Digital Equivalent of CB Radio

If you ask most people they would probably tell you that the days of  citizen band (or CB as it is more popularly called) radio's popularity is over. It has been phased out with other, more efficient means of communication. The digital era has made things such as podcasting and text messaging as easy as a press of a button.

However, most forms of digital communication do one of two things. They connect you with people you know, or they connect you with random strangers across the globe. Most forms of digital communication have little regard for geographical location. After all, why should the technology limit it self with such a restriction.

The role that CB radio served in communication has yet to be replaced with a digital equivalent. Many people still use CB radio. However, it has lost the appeal it once had with the mass public. If you want a way to wirelessly connect to strangers in your area (perhaps to hear about road conditions), CB is still the best technology. But it does not have to be.

In the past I have discussed a bit about Ad Hoc networks and wide area WiFi. The details are not overly important, but basically these are techniques that can allow a number of devices to connect to one another over a relativity large area (in some cases over the distance of a city).

There are a number of reasons why these types of networks can be installed (they do exist in some locations).  If a city was equipped with an existing wide area network, a communication protocol could be created to take advantage of it.

This could have a number of advantages over existing CB radio. For one thing it could allow for 'chat rooms.' Even though it could be using voice communication, people could split off into rooms based on what they are using the 'Digital CB' for. For example, there could be one room primarily occupied by people on the road driving and another for people who just want to chat.

This would prevent 'frequencies' from getting 'cluttered.' In fact, if properly engineered, the network could support an arbitrarily large number of chat rooms (in practicality there would be network limitations, but the number of users would likely become an issue before the number of rooms was a problem).

Such a system could even allow people to set up Digital CB profiles. CB handles would simply become usernames. If it was not a privacy concern the network could also give a rough distance to other users.

As the years have passed more people have complained about 'garbage' being on CB radios. This is another area where going digital could help. With a digital system one could easily block any users who are broadcasting useless chatter to you.

Now it is possible, and perhaps even preferable, to 'go digital' without the use of large area WiFi networks. In a sense it would simply be like digital radio. This has pros and cons. The main pro is that such a system could operate even where there was not an existing infrastructure. The con is basically that you would loose out on some of the functionality. Ad Hoc networks would be a type of compromise. This is basically where peoples radios would create a web of communication. Person A's radio might relay a signal through person B's in order to get a message to person C. This method is used to extend internet service in some undeveloped areas where it might not otherwise be available

Perhaps this form of communication, talking with strangers in your geographical area, is a thing of the past. However, it seems to me that one trait of the last two decades is exploration, the exploration of every possible means that there could be to conceivably communicate with one another. People are constantly trying to find new ways technology can let them communicate, and it seems to me that no one has tried this. It might not take off. It is simply reinventing an old form of communication, but wasn't that what email was to begin with?