July 6, 2012
New RFID Device Could Jam Your Cell Phone While Your Car is Moving
A new device could force drivers to hang up their phones. Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Ed Poor
Drive on any road or highway, and you’ll come upon the same irritation. A car is going slowly in the left lane, or swerving in the right, or turning without using a signal. When you finally pass, you probably aren’t the least bit surprised to see what’s going on: The driver is distracted by a cell phone.
The use of mobile phones while driving isn’t just an irritation—it’s an increasingly dangerous trend. A survey by the Department of Transportation found that 18 percent of all distraction-related fatal car crashes in the United States involved a phone, and a University of Illinois study showed that talking on a phone consistently reduced drivers’ response times, whether they used a hands-free device or not. As smartphones proliferate, things are only getting worse: A recent survey of smartphone owners indicated that nearly 20 percent browse the web while driving, and data indicate that texting while driving may be even more dangerous than calling.
All of this has led dozens of counties and a majority of U.S. states to ban either calling or texting while driving. Obviously, though, inconsistently enforced laws aren’t enough to deter drivers from getting their communications fix. So a team of engineers at the Anna University of Technology in Chennai, India, has decided to use technology to force drivers to keep their eyes on the road.
Their prototype system, as described in an article published yesterday in the International Journal of Enterprise Network Management, uses radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to automatically detect whether a car is in motion and if the driver is attempting to use a mobile phone. The system then triggers a low-range mobile jammer to prevent only the driver’s phone from operating, while allowing passengers to continue calling and texting freely.
Previously, technologies have been leveraged to prevent drivers from using cell phones in more indirect ways. The SafeTexting app for Android phones prevents the sending and receiving of text messages while a car is in motion—but it also prevents passengers from using their phones. A system presented last year at the International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking uses a car’s speakers to produce a series of beeps, which are then detected by a phone only if it is in use and in the driver’s seat, thereby reminding the driver to hang up.
This new system goes one step further, actively blocking the transmission of data from a driver’s phone so that he or she has no choice but to stop trying to use it. Using RFID, the same technology present in electronic toll collection systems such as E-ZPass, the device automatically detects signals coming from the driver’s phone while the vehicle is in motion and uses a jammer to prevent transmission.
The engineers designed the system with the notoriously accident-prone Indian trucking industry in mind, envisioning truck owners installing it in hopes of preventing employee drivers from using phones while on the road. They also note, though, that it could be linked with local law enforcement efforts to prevent drivers from using phones. When the device detects a driver using a phone, it could automatically transmit data stored in a vehicle’s license plate RFID tag to a police reader, so the driver could be pulled over and given a ticket. Future state or national laws could, for example, force car manufacturers to include the device in all new cars as a mandatory safety feature, as occurred with seat belts and air bags.
All of this is sure to have road-safety advocates excited—and privacy advocates understandably concerned. When our devices are distracting us to the point of lethal accidents, should the police be able to electronically detect when we’re on the phone and jam our communications? It’s difficult to decide if privacy ought to be sacrificed for safety, but one thing is for sure: After years of technological advancements that have connected, entertained and eventually distracted us, future technologies to force our attention back on the road are sure to come.
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I often ask an employee to do do the driving while I sit in the passenger seat to catch up on paperwork and make phone calls.
Also, we must remember that farmers and other off-road applications frequently use cell phones while out in the field and moving at very low speeds.
For the rest of the population…..
It will be hard to legislate common sense for those who have none.
As interesting of a solution this may sound, it is flawed and easily bypassed. All the transgressor has to do is use the cell phones speaker phone (or a wired headseet) and set the phone on the passenger seat. Now you have the driver not only talking on a cell but now reaching way over to operate it! Now that would be a really distracted driver!
This is all fine and good until an emergency occurs and it prevents the driver from calling for help: Lawsuit City!
A better approach might be to automatically access cellphone records in case of an accident or moving violation and bust ‘em badly if the driver’s phone was in use at the time.
I would get fully behind this. This technology needs to have the bugs worked out as fast as possible and then implemented as soon as possible. I’m a firm believer in the government staying out of my business, but I don’t see this as a privacy issue if you only stop phone usage in the drivers seat.But something needs to be done because people have shown they are to immature to stop by their selves and I do know the pain this can cause a member of my family was struck and killed by someone using a cell phone while trying to drive.This can not happen to soon!
Can this device distinguish between the driver and a passenger? If not that appears to be a flaw in the product.
what would this do to emergency calls? say someone is following you and you are trying to keep them at bay while dialing for help.
I would like to have one of these jamming devises when some moron drives up with his boom box blaring.
Quite possibly the best invention – ever!
The system cannot be used in the USA, as the FCC forbids the use of any device (no matter how sensible) that interferes with cell phones.
What I need is a device to shut down my mother-in-law in the backseat when I am driving. Otherwise, this is just another symptom of 1984 arriving a little late.
Oh yes brilliant, so when someone is in an emergency situation (say heart attack, diabetic, other person in car is incapacitated and cannot use the phone) or say trying to report a drunk driver (sometimes there is nowhere to stop and the driver is an immediate threat to others lives.. been there seen it) or being followed or those rare cases where brakes have not worked or the million and one reasons why someone MIGHT need to use their phone they would not be able to because 18% of distracted driver cases are influenced.. and what number is that? I am not saying it is not an issue, but this is NOT the solution. You don’t solve one problem, but creating another one.
Stupid !
Nice indian invention
Similiar device to jam the ignition if the driver is drunk has to be invented!
Now if only we could do something about drivers who carry on conversations with other passengers, mediate disputes with kids fighting in the back seat, or who try to listen closely to news and traffic reports while driving.
*sarcasm*
Seriously, a good, experienced driver in a given traffic situation knows if he can or cannot do any of the above things safely. He also knows if he can safely talk on a cell phone. I can’t say the same for inexperienced drivers and drivers who aren’t “good drivers.”