Aerial photography is helping to pinpoint the location of people who need help in an emergency, reports Getmapping.
Part of the ‘Tracalert’ mobile personal safety solution, GPS satellites provide a precise location with the aerial photography enabling emergency response centre staff to locate the person in an emergency.
Supplied to Tracalert by Kingswood Map Mechanics, the on-screen aerial photographs augment traditional maps to improve the quality of intelligence that Tracalert passes on to the 999 services, the map firm claims. Tracalert is a duty of care system that locates lone, late and vulnerable workers in real time using a combination of GPS, mobile and Internet technologies. Direct channels with emergency service response centres nationwide via voice fax and e-mail ensure that all personal and location details are accurately communicated for swift localised response.
Tracalert is in use by a variety of public sector organisations from councils and housing associations to government agencies like the DVLA and the Probation Service. The system provides accurate information about individual workers and their location both at routine intervals and in the event of an emergency.
Tracalert uses Getmapping’s hosted service, Imagexpress Direct, linking to Getmapping servers providing access to nationwide aerial photography on demand. Imagexpress Direct enables seamless integration with software applications, web sites and business processes. Customers include web portals such as Promap and Prime Location and a growing number of public facing Local Authority web services.
What they say
"Nationwide aerial photography from Getmapping now allows us to supply our customers with location intelligence, which traditional maps cannot provide on their own. GPS delivers accuracy to within about 5m and the aerial photography enables us to see and understand the area around a particular location to ensure that help is informed and can be on hand much sooner, " said David Hentsell Chief Executive of Tracalert.
