A Text Gun? Could Police Use a Device to Tell if You’re Texting While Driving?

Right now, the po-po can point a radar gun at your car and tell how fast you're going.  But could they also tell if a driver is texting from behind the wheel, too?  One company thinks they might be able to pull that idea off, and they're preparing to be rich.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that ComSonics is working on a device that can identify the type of communications your phone makes.  For instance, when you text, your phone sends out one kind of radio wave.  Phone calls use different radio waves, and internet traffic sends out yet a third kind.  This company believes they can create a device that determines which kind of waves are coming out of your car when you pass by

Okay, but...

What if there are four people in the car, and everyone's doing something different with their phones?  How can you prove it's the driver who is texting?  Couldn't you just blame it on the kid in the backseat?

And...

If they can tell what KIND of signal is coming out of your car, how hard would it be to intercept that signal and peek at your info?  I mean, heck, if the technology exists, could they even be doing that NOW?  Man, could your boss eventually have a gun that lets him intercept your text messages when you're supposed to be getting that TPS report together?  Could Obama pass by my house and read my grocery list off my phone?

Makes a fella want to go out and buy a tin-foil hat, right?

So yeah, there's that going on.  But even if this company pulls this idea off, there would be a good long while before it caught on enough to inspire new laws.  This won't happen tomorrow.  But if someone can make a buck off of it, it WILL happen -- you can count on that.

[h/t Daily Dot via Virginian-Pilot]