June 27, 2012 | David

Imagine if your smartphone could quickly give you directions to escape a street riot, or find your way out of an earthquake zone. That’s the promise of a powerful new app designed in response to recent civil unrest such as the London riots.

What’s fascinating is that the app can understand what people are saying on social media – not just where they’re posting from. It builds a ‘danger map’ that people access by pointing their phone in any direction and getting a red signal to tell them if there’s danger ahead or green if it’s safe.