***Check out a new story about us at Fastco Labs: Meet the Magician Who Can Fix Your Crappy No Bars Cell Signal.

***Keep up to date on our project and see new demonstrations at www.dots911.com.

DOTS911: Mobile Phone Signal Finder Software and Signal Enhancer Hardware

Mobile phones are everywhere - in February 2012, there were over 5 billion active mobile phone accounts. Globally, nearly everyone carries a mobile phone almost all the time and these ubiquitous devices are great tools for getting help when you’re lost or trying to resolve infrequent but critical events like a car accident or an injury. However, accidents on the road or on trails often occur in locations without cell phone reception, and the economics of improving signal coverage are such that wilderness areas and a huge fraction of roads will have massive coverage gaps for decades to come.  An estimated 100,000 people die each year because they need help in remote areas and can't make a call.

When you're stuck in one of these no-coverage areas and need help, our iOS and Android signal finder app will lead you back to the nearest signal.  Our Signal Enhancer hardware will amplify whatever signal you do have, often making the difference between having no useable service nearby and being able to instantly make a call.

Why you need the DOTS911 app:

 1. For everyday use to record a dot where your car is parked and then get back to it easily.

 2. For recording dot breadcrumbs to retrace your exact path back to your hotel or the start of your hike, ride, hunt, or car journey.  So you don’t have to depend on the kindness of strangers.

3. In an emergency or not, DOTS911 will lead you to a usable cell signal.

Why you need the Signal Enhancer: 

(that works with every cell phone and involves no wires or batteries)

 1. To get a better signal inside your house, giving you a more reliable connection and faster data speed.  Just leave it in the DOTS911 phone holder while it charges, make calls via Bluetooth accessories, and use it as a hot spot to provide internet service to all your devices.

2. To provide improved signal strength in emergencies.  This allows your phone to work in many places where otherwise there is no usable signal.  When your car is broken down or you're on a hike, the Signal Enhancer can amplify a weak signal thereby increasing the likelihood of being able to call for help when otherwise you'd be stuck without any phone service.

DOTS911 is insurance against getting stranded without mobile coverage.

When an accident happens and you have no mobile signal, the lifeline in your pocket becomes no more useful than a brick. Unfortunately, when you don't have reception, there's no easy way to tell where or how to find it. Tragic stories based on this conundrum frequently make headlines, with stranded hikers or motorists unable to find help despite being close to a location with good phone reception. That reception isn't useful to them because it’s invisible. See some examples in our video below: 

The DOTS911 app is insurance against getting stranded without mobile coverage.

When you can’t make a call, the DOTS911 app uses a combination of the individual user’s data and crowd-sourced data to find the nearest available mobile phone signal. In areas with user-provided data preloaded from our servers, you’ll find the nearest signal for your phone, but even if you’re the first explorer in a new area you’ll be led back to the last place where you personally had a signal. These two features are highly complementary. Neither depends on a current data connection, making them unique among signal-related smartphone apps. When a user has an accident and needs to find cell phone reception, the first feature shows the last location along the road or trail behind him where he can find it.  The second feature provides crowd-sourced signal data collected before the signal was lost, leading the user to the nearest location where anyone has ever seen a usable signal.

Signal location data will even be accessible on our website so you can view it with your computer and print it before a trip through a remote area, making it useful for those without a smartphone.

The DOTS911 app and signal enhancer prototypes work for our beta testers today.

Both hardware and software prototypes already perform exceptionally well. The software has already allowed beta testers to find a signal and avoid getting lost on multiple occasions. The hardware has been used to make calls in many isolated areas where there is usually no useable mobile signal, and closer to home it’s been used to increase data transfer rates by a factor of 10-100x by increasing 4G signal strength, instantly converting a 3G connection to 4G. Check out feedback from some of our beta testers:

The DOTS911 signal enhancer can boost your signal by up to 30x, works with every cell phone on the planet, requires no power, and is 10x cheaper than the competition.

Our signal enhancers don’t require any special port on your phone. Set your phone in the holder and you can boost your signal strength signal by up to 15 dB with no wires, no required power source, and at a tenth the price of powered signal repeaters that are much less successful at finding a signal in remote areas. This can be the difference between no service and 2-3 bars of signal, between a patchy 2 bars and steady 5 bars of signal, or between a 200 kbps and a 20 Mbps data transfer rate. 

The enhancer has meaningful gain at all current cell phone frequencies. The gain is more as the enhancer size increases. Also, the higher the frequency, the more the gain is. If and when the proposed 5 GHz. cell band is utilized, our gain will be considerable more than what we have conservatively disclosed. At Sprint WiMAX data frequencies of 2.5+ GHz we have seen gain of 15dB =X30 for the Ultra 16", 12dB =X15 for full 12", and 9+dB=X8 for the compact 8 inch enhancer. When we went to the remote high desert site in Nevada near where a Jeep with six overturned last December, they were not able to make a cell call, but we were able to easily make a cell call with the 12 inch signal enhancer. And that was connecting to a low frequency tower in the 850 MHz band. See our link to the story at http://dots911.blogspot.com/2014/01/dots911-trip-to-lovelock-nevada-to.html

DOTS911 belongs in your cell phone.

