The result of the new shift should allow the 911 system to pinpoint the location of callers to within centimetres
Science
Internet-based 911 calling on the horizon; aim is to enhance response – Ottawa Citizen
Emergency and urgency, dialing 911 on smartphone screen. Shallow depth of field.
TORONTO — Emergency services will have to soon ensure they can pinpoint the location of people calling 911 for help on their cellphones.
The technically complex shift mandated by Canada’s telecommunications regulator to what’s called Next-generation 9-1-1 — or NG9-1-1 — should allow for a faster, more accurate system in which eventually data, photos, videos and text messages can flow.
“People mistakenly assume that when using a cellphone they’ll automatically know where you are because of GPS capabilities inherent in that type of device,” says Alex Brossault, a data program manager with the city of Guelph, Ont. “The truth of the matter is that it’s not exactly pinpoint.”
Currently, 911 dispatchers ask callers where they are. Landlines are tied to a physical address, while for cellphones, a process known as triangulation of cell towers can approximate a caller’s location to the nearest known road intersection.
People mistakenly assume that when using a cellphone they’ll automatically know where you are because of GPS capabilities inherent in that type of device
Problems can arise if cellphone callers don’t know where they are, or are unable to speak or hear. Dispatchers might only know a caller’s location within a couple of hundred metres, which can hinder response times.
NG9-1-1 aims to get around the problems by shifting to a new internet-based system. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ordered the new system in place for voice calls by June 2020 and for texts by December 2020.
Essentially, every connected phone will have an internet protocol address, which will be cross-referenced with key data sets mostly supplied by municipalities. The database will comprise every street address in an area and the entry location of buildings. Emergency service boundaries will also be accessible to ensure the right responders are dispatched.
The result should allow the 911 system to pinpoint the location of callers to within centimetres.
“We’re getting down to the metre, sub-metre accuracy,” Brossault said.
Currently, people who are deaf or have a speech impediment can text 911 services from a cellphone, but they have to register in advance, connect with 911 by voice call, then text. The general public cannot use texts for emergency services. That, too, will be changing in the coming year, with text becoming available to everyone with a smart phone.
Once fully implemented, NG9-1-1 will go well beyond talking or texting.
“Canadians could eventually stream video from an emergency incident, send photos of accident damage or a fleeing suspect, and send personal medical information, including accessibility needs, which could greatly aid emergency responders,” the CRTC says.
New Brunswick, among provincial leaders when it comes to implementing the new 911 technology, has come up with a civic address system that has improved support for current 911 operations and paved the way for Next-generation 9-1-1 services.
Canadians could eventually stream video from an emergency incident
Diane Pelletier, director of New Brunswick’s NB 911 Bureau, said the goal in any emergency is to get the right assets to the right location fast. New processes and tools were improving road data exchange with the province’s three most populous cities, and more municipalities were expected to get on board within months, she said.
“We can give our emergency service partners like police, firefighters and paramedics even more up-to-date information about the road network to help them get to the caller as quickly as possible,” Pelletier said.
Overall, the regulator says, the move from analog systems to IP-based systems should improve the ability of emergency responders to deal with call overload situations, natural disasters and improve responses.
In addition, the technology could eventually allow people to make 911 calls from instant messaging apps or even Facebook. The system could also manipulate GPS data say from a car’s navigation system to allow dispatchers to find someone who has crashed.
The CRTC wants the current 911 system to be fully retired by 2023.
Continue Reading
The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) has cast its attention skyward in joining other Northern Ontario stakeholders calling for better access to high-speed internet.
At its recent board meeting, the municipal advocacy group passed a resolution indicating its support for Starlink, a satellite internet service being developed by SpaceX, the company founded by U.S.-based innovator Elon Musk.
“We know today our citizens require greater connectivity than 50/10 megabits per second,” said FONOM president Danny Whalen in a Sept. 16 news release.
“FONOM believes that the Starlink program is our best option.”
According to a report released by Blue Sky Net earlier this year, the average download speed of participants in a study of northern internet users was just below 9 megabits per second (Mbps) and the average upload speed was just above 5 Mbps.
But for the average user that relies on fast internet speeds for business, education and more, download speeds of 50 Mbps and upload speeds of 10 Mbps are required as the bare minimum to participate in those activities.
In 2018, the federal government’s Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) set a new target to have 90 per cent of Canadian households with services that deliver download speeds of 50 Mbps and upload speeds of 10 Mbps by 2021. But that goal is still far from being achieved.
Starlink is aiming to deliver high-speed broadband internet, via satellite, to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.
It’s targetting the northern U.S. and Canada for its initial release in 2020, and has plans to reach “near global coverage” in 2021.
The FONOM resolution calls on the CRTC to provide Starlink with a basic international telecommunications licence, which would allow the company to conduct international telecommunications activities.
FONOM said it would also seek support from its partners for the Starlink program.
FONOM, which represents 100 communities in northeastern Ontario, works to better municipal government in Northern Ontario and improve legislation respecting local government in the North.
No longer confined to territories here on Earth, Russia has now staked its claim on Venus, saying it is a “Russian planet.”
