Localization system for urban search and rescue using smartphone microphones

Area of Science:

• Engineering
• Search and Rescue Technology
• Acoustics

Background:

• Earthquake disasters necessitate rapid and effective methods for rescuing buried survivors.
• Locating victims quickly is critical for increasing survival rates in collapsed structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a method for detecting buried victims' smartphones using audible sound.
• To enable searchers to determine the direction of a victim's smartphone for rescue operations.

Main Methods:

• A searcher generates directional sound fields using an array of four loudspeakers.
• A victim's smartphone detects these sound fields.
• The smartphone computes its azimuth relative to the searcher and transmits this data.

Main Results:

• Experiments in a simulated earthquake disaster field successfully validated the proposed method.
• The system allowed searchers to repeatedly estimate the smartphone's direction.
• Searchers could successfully approach the smartphone by moving the sound source.

Conclusions:

• The proposed audible sound-based smartphone detection method is effective for locating earthquake survivors.
• This technology offers a promising tool for enhancing search and rescue operations in earthquake scenarios.