The United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company PowerPhone Inc. a patent called “Integrated Call Handler and E-Mail Systems and Methods” that allows users to send SMS text messages to 911. The company will use this patent to allow users to send text and video messages to 911 if in need of help.
With nearly 90% of today’s mobile devices camera enabled, the public can be an incredible resource for a more prepared public safety response,” said Chris Salafia, president and CEO of PowerPhone. “The potential is limitless. Be it an image of a suspicious person, missing child, video from an accident or even an active shooting, scene specific multimedia can be an invaluable tool in ensuring our responders are better equipped with the one thing they most desire – actionable information.”
We’ve seen this around for a while now, but never implemented in such a way. I’d have to agree when Salafia says the potential is limitless, yet I can also see that some people may abuse this privilege. Someone taking a picture of a bum on the street and say it’s their neighbor who is drunk and wandering the streets, comes to mind. But PowerPhone Inc may have more faith in the community than I. Still, this sounds like an amazing technology that may indeed save many lives with its presence.
The real power is with in the companies’ ILM system, which can analyze and prioritize the content that is sent to the 911 call centers, and accurately dispatch the appropriate help to the people who are in the most need. The patent, numbered 7,764,769, is just one of the three recently granted patents to the company. All of which are centered around their Total Response® Computer Aided Call Handling (CACH®) software, which allows EMS, Police officers, and fire fighters to know what to expect before they arrive on the scene. This could can potentially save the lives of those in distress, as well as the people that are dispatched to the scene.
To learn more about PowerPhone and their services, hit up the source link below.
[Via: MobileBurn, PowerPhoneBlog]