Blog

Resque 4i incorporates What3Words

28 February 2020

The software company, ‘What3Words’ have solved the problem of how to easily identify where you are, anyway within the world, to within a 3x3m square reference point. The software can be accessed via a mobile phone App or via the company website. What3Words is simple to use and the three-word assignment is unique and fixed.

What3Words can used wherever there is the need to quickly and easily provide a location for someone to find. The service can be used to guide delivery drivers and service engineers, hill walking parties or find tents at festivals. The potential applications are extensive and the software’s ease of use is one of the reasons why What3Words is proving a popular addition in the emergency services world to the Remsdaq Resque 4i Command and Despatch (CAD) platform.

Using a visit to Remsdaq as an example, you could put our postcode or GPS co-ordinates into your sat nav. CH5 2NL is easy; our GPS co-ordinates are a little trickier 53.2215° N, 3.0255° W. In What3Words we are at ‘grunt.hotdog.decrease’. Now imagine being somewhere further along Parkway Road on our industrial estate and witnessing an accident. You call the emergency services, don’t know the postcode or GPS but have What3Words on your phone. Simply open the app and guide the emergency service to ‘opposites.differ.outsize’. A lot easier and more accurate allowing a faster response from the emergency service provider whether they are the police, ambulance or fire.

WhatWords is new a feature within Resque 4i. Any inbound caller can provide a Control Room Operator their three-word reference to allow their exact location to be quickly and easily identified. Following input of the three words into the corresponding field in Resque 4i will:

  • Return the corresponding Lat/Long from What3Words
  • Auto pan and zoom the Call Take GIS to the identified geo location

At this stage in the operation, the Control Room Operator will then use standard Resque 4i functionality to either mobilise to the Lat/Long or undertake a local gazetteer search to identify the closest entities. What3Words therefore provides an additional way within Resque 4i to mobilise fire resources to an exact geographic location.

More information at: https://www.remsdaq.com/solutions/mobilising/