How technology enhances the back-to-school experience

.....Texting is also a serious issue that has taken on many different forms, two of those being texting while driving and sexting. And while technology may be to blame, technology is also working to fix the problem. Many companies are trying to make parents sleep a little easier. Iconosys has an SMS Replier, which sends a prewritten message out to people who text someone when he or she is driving. That way, they don’t feel pressured to whip their phone out and start texting as they cruise down the highway. Although the SMS Replier is available now for certain phones, it is not yet ready for the iPhone but should be soon. That’s great for texting while driving....
- As found in the "LA Tmes" (6/15/10)

Excerpt from LAPD Magazine

L.A. Fire Chief Millage Peaks offered a sobering statistic Monday [June 7] as he joined Chief Beck and Mayor Villaraigosa in launching a campaign to stop the dangerous practice of texting while driving: the LAFD responds to 100 traffic accidents a day and 28 percent are caused by someone texting while driving. That’s potentially more than 10,000 accidents in Los Angeles annually that could be prevented by focusing on the road instead of your iPhone, Blackberry, or cell phone.

The U.S. Department of Transportation tells us there are three forms of distracted driving: taking one’s eyes off the road (visual), taking one’s hands off the steering wheel (manual), or taking one’s attention off driving (cognitive), any of which creates a greater risk of injury or death while driving. Because texting while driving involves all three, it is the most dangerous form of distracted driving. Other research has shown that drivers who send or receive a text message tend to take their eyes off the road for about five seconds, enough time for a vehicle going at highway speed to travel more than 100 yards. This helps explain why nearly 6,000 people died in crashes involving distracted or inattentive drivers last year and more than 500,000 were injured. Researchers found that the most frequent offenders are the youngest and least-experienced drivers—men and women under the age of 20.

Chief Beck noted that it is illegal to text while driving and he has instructed officers to enforce the law. Every time a motorist is stopped for such an infraction, he/she spreads the word to family, friends, and coworkers that police are cracking down on the dangerous practice. As the word gets out, more and more people will comply with the law—for their own and others’ safety.

In our fast-paced, multitasking society—where we all feel time challenged—it can be very tempting to read and/or respond to text messages while stopped at a traffic signal or in grid-lock. We certainly hope the campaign launched this week will cause people to take steps to avoid the temptation. If you find it hard to resist, try this: silence your device and put it in the glove compartment until you reach your destination. You will be doing your part to make our streets and highways much safer.
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As Found in LAPD Magazine(6/7/10)

Speech Recognition Texting vs Automated Texting

Recently there has been a lot of commotion to ban texting and driving in the United States and throughout the world. There are many companies out there trying to develop new applications and devices to prevent texting and driving accidents from happening. Due to an uprising in many new developers coming out and sharing their products, some people have questions. One of the biggest ones is whether the applications which will read you the text and then allows for speech to text replies, or the applications which will send out an automated message every time you receive a text or a call is better.



What are the Pros and Cons of Speech Recognition?

The pros of the speech recognition applications are that you can know what the text said and then send an immediate text back. Although this would be a nice application to have, and could potentially be very useful… it still doesn’t get rid of the fact that it is still distracting. Sure, you do not have to be looking down at the phone and completely focused on what is being texted, but you still will end up looking at the phone and making sure what you said is texted. There was a recent video of the CEO of one of these companies displaying their product and while he was being filmed he drove through a red light. So, obviously these products still are not distraction free.



What are the Pros and Cons of Automated Text Response?

The pros of the automated text response applications are that your mind and focus can be full on the road and on what is happening around you. Also, with products like SMSReplier (http://www.smsreplier.com/) , it allows you to send either a default or custom message back to people stating what your current activity is. Little innovations like this are what is driving the industry forward and helping to prevent more texting while driving accidents. The only downside to applications like SMSReplier is that you cannot send the text right that minute; you would have to wait to send the response that you wanted to send when you arrive at your destination.



The Verdict…

I would have to go with the automated texting response applications, such as SMSReplier (http://www.smsreplier.com/). It is a lot safer for the user and still gets the job done. I would trade my safety for a late text message any day of the week.

For more information about SMS Replier and other available features visit http://www.smsreplier.com/ or http://www.iconosys.com/. For news and stories about texting and driving visit http://www.textkills.com/.