Through the years, IIIM’s collaborations with various companies and institutions have produced several novel products and services that improve quality of life. The collaboration with Rögg involves the development of new methods for locating people lost in the highlands of Iceland. The Icelandic highlands are one of the largest uninhabited areas in Europe. Every year hikers, tourists and even experienced Icelanders go missing while traveling off the trodden paths; they get lost and are unable to find their way back due to sudden, severe changes in weather conditions, lack of communication, improper equipment, and a significant drop in core body temperature, among others. This causes a number of deaths every year and has led Rögg to reimagine the tools used for search and rescue. Improving the speed of rescue missions triggered for such events would save lives, prompting IIIM and Rögg to work on developing a more accurate way to track and locate missing people. IIIM’s design and prototyping of algorithms makes use of data produced using triangulation methods from GPS signals and various other techniques, leading to improved rescue efforts that can ultimately mean the difference between life and death in the wilderness.

The accompanying video is a short clip from from Landinn, an Icelandic TV-show, reporting how this new equipment can be used to locate lost hikers more quickly. Note that the clip is in Icelandic. Full version of the video can be found here.

Landinn: Rögg