A geolocalization system for emergency services, developed in the Valencia Region, is to be rolled out in six regions across the country.
The Valencia Safety and Response Emergency Service Agency (AVSRE) has successfully completed the first phase of its new Advanced Mobile Location (AML) system which can pinpoint the origin of calls to 112, the emergency phone number, within 15 to 20 metres of accuracy. Following trial periods in Valencia, Catalonia and the Canary Islands, it will be introduced in Aragón, Galicia and Murcia in the coming weeks.
The first phase of development of the AML system has been carried out for about six months “with very promising results”, explained the regional secretary for Safety and Emergencies, José María Ángel. “We are very satisfied with the results that are emerging as the precision in geolocation is considerably reduced compared to traditional technology”, which ranges between 2 and 5 kilometres in urban areas and between 40 and 50 kilometres in mountainous areas. Ángel explained that “this technological advance facilitates the ability of emergency personnel to give a better and faster response, which is a very important qualitative leap from which all Spanish citizens will benefit”.
The AML system has been operational in the Valencian Community since April while Catalonia and the Canary Islands began to use it in June, in a trial period, assisted by the AVSRE. After completing this first phase, the system will begin to be implemented in the coming weeks in the 112 regional centres in Aragón, Galicia and Murcia, whose staff will also be trained by Valencian technicians.
The main technological challenge of the project has been the development of the necessary software to get the AML up and running. With this system, the voice call and location emit different packets of data which are centralised in a single server for the whole country, regardless of the location of the emergency call. The software developed by AVSRE allows the relative data of each 112 call to be filtered and redirected to the appropriate region.
The AML is an emergency location system available in smart phones which receives highly accurate locations thanks to the three parameters of measurement: the mobile antenna, the telephone’s GPS and active Wifi connections.
Until now, the 112 telephone assistance services in Spain have had a system based on the information provided by mobile operators, according to the location of their antennas and the connection of the telephones to said antennas. This made it possible to find the location of the calls within a radius of between 2 and 5 kilometres in the case of urban areas, and between 40 and 50 kilometres if the user was in a mountainous area.
With AML, the 112 call centre receives the call via one channel and the location data via another, at the same moment the unique emergency number is dialed. In addition, this data is updated every few seconds, refining the data to give a more accurate location.
The Valencia Report 