ARLA/CLUSTER: Reino Unido lançou de para-quedas lanternas solares para carregar telemóveis no Norte do Iraque

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

Mobile phones in disaster relief

BBC News reports when the UK government delivered emergency aid to
people in northern Iraq in August, one of its primary concerns was how
the refugees might charge their mobile phones

They say that in 2010, Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen, a computer systems
researcher at Flinders University in Australia, was driving to work in
his car when he first heard radio reports of the devastation of the
Haiti earthquake, more than 10,000 miles away.

Alongside tents and drinking water, RAF planes dropped more than 1,000
solar-powered lanterns attached to chargers for all types of mobile
handsets to the stranded members of the Yazidi religious community.

With roads blocked, infrastructure reduced to rubble and mobile
networks down, he realised something needed to be done, and quickly.

"You typically have about three days to restore the communications
before the bad people realise the good people aren't in control any
more," he says.

His solution was to develop the technology that allows mobile phones
to communicate directly with each other even where there is no network
coverage, or when mobile masts have been knocked out of action - a
system known as "mesh networking".

His Serval Project work means users can send text messages, make calls
and send files to other users nearby, creating a mobile network
through a web of users.

Read the BBC News story at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-29149221

The Serval Project
http://www.servalproject.org/

Dr. Paul Gardner-Stephen
http://www.flinders.edu.au/people/paul.gardner-stephen