Politics & Government
PASSION App Helps Keep Track At Sea
The Navy announced a new smartphone app designed to help keep tabs on ships and their contents.
When we were stationed in Everett, WA almost two years ago, my husband was attached to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier.
Aircraft carriers are massive. They really are like floating cities. There are 5,000 sailors, more than 2,000 compartments, 75 aircraft on board. I often wondered how difficult it must be to keep up with where everyone was on the ship at any given time. Well, now there’s an app for that!
The people at the United States Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. have released a smart phone app called PASSION which stands for Precise At-Sea Ship System for Indoor-Outdoor Navigation.
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The PASSION system uses wireless technology for not only internal and external surveillance of ships and aircraft, but also for tracking people and high value assets.
In April, the real-time capability of the PASSION APP was demonstrated aboard The U.S.S. George Bush. In recent upgrades, PASSION has the ability to be instantly loaded onto a smart phone and to send text alerts or email to personnel in specified areas.
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In press release this month, Dr. John Kim, ONR program officer for Navigation and Timekeeping described PASSION as “Real-time situational awareness." He went on to say that it is very beneficial to know where high value assets and personnel are in emergency situations.
According to Kim, PASSION works by building a map of the ship on the smart phone without human interaction.
Because the PASSION APP works on already existing smart phone software, it is an all-inclusive phone, GPS and wi-fi solution at a very low cost. PASSION supports and improves force protection, maintenance and damage-control response with it’s tracking ability.
Eventually PASSION will be released to ships and aircraft that would benefit from the APP’s tracking ability, but for now it is being tested for Nimitz-class ships. PASSION will also be tested onboard moving ships at sea using more advanced software.
Now, if I could just get this PASSION APP on my smart phone to track my teenagers, life would be even easier.
