Page 48: of Marine News Magazine (June 2020)

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T i911: Tapping Cellphone Location

Data to Save Lives

By Lt. Anne Newton, Project Manager,

C5I Branch, USCG Research and Development Center n recent years the U.S. Coast Guard has identi?ed an in- Recognizing the possibilities for i911 to support Coast creasing trend in the use of cellular phones by the maritime Guard SAR missions, the RDC entered a Cooperative Re- public when communicating distress. In 2018, leadership in search and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Callyo

I the Of?ce of Search and Rescue (SAR) at Coast Guard Head- in summer 2019. As part of the CRADA, the RDC and quarters asked the Research and Development Center (RDC) Callyo worked together to customize some of the features to investigate available technologies that could assist Coast of i911 to optimize use by the watchstanders in the Coast

Guard responders in adapting to this trend by leveraging the Guard Command Centers. The RDC led an i911 pilot cellphone’s internal GPS. The RDC, located in New London, test throughout the Coast Guard’s First District, which

Conn., has been serving the Coast Guard for nearly 50 years covers the northeastern U.S. from Northern New Jersey through research, testing and evaluation of various technolo- to Maine. The pilot lasted six months and was an instant gies across all 11 missions. During market research for this success. Within a few days of having i911, Sector Long Is- project in 2019, the RDC investigated an emerging technolo- land Sound in New Haven, Conn., used it on a search and gy called i911 created by Chris Bennett, the founder of Callyo. rescue case involving three people on a 12-foot in?atable i911 is offered as a free service to ?rst responders and pro- dinghy that was blown out to sea by a storm. Using i911, vides fast, accurate cellphone location information. It pairs the command center received the dinghy’s position within consumer smartphone technology with a simple web-based seconds, and the location proved to be accurate to within a interface to locate mariners for search and rescue mission con- few meters. Rescue crews were able to get to the distressed trollers in Coast Guard Command Centers. The distressed mariners much faster than they would have without use of boater does not need to download a mobile application or be the technology.

registered to enable this locator capability. However, this tool The research went operational March 26, 2020, when only works with more modern cellphones that are equipped the Coast Guard authorized all command centers across the with an internal GPS, and may not work on all cellphone United States to use i911 to help determine the location of types. i911 has been optimized to work in areas where there distressed mariners. Command center watch standers ex- is very limited cellphone coverage and in most cases gives po- pressed excitement at how easy it was to use and, even more sition data accurate within a few meters every few seconds. importantly, how accurate it was. Lt. Cmdr. Adriana Gaenzle,

Depending on cellphone service i911 can determine locations chief of the command center at Sector Anchorage, said, “It's of distressed mariners up to 15-20 nautical miles offshore. awesome to see innovative ways to incorporate new technol- ogy into our abilities to prosecute SAR.” This Coast Guard roll-out came just in time for the upcoming 2020 summer

A recent study by the RDC looked at search and boating season. Boaters are reminded that the Coast Guard rescue cases in the United States over the past ?ve recommends using the VHF radio if possible as this is still years and found that nearly 90% of all cases were considered the most reliable means of communication for no more than 20 nautical miles offshore.

mariners in distress.

June 2020 48 MN