Electronic distress call and position finding system for rescuing distressed people

• US 20030107516A1
• Filed: 11/01/2002
• Published: 06/12/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/1997
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Christiane Linkenbach, Karl-Heinz Hansmann, Lutz Heinen
• Original Assignee: Christiane Linkenbach, Karl-Heinz Hansmann, Lutz Heinen
• Inventors: Hansmann, Karl-Heinz, Linkenbach, Christiane, Heinen, Lutz
• Application Number:
  US10/285,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20030107516A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.08
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 9/0005 by means of alarm devices for persons falling into the water, e.g. by signalling, by controlling the propulsion or manoeuvring means of the boat alarms responsive to presence of persons in a body of water in general G08B21/08
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/51 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12

Abstract

Electronic distress call and position finding system for rescuing distressed people has a receiver with a screen and a distress call transmitter. For evaluating the distress call, it requires the positions of both the receiver and transmitter components. The positions (A) of the receiver (1) and (B) of the distress call transmitter (2) are established by their GPS modules from the data of specialized satellites (4), which orbit the earth on stationary orbits. The distress call transmitter radios its position (B) to the receiver. From the two positions, the distance and direction of the distress call transmitter are calculated. If the system is used for diving, the switched-on receiver remains on the ship, and the distress call transmitter is secured to the diver so that it cannot get lost. When a diver is drifting away, the distress call transmitter is switched on, the system begins to work, and his distance and direction with respect to the ship are displayed on the screen. Then, the rescue of the diver is initiated in a well-aimed manner.

Claims

1. An electronic distress call and position finding system for rescueing distressed people,

characterized in that

the system consists of a receiver and at least one distress call transmitter, the number of distress call transmitters corresponding to the number of persons to be protected;

said receiver includes three functional parts in one housing;

a GPS (global positioning system) module for determining its own position;

a radio receiver for receiving the distress calls; and

a computer having a display (screen) for evaluating and representing the data received from the GPS module and the radio receiver;

said distress call transmitter included two functional parts in one housing;

a GPS (global positioning system) module for determining its own position; and

a transmitter which transmits this position to the receiver as a distress call on a carrier frequency.

2. The electronic distress call system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the computer of said receiver calculates the distance and direction of the distress call transmitter with respect to the receiver from its own determined position and the position transmitted from the distress call transmitter and represents them on the display.

3. The electronic distress call system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the housing of said receiver is splashproof and suitable for portable and stationary use i.e., the receiver can be both operated with storage batteries and connected to external power sources.

4. The electronic distress call system according to claim 1, characterized in that

the housing of the distress call transmitter is designed to be waterproof and pressure-tight up to 21 bar=down to 200 m depth of water, possesses an easy-change battery/easy-change storage battery with a charge control and is equipped with a securing system for securing the transmitter to the person to be protected so that it cannot get lost and interference-free data radio transmission to the receiver is ensured without restricting the freedom of movement.