I've learned in my entrepreneurship classes that often times the best inventions come from completely "off the walls" ideas that seem like they are completely impossible to either build or implement. These imaginary products often give way to actually feasible ideas.Last night I saw the movie "Vantage Point" (although I'm not going to discuss the movie in much detail, if you plan on seeing it, you may not want to continue reading) and an almost completely "off the walls" piece of technology in the movie gave me an idea for an implementation of technology to improve NYC's public safety.
Although used by terrorists, a piece of technology appeared in the movie that could be used on the safety enforcement to improve communication and timely response in the event of an emergency. This piece of technology was similar to a Palm Pilot but was able to carry through actions of other pieces of equipment similar to a remote control. For example, the hand held device was used to turn on a fan hundreds of yards away in addition to its typical text messaging capabilities. I'm thinking that public officials could have devices such as this one that could perform activities that could be necessary in the event of a terrorist attack or natural disaster. The device could manipulate traffic signal lights to clear way for NYPD or NYFD or could be used as a "chat room" for multiple officials from different departments to communicate. It could also have auto-set buttons working together with a GPS chip that could be activated if back up was required. This would enable back up (either police or more fire trucks/ambulances) to be quickly called for without having to stop what they are doing. I think such a hand held device has a lot of potential for use in public safety.
*In case you haven't seen the movie, still read this, and want to see it, yes I recommend it! It got really bad reviews and I would have to say that the acting/writing at the end got really bad, but I think the concept was really cool (just poorly executed) and the use of the technology was pretty cool too. Trailer Link
2 comments:
Saw Vantage Point. Hated it. I felt like my eyes were being tortured almost as bad as my wallet.
In regards to the idea of a palm pilot-device having the ability to connect all officials either to each other or to their lines of service, I think thats a great idea. Hopefully the T-attack doesn't wipe out our communication systems *gulp*
I also hated Vantage Point. :-/ The way it kept going back to the same moment in time was sooo tiresome.
I like the palm pilot idea too... Especially using it to manipulate things like stop lights. This would be a great addition but would need to be very easy to navigate as we want to make sure cops are doing their #1 priority.
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