Hacker News Reader

Comment by ep103 | Hacker News Reader

It would be cool if the remote in your pocket had a "Call 911!" button. So like, if I was out snowboarding, and saw an avalanche coming, I probably wouldn't be able to call 911. But this little drone is a good deal above me and the avalanche/murderer/shark/whatever, it could call 911 for me, and when they recovered it, it would have video of what happened to me. It could even fly towards a preset location (known ranger station), broadcasting along the way if there is no cell signal available.

View on HN

In an avalanche you can't call anyone to save you. It will take them too long to reach you, and you'll suffocate before they can reach you.

The chances of survival drop severely after 15 minutes of burial.

The only people that can save you in an Avalanche are the people in your group.

Source: Canadian ski patroller.

But you will have a video of your death.

Well. Your loved ones will.

What if the drone has a 2-3m acuracy of the position? At least in ski resorts the bystanders can immediately rescue the person. Off tracks, it often happens that 1 person is aside of the snow corridor.

While not a bad idea, I think the existing avalanche rescue gear is better suited.

That level of accuracy would be hard to achieve. Most radio signals (eg. BTLE) don't travel well through water (eg. snow).

Additionally, if you've ever dug someone out in the field (or practiced doing so) it takes a lot of effort to move snow. Being within three meters isn't good enough.

"At least in ski resorts the bystanders can immediately rescue the person" - someone who has never been in or experienced an actual avalanche.

No they can't.

Maybe avalanche wasn't the best example, but still, a robotic lassie seems like it would have uses!

The drone would hopefully though still be hovering above you so would help any people in your group find you faster

So basically the drone version of Lassie.

I was thinking of the drones in the Culture series, but yeah, basically!

Agreed. I also want a drone that can carry and emergency supply kit and drop it to me like Katniss if I get into trouble. If I'm running through the Grand Canyon and get bit by a snake it can drop/deliver snake anti-venom to me. Could also go over to a ranger or resupply station and bring other supplies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-rEI4bezWc

A fun idea but in an avalanche the chances of you reaching your pocket before being entombed in snow is pretty low.

Assuming you were still alive under the snow for a brief period of time you could hit the button then.

And if you weren't it could detect your heartbeat through a smartwatch and know you're in trouble.

obviously this is a less general approach; but i'd think the software could detect with reasonable certainty when it's subject was suddenly covered by snow.

A drone could detect loss of communication with the pocket device (snow or falling into the ocean should be enough to do that) and start some recovery/emergency sequence. E.g. stop + try pinging the device, if there's still no reply automatically call 911 with an emergency and GPS location. Is there a 911 REST API? :)

It could also automatically trigger some sort of warning on a high-enough acceleration detection. Enough Gs that it's likely that you've broken an arm - send out several emails to other people who you've marked as being with you. Enough Gs that it's likely that you just feel a fifty feet - dial 911 directly.

I thought they already had these specifically for avalanches, minus the drone. Some sort of tracking beacon that you can carry around, that will lead them to your body.

yeah, but this could be more general use case, like a robotic lassie!

They do, and if you ski the alpine backcountry without one then you must have a death wish.

Avalanche safety is one use case where, as with defibrillators or hospital pagers, I think people will continue for a long time to use simple, rugged, and purpose-built devices with very low probability of failure rather than introducing a million new failure modes by using e.g. a cell phone or flying drone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com