Imagine that you’re driving on a road in the mountains when it starts to snow or you have engine trouble. Before long you pull over and need to make a call for help, but you see you have no reception on your phone. What do you do? For all you know, there’s a signal 200 feet in front of you. Or maybe there’s a signal 5 miles back the way you came. Were you paying attention to your bars of reception on the drive in? With our app you simply look at your phone and have immediate visual directions to the last place where you were able to make a call. If you’re not the first user on this road, you can have crowd-sourced data for the area as well and can see whether the nearest signal might be further ahead or off your road but still nearby. Every year in the United States alone there are many thousands of serious or deadly incidents in no-coverage areas that could have been avoided with a phone call. Most of the time this sort of incident occurs within walking distance of mobile coverage, but the victim has no way to know that. 

DOTS911 belongs in your car’s emergency kit.

We have developed a device that can improve cell phone reception as well as any external antenna, but which is similar in portability to a phone and which requires no external antenna port. This signal-enhancing device is compatible with every mobile phone, regardless of design, and improves signal strength by up to 15 dB, a factor of thirty increase in power. We envision one of these signal enhancers in every car and in every hiker’s first aid or survival kit. With the signal enhancement device’s assistance, the five, ten, or twenty mile hike to good mobile connection can be shortened or completely eliminated, turning a desperate struggle for survival into a short wait for a tow truck or a helicopter rescue. 

DOTS911 belongs in your home.

Many potential customers are simply people with poor signal strength in their homes, which is a common problem due to the signal attenuation of construction materials. A 15 dB gain can be the difference between 0 and 3 bars of reception or 20 kbps and 10 Mbps data speed. The hundreds of millions of mobile phone users with poor signal strength at home would see a clear and immediate benefit from our hardware signal enhancers. 

We need your support.

We’ve refined our signal enhancer engineering designs through several generations of prototypes. The current iterations are effective and can be produced efficiently. We’ve fabricated 3-D mold forms from several materials using CNC machines for the main reflector and laser-cut phone mounts and bridges. Coatings materials that reflect signals as high as twice the frequencies used by current mobile phones have been selected and validated as well. These designs have been field tested by our development team and beta testers, and as you can see in our videos above, they’ve been found to work extremely well.

Our existing molds are great for prototypes but in order to bring the unit price down to consumer-friendly levels we need to transition to aluminum and steel molds, which involve a substantial capital investment but will allow us to create tens of thousands to millions of units without any variation from part to part.  We plan to use these molds to fabricate our signal enhancers in USA.

Our client software is feature complete on Android but needs development on iOS and further interface refinement to make the user experience as smooth and entertaining as possible, and the server side needs scaling up and interface development as well. In other words, we’ve already shown that the software works and works well, but we need to make sure everyone can use it without any difficulties caused by user volume or unique phone hardware.  We need funds for our app and web developers and for server resources to support our data infrastructure.

This is the right time to transition to production, but doing so requires capital. Your contibution is that capital. Our pledge to you is that you won’t be disappointed with the results. Together we can reduce countless dangerous or fatal accidents into mere inconveniences and convert many more inconveniences into complete non-events. Make a difference for yourself and for the world.

Thanks for reading.

Thank you for taking time to view our campaign!

If you can’t afford or don’t want to buy our signal enhancer, no hard feelings. We’re still going to tell you a fact we discovered along the way that may end up saving your life. It’s simple, but can be deadly serious!

Consider the following example we investigated while developing our products. We heard a news story of a missing couple in California who had driven in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle to Burnside Lake, 5 ½ miles off the junction of highways 88 and 89. Their timing was ill fated – once they reached the area a heavy winter storm left their car immobilized in snow. They had no working mobile phone signal where they were stranded.  The next morning, as the storm continued, one of them tried to escape the area to find help on foot and died a mile north of the lake.

Once the weather cleared, we drove to Burnside Lake to test our signal enhancer and determine whether it would have prevented this tragic loss.  On the way we had lunch at a resort less than a mile from the entrance to the dirt road leading to the lake. Nick, an employee at the resort, told us that he had gone there himself only two weeks before the couple got stuck.  He had the same major mobile phone carrier that we use and he told us that he got a strong signal there, so strong in fact that he could watch YouTube videos in his tent at night.

We then drove to the lake to verify his claim.  He was right.  We realized that if one of the couple had a phone with one major mobile carrier and the other used the other major carrier, that instead of needing to call 911, they probably would have called for a tow truck and gotten out before the heavy snowfall and maybe even had a pleasant lunch at the nearby resort.

