Slashdot Mirror
Phone Plus Sensory Deprivation Equals...
Solo-Malee writes "The BBC has an article about a new phone technology that isolates the user from all other sensory input. This in theory means the user is not distracted by other things occurring in their immediate surroundings. If these catch on, it looks like getting a Jacuzzi for the office could be easier than you might expect."
Unless they're filling the office pool with water, this sounds like something that missed its (.com) era.
I never vote for anyone. I always vote against.
-- W.C. Fields
The subject says it all...
I'm sorry..but this is so retarded I don't know where to begin.
Why? Ugh..god...
I want what they're smoking...
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
First of all, it would take a while for me to not be distracted using this "phone." How many of you are not in some way excited every time you get a new tech toy. I would be thinking more about the device, how it works, and the fact that I am in water, more than about the conversation. Your general conversations: "Dude! I'm floating in water while I talk! Isn't that cool?!"
"Men lie."
"Yeah, about sleeping with other women, but never about bioluminescent plankton."
-Dan Brown
Not funny, and no I don't think we're dangerous. I absolutely need to use my phone while driving, and pulling over to the side of the road while using the phone every time I had a call would make me even more dangerous than using the phone while moving along. Besides, I'm only on the phone for less than 5 minutes. Personally I think you have to be a bit brain damaged to not be able to do more than talk when you're driving.
It ignores novelties such as polyphonic ringtones and games and instead it is designed to help you concentrate on a phone call itself.
I'm sick of seeing all sorts of pointless features added to phones. The manufacturers know no bounds. This device isn't particularly useful, being as you need a swimming pool, but if it were made smaller, this could be something really useful when making important phone calls (when not driving, of course). I wish all the cell phone manufacturers would focus on making useful advancements such as this and better call clarity.
These pictures don't really give me the impression that this is very convenient. I get charged for both air-time and pool time? I take it that this is just a prototype, but let's be realistic, how is this going to work outside the lab setting?
Oh, and this contraption looks like something from that show Get Smart.. you remember "The Cone of Silence"?
How about a spell checker for slashdot, or even more impressive, a spell checker for strings in C-Code? Use lint! -DG
For every person that can handle it there are ten that can't. Hell I've seen people that can't have a conversation with the person sitting next to them without losing focus on the road. No matter you think cell phones are very dangerous in most people hands while driving. I've seen people run stop signs, drive 30 miles per hour on the highway, swerve wildly, cut across three lanes to make a turn they missed. My sister was actually in an accident because of a cell phone.
No one is saying to pull over but for God's sake at least buy a $10 headset or speaker phone attachment for it.
Your house is burning down, your kid cut his hand off, your husband is having a heart attack but your zoned out on your phone call to to vote for the next American Idol.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
a) The joke has been made ten times already.
b) Driving with a cell phone is already illegal in many states.
c) Must people don't drive in a pool.
d) You're a moron.
e) The reply to this post will be - "Get a sense of humor."
f) The reply to that post will be - "Get a job you stinking pile of shit."
Sounds great - except for the phone.
..." (someone's probably said this by now, let me check ...)
When I tried a sensory deprivation tank (no phone, just epsom salts thanks), it was a big egg-shaped tank without any lights. Afterwards my date and I got totally engrossed in cutlery at the restaurant. We were swimming in over-perception. The effect waned over a few days.
Guess with this one you could get your computer to phone you and play "Echoes" by Pink Floyd, or just shut the phone off.
Anyone know any good sensory deprivation music? Polly would need a hi-fi phone though...
BTW I'm experimenting with browsing at -4 funny, o/w my comment would have been something like "Looks like the woman's phone has 5 spheres not 3. Oh wait
Esteem isn't a zero sum game
I don't think we're dangerous
Oh sure, no one ever does. "I can drive faster than the speed limit because I'm a better driver and that means I'm not dangerous!" or "I can steer with my knees because I'm in control and I'm not dangerous!"
I absolutely need to use my phone while driving
Oh really? Tell us Mr. President, how do you find time to relax with your oh so busy schedule? It must be hell, poor you!
Besides, I'm only on the phone for less than 5 minutes.
Oh, five minutes, is that all? Lets see, five minutes at 50Mph...that 4 Miles you covered without paying proper attention to what you're doing. Thats O.K though, because you're not dangerous, right?
People with too much time on their hands invent incredibly impractical device for easily distracted people who probably will never use it anyway.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
Caller ID let me know who called and I could ecide if a return call was warranted because once a message is left the onus is on you to call back.
I can't stand you people... at least once a month, I get a call from someone that says, "Hi, I have your number in my caller id."
And I reply, "Ok, who are you?"
"I am such and such, you called my house."
"6 people live in my household. I don't know who called you. Were you expecting a call from us?"
And then they get all annoyed because they realize that they have no idea why they called. Meanwhile, you interrupted my chicken salad sandwich.
Well said. My cellphone is a one-way street. It's for ME to call you, and not vice-versa. I usually leave it in my car. If you (and i mean the global 'you') have something to tell me, leave a message and if it's worth my time, I'll get back to you. I don't do the "hey what's up? Nuthin'" thing.
Likewise, no phone conversation is worth getting into a pool and isolation helmet for. Blowjob, maybe. Phone call... no fucking way.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
If you have enough time to read/post on slashdot, I am forced to assume that you might be able to sqeeze in a 'hello' when a friend calls. Seriously, you aren't that important.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Unfortunately some people live by the phone
The problem with most people is they feel they are not needed. They feel they have no value and no power over other people. So each time the phone ring, they hope it's someone who will say "I'd like to see you" or "I need your help" (as long as the person calling has value and power, of course). And they don't want that person to call someone else because they didn't answer the phone! Oh, no!
You would be assuming so erroneously. A general purpose computer allows you to interleave emails and web-forum-postings among a myriad other useful things that you can be doing with your machine at the same time. This prevents you from making assumptions about what else someone is doing with their time. (You can't assume that no one else uses their computer time wisely simply because you do not.)
The phone, on the other hand, is a mutex lock on you...a very rude medium for low-importance/low-urgency communications.
The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...
Lots of people think the phone is a convenience item for them, not to allow other people to reach you. well what about the phone number you're dialing? do they feel the same way as you? then aren't you just as bad as that big bad person calling you? In my previous job I hated people like that, who would never pick up the phone until I called 10 times, instead choosing to verbally abuse me after they finally pick up,without knowing why i was calling, or who I was. Dispite the fact that I was calling back to solve a problem they were having with their computer, calling back to solve it any way possible. the caller ID didn't say who i was, Just which line I was calling out of, it didn't even have my proper line. Answering machines are better, then I can leave a message. but the people who only use caller ID are very arrogant. what if the number was that of a hospital which didn't come up as "hospital" but just as a number you didn't know. Would you ignore it? dispite the fact that they are attempting to contact you about, for example, your child, your parent, your sibling, your spouse. The phone is a two way street. like it or lump it, it is a two way street.
...someone still has the money to develop this. This is without a doubt the dumbest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Whoever wasted money on developing this is an idiot...although smoehow I have the feeling that someone else will be dumb enough to buy it. Completely pointless...black goggles and a headset will do the same thing. Why do you need to be isolated from physical input while on the phone....sosososososososososososo stupid.
a new phone technology that isolates the user from all other sensory input
You mean like... a PHONE BOOTH?
Yeah, that's great, because you're better than all of us, and we should wait around so we can answer our phones whenever you're damn well ready to return our calls, and consider ourselves lucky to have the priviledge of talking to you.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.