MyIDEA to facilitate faster, better coordinated rescue missions, says Chang

KUALA LUMPUR: MyIDEA, a disaster information system, will serve as a platform to enable rescue missions, especially in the case of natural disasters, to be carried out faster, better coordinated and systematically, said Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang.

He said that MyIDEA, which was launched today, uses satellite technology, which enables rescue missions to be carried out faster and in a regular manner.

"In the past, the victim called or sent a WhatsApp about being trapped in a location, but when there is a flood, we can't necessarily search by address, maybe the road is not visible, or the rescue team doesn't know the area well, so all kinds of things can happen.

"With this application, we will know the exact location of the victims, besides being able to detect them in real-time,” he said in a press conference, after the launch here.

MyIDEA, which was developed by the Malaysian Space Agency (MySA), was developed for the use of agencies involved in managing and providing flood assistance, which allows, among other things, the location of victims to be detected in less than five minutes, while the rescue period was expected to be expedited by 50%.

It was used to identify the victim's situation, detect the actual location, ensure that rescue management was coordinated and monitored, and archived information for visual display and future reference.

Meanwhile, MySA director-general, Azlikamil Napiah, in the same press conference, said that the effectiveness of MyIDEA depends on the database of an area, which needs help from local communities to develop their respective databases.

As internet access was required to support the platform, he did not rule out the possibility of requesting parties, such as the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) or telecommunications companies, to install communications towers in areas which do not have internet access at all, if necessary.

Through MyIDEA, those involved in disaster management efforts would send a link through the short messaging system (SMS) or WhatsApp to the victims, where the victims had to click on the link and fill in the necessary information, such as the number of victims and their condition.

MyIDEA would then track the victim's location, using satellite, before deploying the assistance team.

Through this application, search and rescue (SAR) operations can also be directly supervised, particularly the movement of the rescue team to the victim's location, in addition to optimising assets for the SAR mission by avoiding duplication of movements. - Bernama