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Low-Tech Cell Phone Blocking

Posted by timothy on from the best-kind-of-sandwich dept.

nigelc writes: "This BBC story reports on Japanese work to come up with a low-tech solution to cell phones in cinemas! Hey, if it can stop the person next to me from going 'Hey, dude, guess where I am?,' I'm all in favor of it."

11 of 548 comments (clear)

  1. All I want... by Have+Blue · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is a personal cell-phone anesthetizer. So I can reach into my pocket and push a button, and every cell phone within 10 meters stops working for 30 seconds (or at least long enough to drop the current call). It doesn't completely solve the problem but it would be very, very satisfying :P

  2. Works for me by Seehund · · Score: 4, Funny

    For cinemas, concerts et c. I prefer a low-tech solution like this.

    --
    Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
  3. Even Better: by mlknowle · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have an even lower-tech solution:

    "Sir: Please turn your cell phone off or leave the cinema" - the usher

    or:

    "Turn that damn thing OFF!" - me

    I remember reading a story of about a man talking on a cell phone on a ski gondola at a resort in Aspen. Another man, sitting next to him, asked him quietly how much the phone (a new, state of the art model) had cost. When the first man replied "Four hundred dollars," the second snatched it, threw it out the window of the gondola, and calmly handed him four Ben Franklins.

  4. Re:Won't happen in the US. by Darth_brooks · · Score: 3, Funny

    "What about the literacy impared?"

    What a great euphamism for "fucking morons"

    --
    There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
  5. Will help my dating life... by svferris · · Score: 5, Funny

    This will really help my dating life. I always notice my date's cellphone rings in the middle of the date and then she "suddenly" has to go.

    But now their phones won't be able to ring... :-)

  6. Or by BitHive · · Score: 5, Funny

    Theaters should just implement a spotlight system a-la the Movementarians' indoctrination video in The Simpsons. As soon as you pick up your phone, the movie stops, and you are nailed by a high-power spotlight until you hang up. This should serve as a nice deterrent. For added fun, intercept their signal and play their call over the sound system for everyone to hear. Hell, I'd pay extra for a seat if theaters around here did that!

    1. Re:Or by Gordonjcp · · Score: 3, Funny

      Several of my friends work in theatre ("real" theatre, not cinema). One night someone's mobile went off in the stalls. Well, you know how far round you can swing a follow-spot? That was one very, very short phone call...

  7. Hardly new by sparkz · · Score: 3, Funny
    As anybody who's tried to make a phone call in a metal-framed building will tell you.

    Very good idea, IMHO.

    Vibrating phones are no better if you're still going to answer the bloody thing and start talking into it.

    If you're on-call, part of that deal is that you've not just got the phone with you, but are capable of answering in. In a cinema, you are not capable of answering it - if you're sitting next to me, you'll be LARTed and unable to speak at all!

    --
    Author, Shell Scripting : Expert Re
  8. Re:Sounds great for the movies... by aulendil · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...and find out my gf was in a car accident...

    Nah, is this all hypothetical? You are a slashdot reader, how could you possibly have a gf... ;-)

  9. New Verizon commercial by IGnatius+T+Foobar · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Can you hear me now?"

    (silence)

    "Damn!"

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    Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
  10. Re:conspiracy by Skevin · · Score: 3, Funny

    Aluminum won't block enough signal.

    Personally, I find Aluminum more than adequate for stopping annoying cell phones, if you apply a little ingenuity. Here's how:

    You should start with a long aluminum rod, preferably 20 grain, weighing in between 7-15 pounds. I recommend a piece between 37 and 45 inches long and 2-3 inches in diameter.

    Shopping tip: while you can obtain such a bar from any conventional hardware store, one of my faithful readers, T. Harding, maintains you may purchase such economy hardware at a Big 5 or Play It Again Sports. For our purposes, she recommends the following brand names: Easton, Demarini, or Louisville Slugger.

    Bring this item with you the next time you go to a movie. When one of your fellow theater patrons' cell phone rings and he acquires the unmitigated audacity to answer it, do as follows:

    1. Move in front of him with your aluminum rod.

    2. Stand very close to him.

    3. Quietly wave your toy over his phone.

    Voila! His phone call will die out without warning! It happens so suddenly, neither party has a chance to even say goodbye! It works nine times out of ten*.

    * One time out of ten, you require a liberal, repeated application of your aluminum against that subject's patella, in a downwards motion towards the bottom of the femur. Once the device is on the ground, firm (and direct) impact from your aluminum will terminate its functionality.

    Solomon

    "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!"

    --
    "Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang