Using Wireless Signals To Find People Trapped Under The Wreckage

from the hopefully-not-too-late dept

Hope is certainly fading for finding survivors in the wreckage, but some people are hoping that they'll be able to track people down using the wireless signals from their cell phones/pagers. I had heard a request go out for cell phone numbers/pager numbers of those who are missing, and I guess this is why. I wonder, though, how useful this is in tracking people down. How exactly can you determine the location of a wireless device the way they're currently made?
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  • identicon
    xdroop, 17 Sep 2001 @ 11:59am

    oh, that's easy

    It's a simple triangulation if you have specific enough radio receivers (which most people don't). What's more interesting to me is that no one has commented that the vast majority of cell phones which were turned on when the towers collapsed on Tuesday are probably out of juice by now... I know that even my brand new cell won't last a whole week on one charge. This would have been a brilliant idea on Wednesday, but now I think it's just helping the families of the missing avoid reality. Not that I would be in a huge hurry to face reality if I were in their shoes.

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