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Safer Texting-While-Driving, Not
By Carl Bussjaeger, February 16, 2010

Apparently some geek at Clemson has found a "safer" way to text-while-driving:

Clemson researchers develop hands-free texting application

“Through the car’s speaker system or through the driver’s own Bluetooth headset, drivers can give a voice command that delivers a text message,” Gilbert said. “So you can speak to your phone and tell it to send a message to an individual. The recipient’s phone recognizes the voice as a text message and the other person is able to respond appropriately.”

WTF?

I'll admit that I've never really seen the point of most text-messaging via telephone. Partly because I'm old enough that I used to coordinate telecommunications maintenance via teletypewriter (ASR-28s and -35s and the like). Yeah, and we used cute little abbreviations, too; so would you, if each keystroke required ten pounds of force. OK, I'm exagerating; but it seemed like it after a couple of paragraphs. To this day, I still pound keyboards.

So frankly, I'm cool with using my cell phone for, well... phone calls. But there are plenty of people out there who seem to prefer staring at a tiny screen and wearing out their thumbs to using their phones' most basic function and speaking to their friends.

That said, if you can convince the texters to speak into their phones, couldn't they make, well... phone calls?

I've written to Professor Gilbert to ask if he wasted any tax-payers' money on this stupid idea. If he doesn't answer before I post this, I'll update later.

I was going to allow that VoiceTEXT may have one useful application: Simplifying communication with deaf people. Then I watched the demo video of the system in action. I had guessed that this was a speech to text utility. Nope, it just records your voice message, sends it as an attachment to a text message to the recipient who then plays the recording, and replies the same way. Just like a phone call, only complicated.

Parents: If you're shopping around for a good college for Junior, scratch Clemson off the list for the good of your child.

Update: I've heard from Professor Gilbert. The good news is that he said no tax-victim money went into this.

Mr. Bussjaeger, you raise a great question. First, for those that text while they drive, they must pick up the phone too, but they don't call. We have found that there are people that would never text and drive; however there are those that are habitual texters and they are the core of the problem. This is mostly generational. Therefore, our voiceTEXT application is for those people, not people who would rather talk. Additionally, research has shown that conversing on a cell phone while driving is a distraction for some. Our approach, as we hypothesize, is less distracting vs. texting or talking while driving. We will study these questions this year.

No, we did not spend tax payers money on this, yet. If it saves lives, I think it's worth doing. Although you probably don't text and drive that doesn 't mean you are safe from those that do.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks,

I congratulated him for inventing the telephone. Only complicated.

Or maybe voicemail.

He says this for people who don't want to talk into the phone, yet that's exactly what they have to do. He says this is less distracting than talking on a phone, yet that's what they're doing. Only complicated.

If you have children, or are yourself, attending Clemson University, get them out now. Before it's too late.

Hmm. No tax payers' money... "yet".

Added 2/22/10 4:45
Is that you, Professor Gilbert?

Trying 130.127.49.101 at ARIN
Trying 130.127.49 at ARIN

OrgName:    Clemson University 
OrgID:      CLEMSO-1
Address:    Information Technology Center
Address:    340 Computer Court
City:       Anderson
StateProv:  SC
PostalCode: 29625
Country:    US

[waves] Yoo hoo!