I continue to believe that mobile devices, whether they be smart phones, netbooks, the Kindle, etc… will continue to have a profound impact on our culture and how people behave and interact. I also believe technology often moves much faster than the problems they can solve. This is not a bad thing, mind you. Augmented reality, which I have written about previously, is an excellent example of this. We are just barely scratching the surface of how merging the virtual world with the real world opens new doors for the less advantaged.
AMBER Alert
One of the most sobering real world events that I find when driving are AMBER Alerts. If you are unfamilar with AMBER Alerts, they occur when a child is abducted. The alerts are broadcast over the radio, TV and on electronic billboards (at least in California). You can also subscribe to AMBER Alerts via SMS alerts.
AMBER Alert for Android
Last week I spent a few minutes looking around the Android marketplace via the cyrket.com site and noticed a very interesting app called AMBER Alert. After looking into the app before downloading it to my G1, I saw it really was similar to the AMBER Alert that you hear about when a child gets abducted. The app shows you all the children that fall within the AMBER Alert criteria, sorted by state and consisting of the child’s details and a picture. Judging by the download rate, 5,000-10,000 in a month, it seems like something that people are interested in it.
The app got me thinking about how we can start to use all of this mobile technology to our advantage to help reduce child abductions. The app is a very good first step because you instantly get critical information, physical descriptions, pictures and locations into the hands of mobile users. An interesting second step would be to somehow mash up the abduction location or sighting of the abductor or child with Google maps which would also be viewable from your mobile device.
For example, if I received an AMBER Alert about an abduction and the vehicle was a blue Honda Civic, I would be on the lookout for such a vehicle. But to increase the accuracy of the data and drive interest in locating the abductor, if there was a Google Maps link to the last known location of the vehicle and I so happen to be in that area, I would be even more aware of this car. To take it one step further, what if updates on sightings of the abductor’s car also gets updated on Google Maps? Then a new alert is sent only to other mobile devices within a certain distance of the reported sighting, keeping everyone updated and driving more interest in finding the abductor/abductee. This would have to be tied in with local law enforcement so they are the ones that benefit most from having this real-time information.
Knowing that such a vast communications network utlizing every smart phone in the area is in place for child abductions, will that have any impact on future abductions?
There is also a slightly more controversial tilt on the use of mobile technology for tracking children in general. There are products out on the market now, including plain old cell phones, that parents can use to track their children’s whereabouts. I saw one such product on the Web that is a little gadget that hooks onto your child’s backpack. Every parent should look into the positive and negative aspects of such technology and the impact on your relationship with your children.
The Problem Statement
I have no doubt people are interested in stopping child abductions, the question is how do you safely empower them and maximize their capabilities. Using this as the problem statement, designing and building a sytem with the mobile technology out there today should be a snap.
Does this increasing flow of information due to mobile technology drive more interest? Can this interest be harnessed for something beneficial? What are the ethical or social consequences of introducing these products to market?
Tags: amber alert, android, mobile
Subscribe to this feed