Earthquake Phone

Locating Disaster Survivors in Third-World Countries

Robert Osann
Director, Osann IP Consulting
191 Parkway Heights Dr
Port Angeles, WA, USA, 98362
408-313-1990
bob@osann.net

Abstract— Mobile phones, phone systems, and emergency
location systems are described with features that assist rescue
teams in locating survivors in disaster situations where a phone
user and their mobile phone are buried under rubble. Outside
the United States, many Third World countries have antiquated
building codes and/or structures that are centuries old with very
low resistance to catastrophic damage in earthquakes, tsunamis,
typhoons, and other natural disasters. As a result, it is common
following disasters to have hundreds or even thousands of
persons buried in rubble – many still alive – but only alive for a
short amount of time. Ground-penetrating radar is too expensive
for most Third World countries, and sniffer dogs have many
limitations. Since most people buried in rubble have cell phones,
the most practical solution is to locate their phones.
Unfortunately, when a phone is buried the received signal
strength from the tower is considerably lowered, and the phone
uses up its battery very quickly. To enable a phone’s battery
charge to last longer, we describe an emergency power
conservation mode (E-mode) that is activated by either receiving
a command from an external source via RF transmission, or by
noticing a rapid reduction in signal strength from a tower
without changing the phone’s physical location. Transmissions
are also made by the phone from time to time indicating the
user’s health condition including providing an indication of life.
If the user can communicate but not physically move, a function
facilitating communication is also provided. To further facilitate
precise location of buried users, portable RF devices may be
deployed at grid positions to locate mobile phones by
triangulation based on signals received from mobile phones while
battery charge still exists for the mobile phones immediately
following the disaster. A program for guiding placement of these
RF devices on the grid accelerates the placement process.
Keywords — earthquake; typhoon; huricane; tsunami; third-
world; building; collapse; rubble; burried; locate.
I. INTRODUCTION – THE PROBLEM
For tornado, hurricane, tsunami, and earthquake victims,
especially those located outside the United States, there is a
lack today of effective methods and equipment to timely
locate people trapped in rubble where lives hang on a thread
and every minute counts. Many Third World countries have
antiquated building codes and/or structures that are centuries
old and very vulnerable to catastrophic damage in major
natural disasters. As a result, it is common following such
disasters to have hundreds or even thousands of persons
buried in rubble – many still alive – but only alive for a short
amount of time. Ground-penetrating radar is expensive for
most Third World countries, and sniffer/rescue dogs can be
effective but are also expensive and have limitations.
A. Current Methods – Rescue Dogs
While extremely valuable for rescue, there are limitations:
 It takes significant time to train a rescue dog (and dog
handler) with a cost of around $30,000 per dog [1].
Also, on average, a SAR handler spends about 1,000
hours becoming field-ready [2].
 Occasional resting periods are required during search
to operate at maximum effectiveness;
 In close quarters with rescue teams there can be a
propensity for a sniffer dog to confuse rescue
personnel with smells associated with buried persons.
 A calm, windless day with the sun overhead is the
toughest time for a rescue dog as smoke and scent
rise up from convective currents [2]. Therefore, the
probability of detection is higher on cloudy days or at
night.
B. Curent Methods – Ground Penetrating radar
Radar systems of various types have been in use for over a
decade, but prices are high, especially for Third World
countries many of which are relatively poor. Effective
solutions have been developed such as the FINDER system
developed by NASA [3]. However, even as such systems are
being commercialized the cost per unit is still in the tens of
thousands of dollars. This cost level makes it difficult for less-
developed countries to afford to stockpile an inventory of
sufficient units to handle a major disaster and deploy the units
quickly.
C. High Probability Disaster Locations
Forbes and GeoHazards International have determined the
world's most earthquake-vulnerable cities [4]. These include
in order of severity those listed in Table 1, many of which
could expect fatalities in the tens of thousands if a 6.0
earthquake was to strike. The only first-world cities on the
Forbes list were in Japan: Tokyo, Nagoya and Kobe. A 7.0 or
8.0 quake would produce significantly more severe results.

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Table 1. Projected Fatalities for Earthquake Prone Cities Table 2. RF Attenuation through Building Materials

