CIE Components in Electronics
The Communicator has been designed to help professionals who depend on mapping locations, such as the Police, Military and mountain rescue services, and is a cost effective solution that can integrate with a range of wireless data bearers, making it suitable for a variety of in-the-field applications.
Current commercial devices capable of displaying a live map are generally vehicle-mounted, making them impractical and bulky. Communicator is a durable and rugged hand held device that can cope with challenging conditions.
The Communicator system enables points, lines and areas of interest to be exchanged between devices and updated in real time to meet a wide range of operational requirements. In a search and rescue scenario this provides the flexibility to assign users a specific square on a mapped grid, making a search far more efficient and coordinated. Tiered tracking management via Communicator, laptops or PCs will make it easy to monitor a search and assign tasks and change search perimeters remotely.
Search and rescue cost the UK £62.26 million in 2009/2010. This included efforts of the Air Rescue Coordination Centre, the RAF Sea King Search and Rescue force and the RAF Mountain rescue service. Innovation to cut costs in this area could be critical in these times of public spending cutbacks.
Communicator is also a highly versatile ruggedised two-way radio. It is able to work with multiple radio technologies, including GPRS, 3G, TETRA, LTE and Iridium. It will be capable of two way data messaging and emergency distress signaling, and features Bluetooth for connection to legacy modems.
Other features of the ultra ruggedised handset include a 3.5” high-res, high contrast LCD day / night screen, large button controls and touchscreen. All features that could be easily applied to other technologies in other hand held device applications such as mobile phones, which may well be necessary when considering that there were over 1 million mobile phone insurance claims in 2010 and 60% of those claims were for accidental damage.
The software used can be entirely adapted to make it compatible with any mapping system or android platform and bespoke products can be designed for different applications. This adaptability makes Communicator an attractive proposition for OEMs looking to develop a two-way radio/navigation or ruggedised handheld device with minimal time-to-market.
“Communicator builds on CDP’s experience in creating designs such as the ruggedised, award-winning Satmap 10, amongst many others. Next generation functionality, including powerful scripting software and two-way data communication, offers a new solution for a variety of industries and professions,” said Mike Beadman, partner, at Cambridge Design Partnership.
Cambridge Design Partnership is now looking for OEM-partners who might be interested in adopting this design.
