Slashdot Mirror
Shutting Up Annoying Cellphones
NoWhere Man writes: "North Carolina-based BlueLinx, which produces consumer applications for short-range wireless systems, and" Hold on I gotta take this call.... " a telecommunications center at the University of Adelaide in Australia are developing a feature for mobile phones that interacts with Bluetooth shortwave radio-link systems in public places. The feature is designed to automatically silence cellphone ringing. Once inside the Bluetooth coverage area, cellphones with the "Q-Zone" feature will be silenced."
sulli
sulli
RTFJ.
Dude... it's not turning the phone off, it's just putting the ringer on MUTE.. or hella low.. You can still use the phone.. chill.
"It's not like your minds are as open as the source you love..." - Me to the majority of Slashdot.
At best, this is just a small feature to allow busy people who don't want to have to remember to turn their phones off when they enter a movie theater, to have it done automatically. Fine with me. This isn't going to prevent the annoying noise of cell-phones, unless people make the voluntary decision to do so.
I don't really even find cell-phones that annoying, unless it's in certain circumstances such as theaters. And chances are that some dumbass is going to think that waiting for a call from his buddies downtown is just as important as the call for the doctor who has to rush to the hospital to save a car-accident victim's life.
I'm not suggesting we should force anyone to turn their phones off or down, either. That's a bit stupid and big-brotherish, to me. It also could leave a lot of room for lawsuits and liability issues.
This only serves to make life a tiny notch simpler for those who care to be responsible enough to keep their volume down or off in certain public places. The problem of those who could care less about making those 'sacrifices' will have to be dealt with via old-fashioned intolerance by people around them when their phones go off and they engage in annoying conversation while you're trying to enjoy a flick. That is, next time someone's phone rings in the middle of a movie and they don't immediately shut it off -- or worse, they answer it and start talking, the people around them should chastise them for it. It's better than enforcing some dumb law and the moron still has the choice of leaving the theater or staying there and being a prick, if he can put up with the resulting disapprovement of the other movie-goers.
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seumas.com
Apple Interface Designer Bruce Tognazzini suggested this in a recent column.
As one poster pointed out, a feature that involuntarily cripples your cellphone will be a tough sell.
Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
I, for one, am seriously thrilled to no end by this bit of news. Now, if only children came with this feature...
/* TNW */
"Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of"-TMBG
Seattle, WA Shoeboy Industries, a leading producer of homemade bongs, has announced plans to enter the wireless market in a big way.
"Many people are bothered by individuals who use their cell phones in innapropriate places." announced Shoeboy. "Just yesterday I was taking a leak and the guy at the next urinal was on the phone with his wife. I'm sorry, but if a guy is going to say 'I love you honey' in a public restroom, I expect a blow job."
Shoeboy Industries hopes to combat these annoying mobile phone users by introducing a technology called ActiveGlock.
"ActiveGlock will provide a convienient point and click interface to silence those mobile users once and for all!" exclaims John Cheese, tech stock analyst for pointlesswasteoftime.com. "I'm very bullish on Shoeboy Industries stock right now. Shoeboy should be able to mow down the competition and shoot his way to the top of NASDAQ."
A representative for the Disgrunted Postal Workers Association revealed that it's members had been evaluating ActiveGlock technology and hope to implement it "When those bastards least expect it."
Others are less optimistic. "Technically it's murder," declares University of Utah law professor Dr. Rajeev Papshigali, "we wish it was justifiable homicide, but it isn't."
Dr. Papshigali's warnings went unheeded on wall street where Shoeboy Industries closed at 2.25 for a gain of 2.24 points on the day.
--Shoeboy
Am I going to be the only person who realizes that this is censorship?
Yes. Here's the clue: Censorship can only be done by the government.
You don't like the fact that the theatre you paid to get in to blocks cell phones? Walk out.
Actually, the most irritating thing I find about wireless phones (come on folks, lots of them aren't technically CELL anymore) are those vanity rings. It's incredibly annoying to hear La Cucaracha, Fur Elise, Ode to Joy and any number of other songs blaring when someone has an incoming call. I realize that it makes things easier in crowds where there may be many people with wireless phones, but they could at least use a different ring instead of obnoxiously long and high pitched snippets from a song...