City, Country  Estimated Dead 
w/6.0 Earthquake 
Kathmandu, Nepal  69,000 
Istanbul, Turkey  55,000 
Delhi, India  38,000 
Quito, Ecuador  15,000 
Manila, Philippines  13,000 
Islambad, Pakistan  12,500 
San Salvador, El Salvador  11,500 
Mexico City, Mexico   11,500 
Izmir, Turkey  11,500 
Jakarta, Indonesia  11,000 
Tokyo, Japan  9,000 
Mumbai, India  8,000 
Guayaquil, Ecuador  4,300 
Bandung, Indonesia  3,600 
Santiago, Chile  2,700 
Tashkent, Uzbekistan  2,500  Wi-Fi frequencies (2.4 GHz and higher) are useful for short
distance LAN connections, however would perform poorly if
Tijuana, Mexico  1,800 
used to penetrate rubble. As shown for example in Table 1
Nagoya, Japan  900  published by Security Today, RF signals (at 900MHz)
Antofagasta, Chile  800  penetrate glass and lumber much more easily than concrete
and masonry [7].
Kobe, Japan  300 
Pre-disaster, a cell phone can receive much of its signal
II. EARTHQUAKE TECHNOLOGY FOR MOBILE PHONES through windows, however a collapsed building (see Fig. 1)
A new solution - and one that is additive to existing search and will place many layers of lumber, brick, and masonry in the
rescue technologies and methods - is using the cell phones signal path – dropping the received signal strength by as much
which a great many victims already have with them at the time as 50db or more.
of a disaster. Cell phones have proliferated, even in Third
World countries, including an ever-increasing use by children. B. E-Mode
According to United Nations ESCAP, in 2013, the total To enable a phone’s battery charge to last longer, an
population of the Asia-Pacific region stood at 4.3B [5]. At the emergency power conservation mode (E-mode) is described
same time, according to Statistica, total cell phone users for for mobile phones. E-mode is activated by either receiving a
the Asia-Pacific region in 2013 was 2.24B in 2013 and command from an external source via RF transmission, or by
expected to rise to 2.8B by 2018 [6]. By comparing these noticing a rapid reduction in signal strength from a tower
estimates, in 2013 the probability that a person buried in without the phone’s physical horizontal location having
rubble would have a cell phone was approximately 52%. changed.
Further, this percentage would have increased noticeably in
the time between 2013 and the present. Fig. 2 shows a building which has collapsed burying people
(phone users) and their mobile phones. When the near cell
A. Attenuation through Rubble tower becomes inoperative, a buried phone will try to talk to
the farther cell tower and further increase its battery
Since a large percentage of people buried in rubble have cell consumption. Enter E-mode. Mobile phones may enter the
phones, a practical solution is to locate, and communicate emergency mode (E-mode) either in response to a command:
with, their phones. Unfortunately, when a phone is buried the from a cell tower; from a portable RF base station; or from
received signal strength from the tower is considerably another type of RF transmitting device.
lowered, and the phone responds to this lowered received
signal strength by using up its battery very quickly. Today,
most communication between mobile phones and cellular base
stations occurs at either 900 MHz or 700 MHz in order to
maximize penetration of obstacles.

