(www.MaritimeCyprus.com) The cruise industry is booming, with more than 25 million passengers expected to be carried worldwide in 2019. But with the increase in numbers comes an increase in risk. When the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off Tuscany in January 2012, 32 people died in the resulting chaos.
The size of cruise ships, like the cruise industry itself, is growing. The biggest passenger vessels now carry more than 5,000 people, plus crew. The world's biggest cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, has a total capacity of 8,970 people. So how do you keep track of so many people – particularly in the event of an emergency evacuation when panic, chaos and confusion reign.
The old way would have been to check passengers off against a list – a slow and cumbersome process in an emergency. Now technology is coming to the rescue.
Recently, researchers and cruise companies are working together to test a wireless system – LYNCEUS - that is able to track and account for every passenger.
To quickly find everyone, even in a crisis situation, the crew can use a wireless network that covers the entire ship and shows all the trackers on a computer screen.
Researchers and cruise companies are working together to test a wireless system – LYNCEUS - that is able to track and account for every passenger.
Antonis Kalis, Head of Research and Development at SignalGeneriX, said: “Various cruise companies already provide electronic tools for their passengers so that they can make purchases or access their cabins. So we can integrate our tracking device in a key card or in a bracelet.”
To quickly find everyone, even in a crisis situation, the crew can use a wireless network that covers the entire ship and shows all the trackers on a computer screen.
Developers stress that this function will only be used in real emergencies, so everyone’s privacy is safe.
Yiannis Panaretou, chief executive of OptionsNet IT Services, said the system would be invaluable to help locate missing people.
“The ship safety officer can see where the crew and passengers are located, and there’s a way to focus on a single missing person — you can use a search panel to find exactly where that person is.”
The developers say thousands of these devices are already being tested by major cruise companies, all of them at a fraction of the cost of GPS alternatives. They hope they will be certified for commercial use in the near future.
Can wireless technologies help to evacuate cruise ships? In Piraeus, I asked captain Vassilios Gazikas, @celestyalcruise marine operations director, about the @lynceus_project system — it tracks people onboard, providing vital data to the crew. Details in #Futuris next week pic.twitter.com/H2TaiWlHXZ
— Denis Loctier (@Loctier) June 20, 2019
