Emergency notification systems are getting the same kind of technological upgrades as many other sectors in the 21st century. The newest advancement in this particular field is a mobile phone application that would actually allow 911 operators the ability to take control of a caller’s smartphone. This application would then allow for the 911 operator to gather medical information about potential victims right at the scene of an accident or other incident.
The application is being developed for the Android (News - Alert) operating system and is being created by a research team at North Texas University that is reportedly set to officially unveil it this week. The application would use the smartphone’s camera and other sensors to take a photo of a victim as well as gather medical vital signs. Gathering that kind of information will help the operators make more intelligent decisions about their emergency calls.
Because of the data that is being gathered by the application, it will have to be certified through hospitals and approved by the food and drug administration. There are a couple of other steps that would need to be taken for this application to go live. The emergency responder services would also need to integrate the new software that would allow it to work with the application.
Some emergency notification systems are finding that it is actually easier to integrate existing technology when it comes to making it work that much better. Some agencies are even returning to FM broadcasting in order to help them do their job.
Still, this kind of an application is part of a broader and national approach to making sure that smartphones play a better part in using 911 services. Most emergency phone calls are made by smartphone these days. The research team at North Texas is trying to find a way to take advantage of everything the smartphone has to offer.
Edited by Jamie Epstein
