Your camera phone can be an extra ‘eye’ on the streets to help catch criminals. With MMS-witness technology developed by Waleli, a Wireless innovation company based in central Amsterdam, you can forward digital images and videos in second to a central police database.

MMS-witness allows the police to easily accept pictures and movies taken by members of the public using mobile phones. Such public action could either help prevent a crime from taking place or provide valuable evidence when a crime has been committed to help secure a conviction.

The technology allows images and videos received to be reviewed, stored on the database and, if required, sent to the mobile phones or PDAs of police officers on the street to help increase the chances of a successful arrest.

Waleli believes that MMS-witness will give police a dramatically larger number of “eyes” on the streets, as people realize that they can help the police increase their chances of making an arrest.

“In Europe alone, more than half the population carries a camera phone in their pocket. The use of camera phones to take photographs in a social setting is an everyday occurrence,” said Lawrence Masle, Head of International Business Development at Waleli.

He continued: “The huge leap in the quality of camera phones has helped fuel the growth of citizen journalism. News programs now actively encourage members of the public to send in photographs or footage of significant news events that they have captured on their mobile phones. The tremendous growth in citizen journalism demonstrates that members of the public want to get involved with situations in their neighborhood.”

The concept is in its very early stages. The company has been working with police in Amsterdam to test the system out.

If the plan goes ahead then it should be possible to establish for each European country, a countrywide phone number for MMS-witness, which can be used by anyone to send footage or pictures of a crime, or potential crime.

A short film showing MMS-witness in action can be found at this web address: www.waleli.com/content/Movies/MMSwitness.wmv

Related:

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10 practical uses for your camera phone

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Entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 11:54 pm under Technology.  Print This Post

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