We know that texting while driving is bad and should be avoided at all costs. There are countless reports about the dangers of tapping away on your smartphone behind the wheel that it really shouldn’t be necessary to hammer this point home every time. Unfortunately there are still a lot of drivers out there that put their lives and the lives of others at risk. There are a lot of apps available that can stop users from texting while driving, and today the USTPO published an Apple patent about technology that can block users from doing just that.
The obvious advantage of this technology would be the fact that it would most likely be baked into iOS. So all compatible devices will get this feature without users having to pay for it. Titled “Driver handheld computing device lock-out” the patent explains a system that can “intelligently” determine whether the user is driving, and when it does, the system shuts off the function.
Apple lists two methods through which the lock-out system can determine if a user is driving. First would rely upon on-board sensors on the device to find out if a user is trying to text behind the wheel. The other method would utilize blocking signals being transmitted from the car to the iOS device.
The existing CarPlay feature can be leveraged to provide blocking signals to the iOS device. This way users won’t be able to access distracting functions like SMS messaging when they’re driving. Hopefully this will make roads safer around the world. Apple hasn’t confirmed as yet if it intends to add this feature in the upcoming major iOS update.
Apple Patents Tech That Can Block Users From Texting While Driving , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Apple, Cellphones, patents, texting,
Not too many of us are willing to admit it, but it most likely has happened to you. You are walking along and you get a text that you need to reply to. Do you stop, step out of everyone’s way and then reply? Most likely you continue walking, your eyes focused on the phone in your hands and not on the inevitable light pole just ahead. We all know what happens next, we have all seen the youtube videos and think that it could never happen to you.
According to the numbers, for every minute it takes for first responders to reach a person suffering from cardiac arrest, their odds of survival drop by 10% and this is one of the reasons why Sweden has come up with an interesting and potentially life-saving method of helping those with cardiac arrest as quickly as possible. This is done through the help of volunteers and text messages. For instance when someone dials 112 (Sweden’s emergency number), it not only calls emergency services but it also sends a text messages to volunteers who are situated within 500 meters of the person who sent the text message, allowing them to arrive and perform CPR if necessary.
