New satellite navigation system may save firefighters

LONDON (Reuters) - A new tracking system to pinpoint people inside smoked-filled buildings has been developed in a move that should slash the risks faced by firefighters.

French aerospace company Thales (TCFP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said on Wednesday its Indoor Positioning System (IPS) was aimed initially at helping fire services although it could also be used by the police and armed forces.

Eventually, it could also be applied in the consumer market and offered as an additional service with GPS-enabled cell phones, allowing users to navigate around shopping malls or airports.

The IPS system -- effectively an indoor form of satellite navigation (sat-nav) -- was developed at the company's technical laboratory in Reading, west of London.

Traditional Global Positioning System (GPS) devices are of no use inside buildings because their signals are too weak and frequently bounce off surfaces, causing confusion.

A Thales spokeswoman said the new system was based on a new kind of radio signal, called Ultra Wide Band, designed for very short range and high data-rate links.

It uses radio pulses that can, for example, establish the positions of firefighters inside a building with respect to each other and to fire trucks outside.

Thales is working on the new system, which was first reported in New Scientist magazine, in association with Britain's Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by David Cowell)