This news item was a cool surprise. My instant reaction was “hey! What a good idea!”
Using photo-messaging to catch/convict criminals.
If you are about to be mugged/rapped (or in just about any other circumstances) then you could take a photo of the criminal and send it somewhere (anywhere, as long as it’s away from the scene).
This depends on a couple of factors (obviously)
[ul]
[li]Weither you’ve got one (they are probably rare, but they may catch on, especially if they have surprise uses[/li][li]How long it takes to send a message (“just wait, while I send this picture of you to the police. then you can mug me”)[/li][li]The quality of the pictures (likely to improve over time)[/li][li]The law (would it be ‘admittable as evidence’?)[/li][/ul]
Any other new (or old even) technology that surprised you for an unforseen use?
I seriously doubt anyone would have time to send off a photo while being held up/mugged/raped/whatever. That’d be a good way to get yourself killed in the process though.
Ok. so what if mobiles are (or could be) programmed with an emergency button (which would send whatever the lens is pointing at straight to the police)
The point is - it might not be a perfect idea now. but it’d be cool if eventually mobiles were perfect.
Imagine a world where almost everyone has a picture-message phone and can take photos of any crime in progress. the message could automatically have the message ‘crime in progress’ attached, and the police could triangulate the phone’s position.
This and the op are mainly hypothetical. mugging/rape was just an example, the point is using phones to catch crimes.