Location Labs: Location Labs wants to disrupt 911

Despite the rapid onset of mobile devices, GPS and high-speed Internet, the nation's emergency response system is largely a relic frozen in time. The company already sells services that allow users to keep track of family members and automatically lock down phones to prevent driver distraction. "The devices and technologies people use to communicate with one another are growing, in both number and complexity, faster than the legacy 911 system's ability to keep up," according to a 2011 report sponsored by the research arm of the U.S. Transportation Department. In this environment, there is consensus among stakeholders that the time has come to update the infrastructure to enable the transmission of digital information like video and photos from callers to the 911 center, and on to emergency responders. San Francisco did recently roll out a $3.7 million 911 dispatch system, but police and fire officials complained that officers were having trouble getting information from dispatchers on their computers. The next-generation 911 system, the U.S. Transportation Department report said, should be able to instantly deliver location information and photos along with the actual call from smartphones to dispatch centers.