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Yasuyuki MARUYAMA Toshiaki MIYAZAKI
After a natural disaster it is critical to urgently find victims buried under collapsed buildings. Most people habitually carry smartphones with them. Smartphones have a feature that periodically transmits Wi-Fi signals called “Probe Requests” to connect with access points. Moreover, smartphones transmit “Clear to Send” when they receive a “Request to Send” alert. This motivated us to develop a hand-held smartphone finder system that integrates a novel method for accurately locating a smartphone using the Wi-Fi signals, to support rescue workers. The system has a unique graphical user interface that tracks target smartphones. Thus, rescue workers can easily reach victims who have their smartphones with them under collapsed buildings. In this paper, after introducing the localization method, the system architecture of the smartphone finder and its prototype system are described, along with some experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of the smartphone finder prototype.