I registered my hate for Jon Katz
Hrm, I wonder if this feature was funded at all by university professors. :) At least at my school the number one annoyance for professors is probably the two or three times per class that someone's cellphone rings. It's like the professors are beaten into submission too. Most times they just shake their head in disgust and go on with the lecture. The funniest (and most annoying) incident was when a classmate of mine asked the professor a question. The professor started into answering it, then the student's cellphone went off. Now, most times they'll just quickly smack the thing off like an alarm clock on a monday morning. Not this guy! He proceeded to get up and go out into the hall and take the call! I dont think the professor actually believed what had just happened as all he did was chuckle and move on. Could have been worse though, at least he had the decency to leave the room. He could have taken it right from his desk. :)
...using cellphones while driving. Will public highways start setting up Q-zones?
---
Zardoz has spoken!
Oper on the Nightstar
Personally I find it much more fun to take care of annoying cellular user the Old Fashioned way.
Fist Prost
"We're talking about a planet of helpdesks."
-Jaron Lanier
And, I can see the slogan now, as doctors can turn it off: "More Doctors Use Q-Zone than Any Other Phone!"
sulli
sulli
RTFJ.
In Australia, and (presumably) the US and the UK, having a mobile phone ring while in the cinema is considered *extremely* rude. However, when I was in Hong Kong last year, it seemed like this was perfectly acceptable behaviour. What differences in acceptable mobile phone etiquette have other Slashdot readers noticed from place to place?
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I'd like to see all new movie multi-plexes built with a temptest-proof (ie: RF-proof) wire cage around every theater. If you *elect* to go in, you should be aware that your cell phone, your pager, and any other obnoxious and rude device you may have, just *won't work*.
If you don't like it, I hope you choose not to patronize these places - I expect business will pick up as a result!
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
(Disclaimer:I'm no expert on jamming radio communications.) Is it difficult to jam the mobile phone system in a local area? I imagine all you would have to do is disrupt communications between the phone and the tower such that the phone doesn't manage to get on the network. (In much that same way that you can kill arbitrary TCP connections on ethernet by injecting FINs) Hell, you wouldn't even have to transmit all the time. You could just detect a phone searching for a tower and jam it then to stop connection.
The best part about this system is that it would be backwards compatible with older phones, doesn't require getting manufactures on board and losers can't override it.
>;-)
--
Simon
Couldn't this protocol be used to assist in cellphone spoofing? It's already well understood that most cellphones are vulnerable to eaves-dropping in the absence of encryption. What about the following scenario:
1) set up a transmitter to broadcast the "silence" command to my victim's area
2) intercept incoming calls
3) since the victim is not notified of the call, I open up on the channel and pretend to be him/her.
This was one of the reasons our old friend the Denial of Service attack was invented oh so long ago.
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
For this feature to work, the user is going to have to allow it. Once Bluetooth enabled phones come out, users are going to quickly learn that they should not automatically connect to any bluetooth enabled device- first of all, the local Bluetooth piconet (limited to 16 devices, I think) is going to go quickly to capacity. Of course bluetooth will quickly be adopted by spammers and their ilk, which will cause most people to quickly disable the automatic discovery and promiscuous communication.
I have a feeling that the features that allow this sort of thing (stopping ringers) will not be automatically enabled (unless Microsoft dominates the technology). Would you be willing to share the contents of your PDA with anyone who walks by?
Could you imagine the joy of having designated areas where both cell phones don't ring AND babies don't cry????
sigs are a waste of space
There are a number of companies that now sell cell phone jamming devices. I've seen some models that a very compact and fit into a small area of your briefcase.
Of course, these devices are only sold outside of the US and are completely illegal to operate in the US.
The first commercial one that I'm aware of was developed in 1998, here is an article about it.
-- Virtual Windows Project
A handheld EMP generator might be more effective.
Would work on ANY cell phone. As well as my neighbors blaring TV. Dangerous drivers with their fancy electronic ignition. The machine at the grocery store that claims my checks are bad. Those androids that the CIA has used to replace my family members.
All kinds of useful things.
>I think there's a good future in a device, that
>kills all stereo's and cellhpones in a, let's make
>is 500 meters or yards cubic, area. I promiss I'll
>stop smoking then, even if it's allowed, provided
>I find a cure for my need to.
Well, I can't help ya with the stereos... but as for the cellphones, check out this article in this week's SF Weekly:
http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-07-05/bayvi
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
Studies have shown (sorry for the lack of links) that talking on a hands free cell phone while driving is just as risky as talking on a normal cell phone while driving. Think about it-- you only need 1 hand to steer the car anyway (or else 1 armed people couldn't get drivers licenses).
The conclusions of these studies was that cell phones took away from the drivers' concentration, which slowed reaction time in the same way alcohol slows reaction time. And in the same way shaving in the car slows reaction time, I suppose...
