Video Conviction

I’m blasted daily with mega-numbers for the kazillion apps downloaded and new, improved ways to deliver TV to every screen on the planet.  But, I want to focus on a niche, Emergency Video.

Grab your mobile, close your eyes and tune in to that ‘feel-good, give-back’ little voice in your head.  It’s coming from your 3G video-enabled handset.  Alas, it’s faint, but there.  Your handset longs to be a hero if only for a day.   That shiny red rectangle would much rather be risking it all in the grimy hands of an emergency first-responder than buried in your purse or hanging off a bulging size 44 belt.  It dreams of being thrust right up front, streaming life-saving footage (do we still use that term) to medics and police.  So small with such a noble cause.

Yes, I’m shouting out that video has purpose!   Humanitarian purpose when pointed at the right thing… and backed up by infrastructure that puts technology to ‘good’ use.   None of that silly UGC for me and my handset.

There are projects under discussion to bring real-time mobile video into 999/911 response centers. Put video in 911 systems and E-911 operators can service a much wider array of people in distress.  The injured, deaf mutes or victims in unfolding criminal events can’t always afford or manage to utter a peep but they may can use video!

Look what’s going on over at Google’s Project 10¹⁰⁰ with Emergency Video ( http://sites.google.com/site/emergencyvideo/).   The idea is to get video in emergency response centers.  (Google’s project 10100 home: http://www.project10tothe100.com )

Video medicine is growing, putting mobile video in the paramedics hands giving the emergency room a better, faster, preview of what’s on the scene.

Emergency Video is coming.  It all depends on getting a critical mass of mobile video handsets out there.  Then government will step up and plug in.

Government Value Added Services application?  Sure, they already do it in law enforcement and surveillance but Emergency Video catches people at their most sensitive and sometimes final moments hanging between life and death.  That could spark a little debate over privacy.   But, it’s going to be a mute point when it serves humankind – and precedent is set since its already in law enforcement vehicles.  Or how about rights for the disabled?  Will human rights groups pick up the charge for putting video in the emergency centers like they did for equal access?

While Emergency Video can never be called a KILLER app (intentional cheap shot)  in this industry, it can catch one.  That’s a ‘video conviction’.