If you’ve got an innate fear of kidnapping (and, even worse, kidnapping by plush toy), you’ll be happy to hear that Nokia has a patent for a cameraphone that would instantly alert the authorities in the case of your being abducted. Basically, the phone would look like its off, but by hitting a recessed panic button, you’d be able to send an emergency alert with images, sound and even a GPS location. Holy cellphone Batman! You might think there would be a problem if reception is lost during your duress. But if you do go through a tunnel or something, the phone will store images and sound in its memory and transmit everything as soon as a signal is regained. Sure to be a hot seller in South America. Um, has anyone told the CIA about this yet?
Invention: Cellphone distress beacon [Newscientist]
