports New Scientist.

In an emergency, such as a hurricane or terrorist attack, the US government can operate the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which harnesses all TV and radio frequencies, to broadcast warning messages to people in their homes. But not everyone will ave their appliances turned on.

Motorola engineer Jerome Vogedes' answer is a new generation of cellphones that can rapidly form a peer-to-peer network when an emergency alert is broadcast.

A phone on the edge of a disaster area, where a cellphone service still operates, receives the alert. It contacts the nearest phone using Wi-Fi, establishes a P2P network with it, and sends it the alert.

That cellphone then does likewise until as many mobiles as possible have received the alert.

emily | 10:16 PM | Technology |
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