The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), India’s telecom research and development organisation, is developing an interactive layer for its Cell Broadcast System (CBS) that will allow people receiving emergency alerts to communicate their status back to authorities.
The system, currently being used by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to send targeted, location-based alerts to mobile phones in less than 10 seconds, is being developed further to offer users options such as marking themselves as safe, requesting evacuation or seeking medicines during a disaster.
Separately, C-DOT is developing a voice-based query facility for emergency alerts, with the organisation planning to build the underlying artificial intelligence (AI) system in-house.
Creating a two-way channel
Speaking to HT on Monday, C-DOT CEO Rajkumar Upadhyay said the existing system, used by NDMA, is essentially a one-way channel from the authorities to citizens. The proposed system would allow authorities to get a real-time picture of people who need assistance. “In case of a flood, a telecom user could get options such as ‘I am safe’, ‘Evacuate me’ or ‘Send me medicine’. The district collector would then be able to see on a map who has responded and who is in need of help,” Upadhyay said.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking to HT on Monday, C-DOT CEO Rajkumar Upadhyay said the existing system, used by NDMA, is essentially a one-way channel from the authorities to citizens. The proposed system would allow authorities to get a real-time picture of people who need assistance. “In case of a flood, a telecom user could get options such as ‘I am safe’, ‘Evacuate me’ or ‘Send me medicine’. The district collector would then be able to see on a map who has responded and who is in need of help,” Upadhyay said.
{{/usCountry}}The voice-based facility will be designed to work across multiple Indian languages. “A person could speak in Tamil or Telugu and receive the response in the same language. The information would first be converted into English in real time and then translated into the user’s language,” he said.
Currently in trial stage in four countries
The voice-query facility is expected to become operational first, while the two-way functionality allowing users to select and send responses is likely to take at least a year to develop. Its eventual integration with the NDMA system will depend on whether the agency procures the technology from C-DOT.
C-DOT has also successfully conducted trials of the CBS system in four countries where it could potentially be deployed. Upadhyay, however, declined to name the countries as it is still in trial stage.
The development comes months after the government conducted nationwide tests of the CBS, including alerts accompanied by loud sounds and phone vibrations. The system was officially launched on May 2 by Union minister of communications Jyotiraditya Scindia, with a nationwide test sending emergency messages to mobile phones across the country.
“The objective is to ensure that a person does not miss a critical alert simply because they have not seen an SMS or their phone is on silent,” he said. “If you are on a beach and a tsunami is approaching, would you prefer an ordinary SMS or a loud alert? In such situations, every second matters.”