Weather Channel, with the support of IBM, has released a new Android application that is capable of transmitting messages between smartphones without cellular communication: warnings and instructions sent through it will reach the addressee during earthquakes, mass festivities, terrorist attacks and any other unforeseen circumstances, the blog says. Company.
A miniature by modern standards program - just 3.2 MB - was created specifically for the growing markets of Asia, Latin America and Africa. To transmit alerts, it uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks and, according to the developers, is able to do this at a distance of 200 to 500 feet (60-150 meters). However, it consumes no more battery power than any other application and does not require changes to the network settings of the phone.
The application sends information directly from one device to another using Mesh Network Alerts, an IBM-developed data transfer technology. The principle of the technology is built on the interaction of cells, where each connected device acts as a switch for other devices. A large number of link-routes ensures that when the cell "drops out" the warning will still be delivered by any other possible path.
This principle ensures high resiliency of the mesh-network, but at the same time imposes on it a natural limiter - popularity. The quality, speed and other parameters of data transmission directly depend on the number of active cells - that is, on the number of people with the installed application.
According to the developers, the technology of Mesh Network Alerts, as well as other new solutions from the Weather Channel application for growing markets, may appear in the main application of the company before the end of 2017.
IBM has teamed up with Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft to jointly develop artificial intelligence.