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"The system would tell the 911 operator that `we have an automated report of an emergency at this location, what you'll hear next is a microphone at the scene,' " she said. "That would allow the 911 operator to assess what kind of emergency was occurring, everything from a false alarm to rape that requires an instant response."

The system would operate silently, she said, "in a way that an assailant would not know was happening."

People knocked unconscious in a sport or other accident could still rely on the system if it were triggered by being detached from its hook or chain. 

"I have a partner who rides horses and said the lanyard could be attached to a saddle so if someone is thrown, it would activate the device," Ms. Vicci said. She also said colleagues had expressed an interest in giving the device to their children.

Ms. Vicci's invention is being marketed by the university's Office of Technical Development, which hopes to license it to a manufacturer. She won patent 6,175,329.

The global positioning system has given inventors several other new ideas as well. Viktors Berstis and Joel Smith, from the Texas communities of Austin and Round Rock, have won patent 6,185,504 for a G.P.S.-based system that analyzes traffic patterns on land and water in order to determine when best to open a drawbridge. Ships, boats and cars would transmit their coordinates from on-board G.P.S. equipment. Computers controlling the drawbridge would collect the information and monitor the flow of traffic to determine the best time to raise the bridge. Information about the height of the ship would also establish how long the bridge would be up.

"Preferably, the drawbridge should be raised during a period of a traffic lull and for as short a period as possible," the inventors write in their patent.

Gary Root and Frank van Hoorn, from San Francisco and Mill Valley in California, won patent 6,013,007 for a monitor that uses G.P.S. technology to provide feedback to athletes on "elapsed exercise time, distance covered, average pace, elevation difference, distance to go and/or advice for reaching preset targets," they write in their patent. The monitor would be built into a personal radio with headphones, and could be linked to a computer so the data might be downloaded.