A GSM Alarm Device for Disaster Early Warning

The paper describes the design and development of an alarm device that can disseminate disaster early warnings to threatened communities over the GSM network. The device is capable of generating audible, high-volume alarms, flashlights and turning on an in-built radio in response to a warning message from an authorized entity via GSM\´s short message service (SMS) or cell broadcast (CB). The design of the device follows international guidelines on emergency communications, such as the ability to reach a large number of people very fast, awaken sleeping communities, and be able to acknowledge warning messages. The alarm has been designed as a last-mile technology in a larger disaster early warning network (DEWN). It is intended to be place in selected locations such as police stations, places of religious places and community centres. Thus the DEWN system and thus the alarm device presents a unique opportunity to test the concept of "GSM for warning"