Benefits Balance Fears of Camera Phones
As the use of mobile cameras has spread west from Japan, it has been the dark side of photo-messaging that has grabbed headlines. A tsunami of moral panic has followed the adoption in Europe and the US of camera mobiles, focusing mostly on their lewd, pornographic potential or the simple invasion of privacy.
So industry proponents of multi-media messaging may have breathed with relief this week at evidence that people are also starting to put cellphone cameras to some more productive and commercially supportive uses.
None more so than an initiative launched last week in the Scottish region of Fife where firefighters are to start using camera phones to transmit instant pictures of crash scenes to accident and emergency doctors in local hospitals. Continue >>