How 3 words helped find a Cambridge, Ont., woman lost in the woods
CBC
Speedboat. Overdid. Cameos.
Those three words helped Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) find a woman who was lost at night on the Walter Bean Trail in Cambridge, Ont., earlier this month.
The woman was using the app what3words, which uses a technology that can pinpoint someone's location within three square metres.
She called 911 first, but was unable to give her location. She downloaded the What3words Ltd. app, through which police sent her a link. When she clicked it, officers could pinpoint her location with those three words.
WRPS 911 dispatcher Jon Chessum said the app has been used by communicators and officers for five years because of its effectiveness.
While Chessum couldn't give too many details on the case of the lost Cambridge woman, he said the app and technology around what3words result in "one of the simplest ways to talk about location."
Now, Chessum and police are reminding Waterloo region residents that using the app "helps in emergency situations and it does get people help faster."
Jane Stephenson, marketing director of what3words, described the app as a "grid over the whole world, divided into three-by-three-metre squares."
"Every single square has an address of three random words. So I'm speaking to you today from our office, where the entrance [words are] filled, count, soap," she said.
What3words is a U.K.-based navigation technology company created 10 years ago by Chris Sheldrick, who got the idea after constantly getting lost or not being able to find friends while attending music festivals.
According to the company's website, it was initially created to ease "festival-goers and travellers to delivery drivers, event organizers and postal services," but has been used more and more by emergency services.
To come up with the technology, Sheldrick enlisted mathematician Mohan Ganesalingam and translation expert Jack Waley-Cohen to create a three-word address algorithm.
The app is free to use, only charging businesses to integrate the technology into their own product or systems.
"It's fascinating, the stories we hear every day about the different cases," Stephenson said.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.
Acute Care Alberta has extended its contract for another year with a private surgical facility at the centre of probes into health procurement and contracting.
As food bank use continues to climb across the province, front-line workers in Thunder Bay, Ont., are working to improve both food security and education.
More ads could soon be coming to Toronto’s subway system.
The driver wanted in connection with a fatal hit and run on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified, police say.
There are mixed feelings about the proposed Grays Bay road and port project, among people who live in nearby communities.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.
Provincial police in Lambton County have charged a 23-year-old man with second degree murder following a death investigation that began this past Saturday.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is forming a working group to tackle what it calls systemic issues in the justice system, but answers or solutions could still be months away.
A woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in a 2024 fatal hit and run in Truro, N.S., where the victim was dragged down the street, a case that went unsolved for more than six months.