Coast Guard Uses Pocket PC To Save Lives

Few jobs are more results-defined than search and rescue, and few present the same harsh environmental challenges. When a call comes in, time is the most precious commodity of all. The quest to save time is born from life-and-death situations, and that quest is what drove the crew of the U.S. Coast Guard's Station Oregon Inlet to develop and implement an award-winning solution using GPS capabilities, sophisticated mapping software and a rugged Pocket PC.

As you would imagine, searches rarely occur in optimal conditions. Between the typically bad weather and the emergency nature of the calls that come in, the search-and-rescue teams have to perform under challenging conditions and extreme time pressure.