HOUSTON -- For a quarter century, 911 calls have helped saved lives.  Today, 60 percent of the calls are coming from cell phones, instead of from traditional phone lines. 

It took years for 911 technology teams to figure out how to send cell calls to the closest operator, and even longer for them to calculate the rough location of a mobile phone and get it to pop up on a map.

Now, a computer lab inside Greater Harris County's 911 headquarters is working on the next phase. Engineers are getting close to developing a way to let you call 911 without actually calling anyone.

"We're working to make sure you can call with any kind of phone device in the very near future," said Sonya Clauson, Greater Harris County 911 Emergency Network.

They think the next step will be text messaging. It's still a few years away, but the funding is now in place to create a system that will allow you to send an emergency text message to the closest 911 center.

Dispatchers said this could be useful for students, for example, if there's ever a hostage situation at a school.

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"This will be coming in phases. That's why we are preparing our network and making sure it's robust enough to handle this kind of data," said Clauson.

"With a strong 911 system, we'll be better off. We'll be able to grow and meet the needs of a growing community without radio congestion," said Houston’s Mayor Bill White.

"There's even talk of video calls to the 911 operators," said Clauson.

Video and text messaging are still years away, but the work to get there is happening now.