2
 Before
Strong
Signal
Received
After
Weak
Signal
Received
Figure 1: Collapsed Building reduces Signal Strength
Additionally, a phone can enter E-mode when a function
internal to the mobile phones senses a sudden and significant
drop in signal strength of transmissions received from a cell
tower while at the same time the physical position of the cell
phone (determined at least in part by GPS) in a horizontal
plane has not changed according to the phone’s position
sensing function.
Upon entering E-mode, a cell phone will alter its operational
procedures and control of its internal circuitry to reduce power
consumption in several ways:
 A buried phone will greatly reduce the duty cycle of
both its transmit and receive functions;
 Power consumption during (shortened and less
frequent) transmissions for buried phones must
remain high for transmitted signals to penetrate
rubble;
 Power consumption during receive functions for
buried phones is reduced by altering internal biasing
within the receive signal path. Given that an
emergency situation is known by authorities to exist,
the power of transmitted signals from cell towers and
portable RF devices external to collapsed structures
can be increased, thus allowing power reduction of
the receive circuitry in buried phones while still
receiving signals.
Distant
Cell Tower
Collapsed
Building
Closest Cell
Tower
Buried User(s)
and their cell
phone(s)
Portable Base
Station or RF
device
Figure 2: Buried Phones and RF paths
To further facilitate precise location of buried users beyond
GPS location data supplied by a buried phone, or when the
buried phone cannot receive GPS signals, portable RF devices
(see Fig. 2) may be deployed immediately following the
catastrophic event at grid positions throughout the affected
area.
These portable RF devices can locate mobile phones by
triangulation based on signals received from a mobile phone
while the phone’s battery charge still exists. A program for
guiding First Responders in placing these portable RF devices
on a grid is based on GPS locations and accelerates the
placement process. These portable RF devices may
communicate with each other by a wireless mesh network that
can optionally use WiFi technology given that the inter-device
spacing would be relatively short.
Note that portable RF devices may in fact be portable cell
phone base stations connected into the cellular infrastructure.
As a result of a catastrophic event the local cell phone towers
may in fact have become inoperative, and portable cell phone
base stations may be used both for restoring cell phone
communications for rescue personnel as well as enhancing
communication with buried phones. Under normal
3
circumstances, cellular base stations are limited in their
transmit power by government regulations. However, in an
emergency situation it may be acceptable to allow a greater
transmit power in order to reach buried phones through rubble
to increase the probability of successfully placing them in E-
Mode as well as increase their battery life, since a buried
phone will think the nearest “cell-tower” is close, thereby
reducing the phone’s transmit power.
If the user of a buried phone can verbally communicate but
not physically move, a function within a buried phone
facilitates communication with rescue workers including
operation of a phone’s features by voice command. When first
entering E-mode, a phone may also issue a verbal message to
its user explaining the phone’s operation while in E-mode, and
also describing how to cancel E-mode if in fact the phone has
mistakenly entered E-mode.
If the buried phone’s user is incapacitated and not able to
communicate at all, the microphone on the buried phone picks
up any sounds of breathing and/or heartbeat and transmits this
information back to emergency personnel from time to time.
This provides an indication of the user’s health condition
including providing an indication of life. Since rescue
operations typically receive a higher priority than recovery,
this indication of life can help focus rescue efforts and
increase the numbers of buried victims that survive a disaster.
III. DEPLOYMENT BY MOBILE PHONE MANUFACTURERS
Compared to what is already contained in the ASIC chips used
in mobile phones, the additional circuitry to implement
earthquake phone functions will utilize minimal silicon real-
estate. Thus, once designed and tooled, the cost of goods for
earthquake enabled phones should be similar to today’s
mobile phones. Especially in countries that are prone to
natural disasters, earthquake phone enhancements should
increase desirability and have a positive sales benefit for
mobile phone manufacturers and service providers. The
market for portable base stations specifically supporting
rescue and recovery efforts is a new market and should offer
an opportunity for equipment manufacturers in the current
cellular base station industry segment.
To ensure that portable base stations communicating with
buried phones can do so regardless of which phone
manufacturer made the phone, an industry standard for how
such communications occur should be created. It is therefore
appropriate that a committee be created for an appropriate
industry-standard body, and that the committee then produce a
standard that all phone manufacturers and portable base
station manufacturers will follow to implement earthquake
technology. For such discussions regarding standards, it would
also be useful to include representatives from organizations
whose First Responder personnel would be using Earthquake
technology in actual disaster response.
According to IDC, leading global suppliers for smartphones in
Q4-2017 include, Apple, Samsung, OPPO, Huawei, and
Xiaomi [8]. For the Asia-Pacific segment in particular, IDC
data further shows OPPO, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, and
Vivo as the leaders [9]. Smart phone prices are continually
being pushed down as technology improves and economies of
scale take effect, and these companies should consider adding
earthquake technology. IDC data further shows the market in
India for smartphones is led by Samsung and Xiaomi, but also
shows a surge in lower-priced feature phones where Samsung,
Transsion, Micromax, Reliance Jio, and Lava are the leaders
[10]. Including earthquake functionality in feature phones as
well as in basic mobile phones would be a valuable
contribution to the mitigation of suffering for buried
individuals. These lowest-cost phones have the potential to
penetrate the general populace more widely. The economic
demographic of people living in less urban areas, where
structures are more vulnerable to earthquakes and other
natural disasters, is more in line with lower cost phones.
IV. SUMMARY
Rescue dogs and ground penetrating radar will continue to be
useful in locating survivors. However, it is also appropriate to
recognize that the majority of people buried in rubble have
cellular phones with them. It is therefore prudent to consider
combining existing methods with new methods that benefit
from the proliferation of mobile phone usage. Being trapped in
rubble is a terrible way to die, and in our world of advanced
technologies more can be done to mitigate such suffering.
REFERENCES
[1] Mark Zulo, “Search and rescue dogs prove an invaluable resource to
emergency personnel”, https://www.infoplease.com
[2] Petr H., “25 Facts About Search And Rescue Dogs You’ll Want To
Know”, https://list25.com, Feb 25, 2017.
[3] Elizabeth Landau, “FINDER Search and Rescue Technology Helped
Save Lives in Nepal”, https://www.nasa.gov/, May 7, 2015.
[4] Forbes.com staff, “The World's Most Earthquake-Vulnerable Cities”,
https://www.forbes.com, Dec 4, 2007.
[5] United Nations ESCAP, “Population trends in Asia and the Pacific”,
http://www.unescap.org, Nov 2013.
[6] “Number of mobile phone users in the Asia-Pacific region from 2011 to
2019”, https://www.statista.com
[7] Mike Derby, “Indoor Wireless Path Loss”, https://securitytoday.com,
April 1, 2012
[8] “Worldwide Smartphpne Company Market Share”, https://www.idc.com
[9] “2Q17 Smartphone Shipment Report (IDC)”,
http://www.instantflashnews.com
[10] “India Smartphone Market Finishes Strong…”, https://www.idc.com,
Feb 12, 2018
About the Author:
Robert Osann is a consultant and veteran of nine venture-
backed, Silicon-Valley startups. He was the founding CEO at
two VC-funded startups – including Lightspeed
Semiconductor – and a co-founder at three others. He is also
an inventor with 64 US Patents and 3 British Patents issued,
including multiple patents on smartphones and location-based
technologies. He is a graduate of Cornell University.