Using A Mobile Based Communication System To Find Missing People

Abstract

Being out of touch with a loved one is concerning in itself, but during times of political dysfunction, violence, and natural disasters, not hearing from someone you care about is terrifying. People go missing from their families and friends for various reasons. One of the prominent reasons is natural disasters of high intensity. Other reasons why one can be missing are abduction, psychological problems and criminal offences. The aim of this report therefore was to investigate weaknesses in the current system of searching for missing people in Kenya, with the interest to offer a more significant solution. A study was conducted on humanitarian organizations and members of the public on their experience and take on the current manual system. An investigation of the most common methods used for searching missing people was done and the results amazingly prove that in as much as technology keeps improving in Kenya and other parts of the world, more needs to be done in regards to applying this technology to solve our own problems. With the use of technology, the solutions to our problems are within our power and reach. The results indicate that most of the respondents do not have much confidence in the current method of searching for missing people. From the results, we can see that the current system is not efficient enough, because most of the people reported as missing are either found after a long period of search or not found at all. The report concludes that we need to leverage on technology to device a more efficient method of finding missing persons more easily and faster. It is recommended that a mobile application for finding missing persons should be developed, since most of the population in the modern world has access to both mobile devices and the internet. After the development and evaluation of the mobile application for searching for the missing people, it's evident that this method will significantly improve and enhance the process of reuniting missing people with their friends and family. An F1 Score test was conducted on the use of the system and attained a 0.72 mark which is quite impressive in this dynamic domain of application.