This is often the case: the service areas of each mobile phone carrier can be radically different from the others, especially away from major cities.  When choosing a carrier or planning for a trip to an area that may be isolated, we urge you to remember this story and the benefits of having access to emergency services through multiple independent mobile phone networks.

We don’t want you to be the lead story on the nightly news!  We want you to be the lead story on our website, detailing how you used our products to get help when you’d have otherwise been stranded.

John Wilbur, our CEO, has a long record as a critical innovator in the tech world.

Learn more about the team on our blog.

Founder/CEO: John Wilbur designed the first joystick for Pong-type games, first coin-operated billiards game, the first microprocessor-based coin operated game circuit boards, and invented the first 80-column card for Apple Computers, allowing the Apple II to be used as a business machine with a full-width display and critical in making the world’s first personal computer word processors and spreadsheets usable. He also designed and sold manufacturing rights to the first 128k RAM card for Apple Computer, i.e., the first SSD for an Apple PC, and designed the hardware and software for the first multiprocessor LORAN, the navigational system used in virtually every ship and many airplanes for the last several decades. He brings DOTS911 a track record of innovating in ways that change the world as well as experience running electronics businesses and interacting with hardware manufacturers to ensure quality, lower costs, and improve yields.  See more in a recent Fastco Labs article about John and this project.

Founder: Jeffrey Wilbur has a B. S. from Yale University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from UC Berkeley as well as six years of experience analyzing market data, developing new products, leading research teams, interacting with customers, and shaping research strategy at The Dow Chemical Company. He has a deep technical background and extensive experience with the materials science relevant to the hardware we have developed.

Board Member: George Crow was a key member of the original Apple Macintosh team and a cofounder of NeXT with Steve Jobs. He has extensive industry experience at Hewlett-Packard, Apple, NeXT, Supermac, and Truevision.

Developers: One developer with six years of experience at a major internet-focused Silicon Valley firm and one with nine years of experience at a major internet-focused Silicon Valley firm.

Q&A

What if I want multiple Perks?

Indigogo is set up to only let you choose one Perk. But if you would like to add additional Perks, simple 'up' your contribution, and select the one reward. When the campaign is over we will send out a survey to all those contributing more than the Perk selected, and you select the additional Perks you want that you have contributed for. The survey will also verify where you want them shipped. Please limit the number of Perks to a maximum of ten.

Why are some pledge levels only receiving the Android app?

We apologize for any confusion.  Let us clarify: if a pledge reward level includes a copy of the mobile phone app, it can be on your platform of choice.  However, we expect the Android app to be ready with our first batch of production signal enhancers while the iOS app is targeted for launch when we ship our second batch of signal enhancers.  However, if you want a signal enhancer from the first batch and pledge at that level, you can request the iOS app and receive it as soon as it's launched.

Why isn't international shipping included?

International Shipping prices vary by location and country and the size of signal enhancer you ordered. It’s simpler (and cheaper for you) for us to handle this separately. After the campaign is over and we are ready to start shipping, you will receive an invitation to go to our website and enter your shipping information to pay the appropriate amount. 

Why are the international signal enhancers slightly higher priced?

At the moment, the additional handling, regulatory requirements, shipping costs in case of replacements, and support needs abroad demand more of our team. We currently have no manufacturing or assembly operations outside of the USA, so for now we cannot reduce our costs by shipping from a different country. We really do care about shipping our products to all parts of the world, so please understand.

How big are the signal enhancers?

• Compact enhancers with bridge, phone holder, stand, and packing can fit in an 
• 8 1/2” x 11” x 2 ” OD box. weight 16 oz

• Full size enhancers with bridge, phone holder, stand, and packing can fit in a 
• 12” x 12” x 2” OD box.      weight  1 lb 8 oz

• The Ultra enhancer with bridge, phone holder, stand, and packing can fit in a 
• 19” x 19” x 2” OD box.

Will DOTS911 offer a warranty?

Yes.  We will guarantee that you will receive a working signal enhancer and will warranty it against manufacturing defects for 1 year. We will provide written and video instructions on our website showing you how to test and use your signal enhancer.

Will uploading my signal data be anonymous?

It’s up to you!  You can upload completely anonymously if you’d like.  On the other hand, if you upload signal information and would like to have your account associated with it, that’s an option as well.  In the latter case, we’ll be sure to give you recognition when a user benefits from your data.  With sufficient funding we plan to add an achievement system to recognize our explorers.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank those who were an inspiration to us through their personal ordeals.  Because of you and your experiences, many lives will be saved.  With additional thanks to our team members and beta testers:

George Crow

Jeffrey Wilbur, Ph.D.

Lauren Kinnee, Ph.D.

Matt Spergel

Marty Spergel

Arun Luthra, Ph.D.

Michal Drewniak

Art Broughton

Dan Jacobson

Matt Lariz

Barbara Wilbur

Chris Carlucci