Emergency Alert SystemFor Union College Television and Radio

Bert CapuanoSenior Project Winter 2009

Advisor: Prof. Hedrick

Motivation

Emergency Communication

Emergency Message

Web Telephone/Text Messaging Public Address TV/Radio

E-Mail Website Siren Loudspeakers

Design Requirements Software Requirements

Secure Stable

Hardware Requirements Meet all FCC, Federal, and State regulations

School requirements Capable of relaying multiple pre-recorded

messages Meets specified response time

Documentation Requirements

Functionality

Client-Server

Client can be accessed with multiple browsers Tested with Firefox and IE (supports any browser capable

of Apache Digest authentication and PHP) Server logs all transmissions and commands issued Server runs Linux (Fedora 9) for increased security,

stability, and ease of software design

Server-Hardware

Message passing interface using RS-232 library in Python (called from PHP interface)

Plays back audio and displays text slide on S-Video output

Watchdog timer implemented on microcontroller

Message Passing

Future Work

Stability Controls Respond to hardware

miscommunication File management via web Custom Message text Custom Message Audio Generator Backup plan

Questions?