University researchers in Taiwan have released a mobile phone application that with one touch can transmit to any number of people the location of users trapped in earthquake rubble or under mudslides, the professor behind the project said on Wednesday. University researchers in Taiwan have released a mobile phone application that with one touch can transmit to any number of people the location of users trapped in earthquake rubble or under mudslides, the professor behind the project said on Wednesday.The app transmits the latitude and longitude coordinates of people stranded in disaster areas, said Liang Chih-hsiung, assistant professor of multimedia and gaming development at Lunghwa University of Science and Technology.It went on sale in mobile application stores on Tuesday, following the massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan last week, Liang said. Users anywhere can download Mobile Savior for US$2.99 in English, Chinese or Japanese. All proceeds from sales of the app will go to victims of the devastation either through Japan’s foreign ministry or a Red Cross chapter, Liang said. The first installment will be paid out within a month. Thereafter, money made from the app will go to reconstruction and housing for people displaced by the temblor or the resulting tsunami. The application works by taking location data from a mobile phone’s built-in global positioning system and sends it as a request for help to emergency service phones as well as to family members, or whichever numbers the user programs in. “This project was my idea, because Taiwan has experienced earthquakes and mudslides where we can’t find people,” said Liang, who developed the application with four of his students. “With one touch, location data can get out, and maybe that would save your life. If you were crushed but still alive, someone can still find you.” Other inventors have developed emergency locator mobile applications, he said, but none use a single touchscreen button or are sold as widely.Taiwan’s last major earthquake killed about 2,400 people and injured 11,300 in 1999. Almost two years ago a typhoon on the island triggered mudslides that killed hundreds, with search and rescue work set back partly because authorities did not know where the victims were.The new mobile application can also work during abductions or other situations that are impossible to escape without help. Liang said it was too early to tell how many people had downloaded it so far. Related content news Google Chrome zero-day jumps onto CISA's known vulnerability list A serious security flaw in Google Chrome, which was discovered under active exploitation in the wild, is a new addition to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency’s Known Exploited vulnerabilities catalog. By Jon Gold Oct 03, 2023 3 mins Zero-day vulnerability Vulnerabilities Security brandpost The advantages and risks of large language models in the cloud Understanding the pros and cons of LLMs in the cloud is a step closer to optimized efficiency—but be mindful of security concerns along the way. By Daniel Prizmant, Senior Principal Researcher at Palo Alto Networks Oct 03, 2023 5 mins Cloud Security news Arm patches bugs in Mali GPUs that affect Android phones and Chromebooks The vulnerability with active exploitations allows local non-privileged users to access freed-up memory for staging new attacks. By Shweta Sharma Oct 03, 2023 3 mins Android Security Vulnerabilities news UK businesses face tightening cybersecurity budgets as incidents spike More than a quarter of UK organisations think their cybersecurity budget is inadequate to protect them from growing threats. By Michael Hill Oct 03, 2023 3 mins CSO and CISO Risk Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe