Florida Atlantic Professor Invents Anti-Texting While Driving System

Texting while driving just became illegal in Florida this week, but a Florida Atlantic University professor has invented a system that can stop your phone from texting entirely while you're driving on the road.

"If you are above, let's say, 8 miles an hour, we can say, that's driving, I can stop you just like that," said engineering professor Daniel Raviv. The professor has developed technology that uses a combination of road maps and GPS data to determine who's on the road, then shut off their phone's texting features.

Raviv said his goal isn't to make money off of his new invention. Instead, he wants to use it to help the public.

"My goal in what I do for my living is not money," he said. "It's to solve society's problems."

In the event that there's more than one person in the car, Raviv's system can figure out which cell phone is in the driver's side of the car and which cell phone is on the passenger's side. The phone that's in the driver's side is the one that gets blocked.

"As simple as that," Raviv said. "I can block the person who is on the front left and leave alone the passengers."

Raviv is currently trying to sell the software to wireless carriers and hasapplied for a patent. He hopes to win the patent in the next few months.