Car-Sensing Cell Phone Saves Your Life

OKI, the Japanese company behind the wildly big-brother-ish facial recognition software aimed squarely at the surveillance market, has come up with another bright idea: mobile phones that warn you that you're about to be hit by a car.

On the surface, this technology sounds like a great idea. After all, there have been attempts to ban iPods, cell phones and other handhelds while crossing the street in some areas. Why? Because, apparently, some people are too stupid to look up from their handheld long enough to see cars heading right at them (let's not discuss the idiot drivers who can't spot the slow-moving tech-obssessed fools, not looking up from their handhelds). Carrying a cell phone that is capable of alerting you of oncoming traffic with a ringtone or by vibrating would stop gadget-banning legislation in it's tracks by solving the problem the hopeful new law tries to address.

However, there's a big catch with this kind of technology.

The catch is that both the mobile phone or motorvehicle must contain special technology that would effectively do the alerting. This isn't a case of an ingeniously designed phone that can sense when large objects are moving toward it. This is simply a phone with a transmitter/receiver in it that connects with another transmitter/receiver in a car that then says to it "YO! LOOK OUT!"

The technology that OKI has put into a cell phone could easily be added to any other kind of handheld or any other kind of device or vehicle at all. You could put it in tains to help cut down on train/car collisions. But again, that's the catch. In order for the scheme to work, everyone has to be playing along. It's probably a bit easier if you just think for yourself and look up from your video iPod or cell phone when you reach the curb. Don't worry, you can look back down as soon as you get across the street.

Just watch out for those lamp posts.

...and sign posts.

...and other people.

Just put the handheld away, OK?