By
Rebecca Gibson |
Wireless technology could be used to track passengers onboard ferries and cruise ships, according to European Union-funded research carried out as part of the Lynceus project.
The three-year Lynceus project, which is supported by €2.5 million of funding from the European Union, aims to revolutionise current emergency management and ship evacuation practices. Due to be completed in early 2015, the project is coordinated by Cypriot consultancy RTD Talos and involves 15 participants from Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
As part of the project, researchers aim to develop a distributed wireless sensor network system that will enable ship safety officers to monitor the location of each passenger to ensure they can be safely evacuated in the event of an onboard emergency. In addition, the system can be used to improve overboard search and rescue operations.
"We have developed innovative wireless tags, which can be embedded into life jackets, so the location of people within the ship can be easily pinpointed,” said Dr Anastasis Kounoudes, technical leader and CEO of SignalGeneriX, one of the project partners. “This will provide safety officers with the exact location of every passenger and crew member during an evacuation.”
The technology can also be used to monitor the health of patients requesting to wear special bracelets, or to help parents keep track of the location of their children on large cruise ships. The researchers in the project have also developed a radar device able to detect the exact location of passengers who have fallen overboard.