Crime in cities could get a knock from the risto. Police would all be equipped with ristos, making equipment in patrol cars unnecessary. Conversations would be "scrambled" so they could not be overheard and in an emergency, police ristos would have priority over other. In the picture above two thieves have just stolen a car - its owner presses the emergency button on his risto to get help quickly. Emergency calls could be free, though computers would add up the price of other ones.
See also:
Ristos (1979)
4 comments:
I recall that section. It's remarkable that they correctly predict that police communications equipment will migrate from the car to the officer (in the UK, an officer will these days typically carry a GSM/UMTS phone as well as a TETRA one) that emergency calls would be free (OK, they always were), that they would have higher priority than ordinary calls (it's in the 3GPP spec) and that computers would add up the cost of other calls - billing! CDRs were not so commin in 1979. Pity they missed the miracle of prepaid.
I loved that whole series of books, I got them as a young shool child and I must have read over each one several hundred times. Very well done.
I have one of these, which while not quite a 'risto' does at least tell me the name of the person ringing my phone, notify me when I have new email/SMS and allow me to silence/reject incoming calls (plus play/pause my music and advance to the next track)...
Geez, wouldn't those antennas stab you in the wrist and give you carpal tunnel syndrome?
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