If you really need to both shave and drive but can't find time for both, why not just wake up 5 minutes earlier?
-Ted
The building where I work has notoriously poor cell-phone coverage inside, so people tend to migrate to the windows, where my office is. Once I arrived in the morning to find a guy in my office on his cell phone who would not leave even after I made it clear that it was my office. Much like traffic engineering, improvements in technology like this may merely push the problem somewhere else.
This will probably work better in the GSM part of the world, where there's usually only one major system. In the US, we have as many as six completely separate cell phone systems in some areas.
Certain window coatings that are designed to block the sun's UV rays also have the unintended side effect of weakening the airwaves used by cellphones. Couldn't this be used to block cellphone usage in certain areas (operas, concerts, restaurants etc.)? Advantage: only the owner of the place can impose the restriction, rather than some random stranger who just happens to walk by and has a beef with cellphones. What's the matter about cellphone usage on a bus? It's a noisy place anyways. And what's the difference about learning about somebody's private life by overhearing a phone conversation, rather than by overhearing a conversation with their seat-neighbour?
Say no to software patents.
and where is this "Government" entity?
i grew up in america and i seem to remember "the government" was the people. and that's true here in europe in most countries.
and since companies are also run by people, who would also be part of the government, then companies can censor people.
so you're saying that the government - the people - can censor people, but companies - also the people - can't by definition censor people. but they're the same people. by definition. your argument makes no sense. it disproves itself.
US Citizen living abroad? Register to vote!
>And what point was that exactly?
OK, technically you're right. The real problem is that teh technology in the article is redundant with the existing low-tech gunpowder solutions.
If letting it ring *at all* in a restaurant or theater is part of the "intended use" of a cell phone, then possession of one of these devices should be a crime.
OK, maybe something less lethal than a glock should be used to aprehend the perpetrator, but . . .
I want these things *jammed* in public places. Restaraunts should have wheeled vats of battery acid, and waiters should seize ringing cellphones and drop them in--the rest of the patrons will cheer loudly . . .
>If you really need to both shave and drive but
>can't find time for both, why not just wake up 5
>minutes earlier?
WOuldn't growing a beard be a more reasonable solution? Running a piece of sharp metal across your throat every morning before you're fully awake is hardly a rational act . . .
:)
hawk, the bearded
I stop and tell a tale on the first day of class about a law school friend's wedding. THis person's watch regularly went off in class, to the dismay of, well, everyone.
At his wedding, his wife ordered the watch off, and hannded to me with instructions to grind it under my boot heel if it made a peep. This, I note, would have made me a hero at the school when we returned.
ALas, the watch remained silent. SO I'm still waiting for my chance.
Additionally, I"m checking with the administration on my new policy of summary confiscation or ejection (permanently) from my classroom.
Prof. Hawk
I mean... cellular operates in a licensed band.. sure... but.. licensed how? At what power levels? A low-power jamming signal with an effective radius of say 10 meters or so should be completely legal.. and if it's in a private building, you could jam (or shield) any room or even the whole building, provided it didn't affect the otuside world. I believe these 'jammers' are used in Japan, mainly in theaters and conference rooms.
When there are calls you can't afford to miss, you don't go places where your phone doesn't work, or where it's too noisy to use the phone. How is this any different?
Many seem to have a beef with people and their cell phone ringing at inappropriate moments (like a movie theater). Similar feelings are brought up by hearing a child screaming, and the parent doing nothing, or the parent screaming at their kid in a public area, because the child did something inappropriate. We get bothered by other inappropriate behavior we see (can anybody tell me why latino youths are always lifting their shirts, rubbing their bellies in a strange fashion - or why other (generally black, but I have seen white, asian and latino as well doing it, so it isn't a race issue) youths are always "touching" their groin area?), or at least we should.
However, what do we do about it? We either ignore it, or we try to create technological solutions to the problem.
The problem isn't technology folks - it's society.
I can think of the one solution that would stop this distress, and in a hurry - if we all did it:
We politely ask the person to stop. In other words, you should go up to them, say "Hi", and tell them that what they are doing (or not doing), is offensive to you, and ask them to please alter their behavior (please silence your phone, please don't touch yourself in public, please calm down). Doing so may bring curious responses (startlement is most common, embaressment follows - but in some situations, a punch might be thrown). However, if we all did this, whenever there was a problem, and weren't afraid to back up our fellow man - these issues would go away...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon