Chip to nip trouble
PINPOINTING the location of a fire out- break has often caused a lot of heart- burn to firemen. Not any more: the New Delhi-based National Informatics Centre (Nic) has @ome out with a new software which enables the user to identify a location even with half-baked information about the address.
In answer to a distress call, the address given by the caller is fed into a computer terminal. The actual location starts blinking on a map on the screen immediately. The system, so far used only in the West, can also plot the most convenient routes for reaching the trouble spot. According to Mahesh Chandra, NIC technical director, the system can be installed in a car; all it will need is a modem, a small computer terminal and a cellular phone.
The system, initially being introduced in the capital, will be released to emergency services like the police, fire brigades and hospitals by the end of this year.