How A Drone Might Save Your Life
from the swords-to-ploughshares dept
There is a natural tendency to accentuate the negative when it comes to drones -- concentrating on how these "spies the sky" represent a threat to privacy and civil liberties. But as Techdirt has reported before, there are other applications that many might find not just acceptable but welcome. And that's not surprising: like the Internet, drones are just a neutral tool, and as such can be deployed for both good and bad purposes.
Here, for example, is a fascinating idea: using drones to get medical equipment to people faster than ambulances (found via Chris Anderson):
You create an app that anyone trained in first aid signs up to, creating a mobile community. You then station defibrillator-equipped drones on top of tall buildings across the city, linked by sensors. When someone needs help, they, or someone nearby, sends a request. The nearest first-aider accepts the task, and rushes to the site, and the unmanned vehicle sweeps from the sky, delivering the kit where it's needed.
This could have a big impact on the numbers of deaths from heart attacks. According to the same article in Co.Exist quoted above, 76,000 of the 250,000 deaths caused by cardiac arrest outside US hospitals could have been prevented, had the right equipment arrived soon enough. Now, it may not always be enough to use a drone to deliver a defibrillator to heart attack victims, but it seems likely that many tens of thousands of lives could, in theory, be saved in this way.
And of course the idea extends to many other life-threatening situations -- delivering blood or medicines to places that are otherwise hard to reach in time to save the patient. It's a useful reminder that drones aren't necessarily evil, it's how we use them that counts.
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Filed Under: drone, faster, rescue, save lives
Reader Comments
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IT USED TO BE..
If you dont have a License and ambulance, you better not touch anyone.
Odds are that IF' a doctor in a car was passing in front of an Auto accident, he would keep driving, because of a chance to be taken to court.
REALITY CHECK 2:
jobs enough for 100 million people..
Reality check 3:
An education system so confused and unbalanced, its having a hard time even teaching the Stupid.
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Re: IT USED TO BE..
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> unbalanced, its having a hard time
> even teaching the Stupid.
Aren't stupid people by definition the ones who are the hardest to teach?
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"I agree that I've had sufficient training to use..."
In principle it's an amazing idea but there are a few issues that will need to be thought out.
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The units are dumbed down and talk you through proper placement of the pads, tell you to stop touching them, give ample warning and then shock via pads it told you where to put.
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I've seen people using it in shopping arcade once.
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We have them (called AED or Automated External Defibrillators) and are properly trained on how to use them, but they are so dumbed down I am not sure why we were trained to use them. The systems can recognize when the pads are properly placed, and will not even trigger if they aren't in place (which sometimes is aggravating when you don't get the pads in the proper place, even with the "test" versions we use for training.) But the system is nice enough to tell you that the pads aren't in the right place and will tell you again where to put them. And if it senses that you are still touching the victim, it tells you a bunch of times to clear away from them. And really, if you aren't forming a connection between your heart and the pads, you aren't going to suffer a huge jolt that will stop your heart, but you will prevent the device from working properly.
These devices are taught in basic CPR classes. I've even seen the professionals using them...technology moves forward and I think the hospital defibrillators aren't the ones you used to see on TV anymore.
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if there was someone who knew what to do to save him.. /her
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Plenty of application
Imagine a hurricane hitting the coast (not too hard to imagine right now, right?) Imagine drones flying into the disaster area immediately after to quickly replace destroyed cell-towers and get communications back up, to estimate damages, to find clear routes that can be used by emergency services, etcetera.
Of course, it does say something about our society that we primarily built the drones as a military application. It would be nice to see some good come out of it.
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Re: Plenty of application
I can see where drones can help. During the days after Katrina hit New Orleans, no one was hearing anything out of the area. Cell phones didn't work, no power, no landlines were working, radio and tv stations were down, and ham radio stations were down without power.
It was something like 2 or 3 days before flights over the city began to see what had happened. During this time, people were stranded on the interstate because no one was being allowed back into the state. No motels or hotels had vacancy for a 100 miles or more.
A drone could have been flown in the next morning at daylight to look at the damage. People were stuck on the rooftops of their homes due to flooding. They had to chop a hole in the roof to get up there or drown. Yeah, it was that bad.
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Hell, in such a situation you could even use drones to locate pockets of survivors and "bomb" them with disposable cell phones.
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Leave it to AT&T and Sprint to try to shut the idea of emergency communications down.
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Mostly using things like defibrillators, since most of them are now software controlled, you need a certificate showing you have received the instruction on how to operate it. A medical license is not needed to operate a defibrillator or to give oxygen to a patient.
Of course state laws vary. Some do not have Good Samaritan laws, or so I was told during the First Responder courses I received.
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Due to this corruptibility, it was inevitable that drones would be used for spying and launching attacks on disobedient nations.
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Where do I sign up to declare myself a disobedient citizen?
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How will it deliver aid?
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Re: How will it deliver aid?
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Re: How will it deliver aid?
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Re: How will it deliver aid?
The person with the phone app could place their phone in an area where they want the drone to land, have the drone easily detect if it's a safe landing spot (looking to see it's a relatively flat area with a safety margin surrounding the phone), land, drop payload, and take off.
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But then again, a bad example. It could also be used to move interrogation material to the battlefield to interrogate a fallen enemy soldier, keeping then alive long enough to provide information about the enemy.
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Stay focused.
Note: Taco, not missile. Taco.
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plus they are very cheap, couple hundred dollars, you could probably buy several thousand of them for the price of one drone, that has anything like the capabilities you are talking about.
what if the person having the attack is alone, is he expect to defib himself ??? or just hope someone is there willing to help ?? (and not just steal the defib ?)
fire spotting, dam and power line inspections, search and rescue, coastal patrols, shipping inspections, oil slick detections, traffic monitoring, nude beach inspections.
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Unless trained aid is in sight, and announcing themselves loudly, the choice looks like watch them die or try to help with a defibrillator if one is available.
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Option 1.
File for bankruptcy before the event.
Option 2.
Include a consent form in the defibilator that the almost-DEAD person need to sign.
You have family to protect.
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a simple day or two course, for most of the population would save far more lives than as always trying to rely on the 'services' to do everything for you.. you dont like paying taxes, do you really want your tax money going to stupid idea's like this.
or would you prefer your education system to include level 3 basic first aid, making the chances of having someone nearby able to save your life much higher.
or would you prefer to watch, unable to do anything but call 911 ?
basic first aid is as easy as ABC.. learn it.
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Ripe for abuse
Give me a break. Dont you realize how bad this will be if we allow it to happen? Nah of course not. I cant believe you are trying to sell it to us. NOT BUYING IT.
We will all be livestock to be tracked and monitored by the time our kids reach our age.
We have failed.
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