Read in the ACM Technews that Siemens has developed a new application that lets a user post a message to a specific location and when anyone with a cell phone who passes through that area. It seems like an interesting concept but has a lot of potential for abuse.&
Think about it, the messages posted are not censored at all. Anyone can post anything and whoever passes through that area will get that message. So all the new age spammer has to do is send such a message to Times Square or New York Penn station or Madison Square garden and anyone in that area will get the message as an SMS. So in the near future a 15 year old with a cell phone walking down broad street in NY could get a message asking him to step into a shop to get really cheap porno’s or cheap drugs etc.
And the pranksters will have a field day with this one. They can post a porn image to a crowded area and watch the reactions on everyone’s face. There are hundreds of such possibilites and if I can think of them res assured others can too…
Original Summary:
Siemens has developed a new “digital graffiti” application that would allow mobile phone users to send a message to a specific geographic location, where it would appear on the screens of other mobile phone users who are passing through the area.
The concept is similar to placing a Post-It note in a certain spot. The application also resembles SMS (Short Message Service), although the message would be directed to a defined radius and the mobile phone users who are in the area, rather than a specific person. The ability to post notes to a zone makes the digital graffiti technology more than just a mobile phone location-based service. “Imagine a foreman walking through a plant and making notes of things to check for the maintenance crew on the production floor, or a friend who really knows his way around an area leaving tips of places to go for less familiar buddies,” says a Siemens spokesperson. Users can post text messages and pictures, and have the information expire at a certain date. Researchers at the University of Linz in Austria and the Ars Electronica Center in Linz assisted on the application, which could have a commercial rollout by 2007.
Complete Article: Here
– Suramya
