Smart Device Prototype for Automated Emergency Calls
Mihai Buf, Marco Manso, Bárbara Guerra · 2018
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) promises to transform our society into smart environments, incorporating smart objects that cooperate to fulfil specific goals. Amongst its many applications, emergencies can also benefit from IoT principles and use of automation for a better emergency response and reducing the number of fatalities. Smart devices can be used to detect emergency events (e.g., fire, presence of hazardous gases). In this paper, we present a prototype applying the IoT paradigm to the concept of automated calls. The prototype is capable to measure environmental parameters - such as smoke, temperature and gas - to determine the occurrence of a serious incident (e.g., fire in room) and automatically initiate an emergency call. To make our approach interoperable with most platforms and operational practices (including emergency services that mostly rely on voice calls), the system generates an audio call using preformatted messages and a text-to-speech engine. Our approach brings the benefits of automated calls without requiring significant investments to existing infrastructures (including those used by emergency services).