In any emergency situation, the ability to communicate and call for help can often mean the difference between surviving or not.

With this in mind, scientists in Sydney, Australia have developed new technology that can be incorporated into cell phones, and thereby turns any two or more cell phones into walkie-talkies.

The system has been designed to be especially useful in emergency situations where cell phone coverage may be compromised due a remote location, or even due to a complete breakdown of for example cell phone towers.

Researches from Flinders University in South Australia have built the software that allows a cell phone to also become a lifeline in emergency situations where network coverage may have been compromised. The way they have gone about doing this, was to actually build a type of cell phone tower into the phone itself. The system works by using a WiFi interface to communicate directly with other cell phones with the same capability, without the need to relay the signal first to a central network tower. Phones can essentially communicate directly with each other, without first going through a traditional network tower.

The system is still in development phase, but has already been successfully tested in a remote location in Australia. At the moment, the system is effective up to a few hundred meters, but scientists are working to increase the range capabilities and sound quality. Now you may be wondering about how effective reception is between phones, and according to the initial reports, it seems the system may work very well even in situations where the is no line of sight between the devices.

The tests were reportedly carried out in an area filled with deep valleys and mountainous terrains in South Australia. I can just hear the many ideas coming to mind in which this technology may eventually be used, so go ahead and tell me what you think below. Should be interesting to hear your thoughts on this ;)