This week, Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos, revealed that the country plans to send its own mission to Venus in addition to “Venera-D,” the planned joint mission with the US, the Russian state news agency TASS reported.
Rogozin was addressing reporters at the HeliRussia 2020 exhibition, an international expo of the helicopter industry in Moscow.
“Resuming Venus exploration is on our agenda,” he told reporters Tuesday.
“We think that Venus is a Russian planet, so we shouldn’t lag behind,” he said.
“Projects of Venus missions are included in the united government program of Russia’s space exploration for 2021-2030.”
The statement came the day after scientists revealed that a gas on Earth called phosphine had also been detected in the atmosphere of Venus.
Venus is similar in size to Earth and is our closest planetary neighbour, but it spins backward compared to other planets.
The study authored by Cardiff University professor Jane Greaves and her colleagues was published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
The discovery of phosphine on Venus elevates it to an area of interest worth exploring in our solar system alongside the ranks of Mars and “water world” moons like Enceladus and Europa, Seager said.
“Our hoped-for impact in the planetary science community is to stimulate more research on Venus itself, research on the possibilities of life in Venus’ atmosphere, and even space missions focused to find signs of life or even life itself in the Venusian atmosphere,” Seager said.
According to the European Space Agency, the Russians do have significant experience when it comes to Venus.
Its website states: “Between 1967-1984 Venusian studies carried out in Russia were at the forefront of international research into this planet.
“Since then, Russia has still preserved its unique expertise in designing and developing landing craft for Venus and continues to define scientific tasks for those craft.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, there’s a growing risk people may be tuning out information they need to know, says Dr. David Colby.
This undated transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, also known as novel coronavirus, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like.
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, there’s a growing risk people may be tuning out information they need to know, says Dr. David Colby.
“Higher-impact” messages may be necessary, said Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health.
“There is such a thing as message fatigue as well,” Colby said. “Personally, I think it’s not a question of increasing the amount of education we’re doing but rather changing it up into a different style so that it refocuses peoples’ attention on the issues at hand.”
If people keep seeing the same message, eventually they no longer notice it, he said.
“Improvements can always be made,” Colby said. “We never want to get to the point where we basically sit back and say, ‘We’ve done it all. Let’s wait and see what happens.’
“We’re always searching to have a greater impact on people’s behaviour to the benefit of their health.”
The 401 new cases reported Friday in Ontario were the province’s highest single-day total since June 7 had 415 cases.
The numbers are better in Chatham-Kent, which reported no new cases for the sixth consecutive day Friday. The municipality’s cumulative total is 366 cases.
One more recovery raised Chatham-Kent’s total to 362. No one is hospitalized.
Active cases are down to two. Both stem from close contact with other cases.
There have been 25,756 individuals tested in Chatham-Kent.
“As the provincial numbers of new cases are increasing substantially, resulting in all this concern … we are not seeing that yet here,” Colby said, “but we will always be vigilant to deal with whatever comes our way, both in a reactive but especially a proactive way.”
The numbers were reversed in late July and early August. New cases were spiking in Chatham-Kent but sinking overall in the province.
“As our cases were going up, the provincial cases were going down sharply,” Colby said. “At a time when the (daily) number of new cases in the province was less than a hundred, that’s when we were dealing with our huge surge. We dealt with that. We are at a very, very low level now.”
Sarnia-Lambton has one active case, Middlesex-London has 53 active after 13 new cases were confirmed Friday, and Windsor-Essex County has 89 active cases.
Colby sympathizes with people suffering from pandemic fatigue.
“It’s difficult because people are tired of this, and none more than those on the front line that are dealing with it in public health,” he said. “It is very difficult.”
Anyone who says there’s no pandemic shouldn’t look to him for support.
“I have no idea how to deal with people that deny there’s a pandemic,” he said. “It’s sort of, to me, like people that deny that there are trees and rocks.”
Business11 mins ago
Canadian police charged a Tesla owner for sleeping while driving – Engadget
Politics17 mins ago
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead at 87 – CNN
News22 mins ago
Canada is not in a second wave, but coronavirus cases increasing sharply: Tam – Global News
- Health6 hours ago
Public Health Agency of Canada president resigns as COVID-19 cases spike – Yahoo News Canada
Tech11 hours agoPS5 Disc And Digital Pre-Orders Continue To Sell Out Nightmarishly Fast – Forbes
- Business22 hours ago
Desperation sets in as CERB is set to end; these three Canadians are among the millions living on the bubble – Toronto Star
- News23 hours ago
Coronavirus: Canada adds 870 new cases, 6 deaths in last 24 hours – Global News
- Tech12 hours ago
The new iPad Air reminds us just how bad most Android tablets really are – Android Central
- Business18 hours ago
Some airlines are now offering free COVID-19 insurance – CTV Toronto
- Science15 hours ago
Texas youth hockey coach, 29, dies from coronavirus complications days after feeling sick – Fox News
- Sports20 hours ago
Mickelson struggles Thursday at Winged Foot – pgatour.com
