Virginia Company Unveils Text-Detection Device
From the commonwealth where radar detectors are verboten, and speeding has more in common with sex crimes than physical graffiti, a local company has developed a device that can detect the sort of signals a phone might emit when its owner is texting.
The Virginian-Pilot reports ComSonics of Harrisonburg, Va. has tweaked technology used by cable repairmen to find damaged wiring to detect transmission data from a phone sending a text. The device, as explained by calibration services manager Malcolm McIntyre, can differentiate between texting, phone calls and data transmissions by frequency.
Though the text-detecting device is “close to production,” according to McIntyre, privacy concerns, legislative red tape, and adoption by law enforcement are likely to slow down progress for now.
Virginia commonwealth law states phone calls by drivers are legal, while texting is illegal. Should the device enter into the fight, however, enforcement of the law may become more muddied, since anyone in a given vehicle could be sending texts; the device likely will not be able to nail down the exact position of the transmission.
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@ CoastieLenn : You're trying to reason with / explain things to emotional children who are liars to boot . The carnage caused is clear , there are no honest stats showing otherwise , the irresponsible children do not want to follow Societal Rules nor accept any responsibility for their childish actions . Agreed , Cops often mis use their authority but since we all get away with minor infractions daily , why while like babies when we get the pinch eventually ? . -Nate
The technical explanation of this thing strikes me as complete BS. Text messages *exist* because they fill up unused space in the frequency bands the tower and the phone use to communicate status information. (Ever notice those weird noises your speakers make when your phone is sitting next to them, even though you're not on a call?) And distinguishing between voice and data is about to become impossible; Verizon just became the first carrier to start carrying voice conversations over data frequencies (VoLTE). Moreover, how would you ever distinguish between driver and passenger devices, or between driver-initiated and background data transmissions?
speeding has more in common with sex crimes than physical graffiti (???)
I'm not going to defend texting when driving, but to me these seems to be all about new revenue streams. It will also be one of those automatic "I get too pull anyone over I want" devices that the cop will swear up and down told him the driver was texting, thus he needed to search the driver, the phone, and the rest of the car to make sure there wasn't another phone that was being hidden, etc. I'd rather be driving on the roads with people that text rather than cops using electronic surveillance on people's phones.