Even if you don't own an Amazon Echo, a NEST Learning Thermostat or security devices from Ring.com, you may have heard the phrase "the Internet of Things (IoT)" in the news.  These and other "connected" IoT devices are part of the latest wave of home automation devices that build upon your existing home based wireless (Wi-Fi) Intranet.  Most every IoT device on the market today requires you to connect it to your Wi-Fi environment before it can be effectively used to automate or semi-automate operations in and around your home.

If you are building a Internet of Life Saving Things (IoLST) device, the autonomous service it provides needs to communicate with the outside world even when a local Wi-Fi access point fails, or in those operational settings where a Wi-Fi infrastrucutre may not exist.  Because lives could be at stake, our LocateIT devices are an example of the emerging subset of oportuhnistic communication devices that can route content using more than one communications transport mechanism.  

Within the United States we have over 1.1 Million fire fighters who put their lives on the line each and every day to save the life and/or protect the property of others.  Surprisingly to most people in the country, over 70% of these firefighting heroes are Volunteers.  And no matter how much training these volunteer and paid firefighters receive, we loose far to many in the line of duty.  In an era where most every one of these heroes carries a personal or department-issued cellular phone with them into the fire-ground, we now have an opportunity to change these outcomes.  

Our suite of LocateIT devices are specifically designed to be that "Thing" that each and every firefighter will soon demand that the carry along with them into harms way.  Specifically, the LocateIT Tag is the device they carry within them that gets tracked.  LocateIT Anchors are deployed ahead of time - say in a comercial building, or deployed as firefighters enter and traverse the fire-ground.  The LocateIT Gateway is the device responsible for collecting and communicating location and tracking information along with system health and status content to external entities such as an Incident Commander (IC) or even back to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) or Emergency Operations Center (EOC).  iCode incorporates the location and training content into an optional overlay on our First Response eXplorer (FRX) Map.

Note: LocateIT is a marketing label created from the merging of the three words Location, Intelligence, and Thing