I, like seemingly every other 20-something and younger person with a cell phone, like to text message. I have never been all too quick at it, but I find that it is sometimes easier to send a quick message instead of making a call. It is also nice to have the texting option available when you are in an area that you shouldn’t be making all too much noise, such as the library.One location, that I constantly find myself receiving text messages, but unable to respond, is in the car. There is no way to focus on typing a message while also being completely aware of the road in front of me and the traffic around me. I do not like it when I am in a car and the driver starts to type a text message, I do not feel safe.

Apparently in the UK, according to this article from engadget, you could get up to two years in the slammer for sending text messages while driving. And now you could also get the same sentence for just talking on the handset. I understand both of these laws, and to a certain extent agree. With blue tooth technologies in little ear piece headsets, talking on the phone while driving while not using the handset is not really an issue. The issue is, however, with texting. Currently there is no good way to send a text message while driving.

What is the solution? Well we already know there is much voice recognition research and development out there along with some fairly good results. How difficult would it be to implement this voice recognition into the firmware of a cellphone to type a text message that you speak? Some variables would make this rather difficult, such as background noise of the car and everything, but the more you use the voice recognition software, the more it will learn your voice. It would be crucial that the application provide a very easy way to correct missed words, but that is really just details.

Look for this in 2008, I bet we will see it.