Research Plan iRespond is a device that will provide an immediate response to a certain location where help and assistance is needed. To provide this type of service, communication is needed between distinct points. The patron, cell tower, 911 call center/dispatcher, and emergency vehicle are all the points that need to be contacted. Initially, a device or beacon is activated by a patron. This sends a signal to the closest cellular tower in range. The transmission is sent to the closet appropriate 911 call center according to the location of the cell tower. The 911 dispatcher communicates with emergency vehicles and sends them to the Cell Patron location of the patron where the assistance can Tower be given. Different protocols have to be followed in order for this transmission to be sent successfully. It is important to remember that Emergency 911 Call Response iRespond will not be providing voice-to-voice Center Vehicle communication with the patron and the 911 dispatcher. All the iRespond device does is 911 triangulate the device’s current location using Dispatcher GPS and nearby cell towers and transmits this location data along with a prerecorded message. The infrastructure to communicate between cell towers and 911 call centers has been established and is maintained by existing companies. The technology is proven and works with success so iRespond takes advantage of that with our lone device. To establish communication with cell towers, we use CDMA technology. Currently, cell technologies are very competitive in the United States and provide mainly two choices with communication protocols, CDMA and GSM. CDMA has the market in the Americas. Globally, GSM is the majority. It makes sense for iRespond to use CDMA because of the coverage area and the US is the primary market. We want to reach as many points as possible. CDMA communication is a newer technology built from the bottom up. The origins come from AMPS or easily called the Analog signal. This is a lower 800MHz frequency that is used to establish communication. In order to establish communication, one specific radio frequency is used. Using this Analog signal does not provide a secure and reliable communication link. Close radio frequencies (other established calls) gave way to interference problems and “ghostly” voices that were from other calls that were very close in radio frequency. And another major con was very poor battery life. One way of improving technology was CDMA. CDMA provides a more secure digital signal. A higher frequency is used and the signal to establish communication is spread across multiple frequencies. The signal is sent using about 1.5MHz of the radio spectrum which provides the security and reliability. The CDMA chip on the cell phone and the cell tower interpret the signals easily and can only be interpreted from source to target only. And also going digital gives about 3-4 times more battery use. CDMA Digital would be the way to go, but not everyone has a CDMA chip. The competitor GSM is another technology. The problem with GSM is that the technology is not well established in the United States. Another problem with GSM is that the technology is based on old technology developed many years ago. The developers wanted to provide an easy upgrade for users by enhancing the existing means of communication which is proving now to be a critical mistake. And now Qualcomm is establishing a new chip that upgrades both CDMA and GSM so that one unique technology can be used. GSM does work but not as superior as CDMA. iRespond will need to follow these changes and upgrade as needed. Right now Analog is being phased out. Analog is still ideal though because of the large signal area it provides. The signal being used by the device would use a CDMA signal and when not available use the Analog signal to establish communications. As newer and better emerges, iRespond will upgrade the communications chip that will provide the best means of communication. Once communication is established a message is sent. The message consists of the location data and the prerecorded message. The location data is gathered by triangulation. Two methods of triangulation that will be used: GPS and cell towers. GPS uses current satellite location to calculate the longitude and latitude of the location. The more satellites the iRespond device is able to connect with provides a precise location. At least two need to be established before any triangulation can be done. This calculation is done on a chip on the iRespond device. Storms, trees, buildings are among the things that can block a successful GPS lock with a satellite. Also, the total time to find the exact location can be cumbersome at times especially with fewer satellite locks. But because of how precise the triangulation is GPS is very ideal in providing location data. Cell tower triangulation also provides location data. From the E911 mandates, triangulation must be possible using the cell towers. Triangulation is a lot quicker using cell towers since all towers are fixed. Three towers are required to establish a successful triangulation. The degree of preciseness is about 20 feet, but this will not be met until full E911 Phase 2 compliance has been met by all cell towers. The mandate required E911 to be completed by December 31, 2005. Currently, extensions have been provided to companies because of the difficulty and man hours required to meet the mandates. Antennas for both GPS and cell are used for receiving the GPS satellite data. Cell towers communicate with the device to give the exact triangulation point of the signal. The size is conveniently compact to provide for a very small device. Going with a big antenna does improve reception, but doing so goes against our compact device idea. The device has to be able to sit inside your hand or pocket comfortably without give the feeling of weights. iRespond is not designed to be a hassle for the patron. The second part of the message is the prerecorded message. The prerecorded message consists of the name, birthday, age, optional medical information, contact information, and anything that patron would like recorded. The message is created during the registration process of the device in which a separate dial-up connection is established that downloads the prerecorded message and account information. The prerecorded message is encoded using the same technology that is used by MP3 players today to encode music. The technology allows us to create a sound file that is very small and understandable to the 911 dispatcher. LAME MP3 encoding is free to use and can be easily used to create on-the-fly sound files. The prerecorded message is stored directly on the device on a flash memory device. The flash memory does not need to be plentiful in size since the audio file is very small to begin with. Once the iRespond device establishes the connection the prerecorded message plays. A decoder translates the mp3 sound file to audible audio that is directly connected to what is equivalent to a microphone (It is important to note that the iRespond device will have no audible feedback or input meaning no earpiece or microphone). Once the 911 dispatcher gathers all the required data, the 911 dispatcher informs the emergency response vehicle of the precise location and of all data that is stated on the prerecorded message. The iRespond device is going to be designed for durability using injection molding of hard plastics. The device is rechargeable using the base station provided with the device. The lithium battery provides many charges and is easily changeable at the end of the battery’s life time. Batteries are also being improved with technology that charges a battery full in under 10 minutes and provides almost a month of standby battery life. iRespond has many means of improving. As stated earlier, cell chip technology is advancing everyday. Triangulation is getting more precise and closer to the exact location. Cell coverage is expanding as every month new towers go up. These among others provide improvements that are ideal to development of the iRespond device.