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."
[PET_PEEVE-2978741]
This in theory means the user is not distracted by other things occurring in their immediate surroundings.
For me the phone is a major distraction. When I'm busy I don't want a damn phone call from anyone. Unfortunately some people live by the phone; watch when a phone rings and see how people jump to answer it. Screw that: the phone is a convenient tool for me not a backdoor by which others can invade my space and privacy.
When I had a land-line at the house I didn't own an answering machine. Caller ID let me know who called and I could decide if a return call was warranted because once a message is left the onus is on you to call back. I have just my cell now and don't give out the number to non-friends & family. Take control of your life, the phone isn't your master.
[/PET_PEEVE-2978741]
Trolling is a art,
You don't want to be driving while using this phone...
Platform independent bug tracking software
Sounds like sex isn't going to be as much fun as before.
Why should the driver be bothered by my horn, or the wrecked bus of burning nuns?
Phone Plus Sensory Deprivation Equals...
MY JOB.
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
Looks a lot like the "Cone of Silence" from Get Smart. Bet it works just as well. :)
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!
From the story.
That is, you can't smell anything else if the swimming pool isn't chlorinated.
Hmmm. No, I guess that wouldn't actually help much either
<sig>Guvf vf abg n frperg zrffntr
This sounds like a bad idea ... It's annoying enough talking listening to people on the phone when I can distract myself by doing other things. Imagine if I cound't read Slashdot while users where telling me their life stories? How tedious would that be?! ;-)
The idea that people would actively get into
... noone calls me. And I go to no
a swimming pool and put on a helmet to answer
a work phone call. The mental image... is
quite worrying in some cases.
Though I find the best thing about working from
home is that people dont have my phone number
here, so
meetings. Magical.
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
HELLO? I'M IN THE POOL!
On the plus side, it'll be easier to drown them...
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.
Um, excuse me, but that's the problem with existing phones - the person concentrates only on the conversation, to the exclusion of everything else, including driving. If anything, we need a phone that would allow a person to do something else other than just talking. (And yes, I know about wireless headsets and I think they're great...)
The article doesn't really say how you would dial when you're immersed in complete sensory deprivation. I mean, your sense of sight, sound, and smell are supposedly completely removed by the device, and your body is supposed to be in body temperature water, getting rid of gravity and most of your touch. Wouldn't that make dialing a number difficult?
I suppose maybe you could only receive calls on the thing. But then, wouldn't it be impossible for two people to use them? If the point is to focus everything onto the conversation itself, if only one person has the experience, I imagine the person in the deprivation would be pretty pissed that the other person wasn't pay as much attention as they were.
Then again, this is a luxury item, and might only be available to executives for business calls. Perhaps they have their secretaries do all the dialing and then its just forwarded to the device, so they don't even have to worry about that aspect of it.
Ultimately, I think its impractical, though I'm glad that some people are doing truly innovative work. I give it a B for effort.
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'
hm, I dont have the attention span or caring to devote time to a phone call, locking my door and spending quality time with loved ones. I guess I will buy a sensory deprivation phone so that my ADD (read American upbringing) wont interfere with the quality time I am not willing to put effort into.
After all, a phone is not enough to converse, but with a helmet, all things things are possible. I mean... its a helmet.
"this is the gloaming"
radiohead
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?
I bet some fool will get it for his car...
"Yeah, officer, I was driving down the highway at 65mph when my phone rang. I have no idea how I ended up in this field! And why is the front of my car all covered in blood?"
There's a growing sense that even if The Future comes,
most of us won't be able to afford it.
-- Lemmy
Imagine running and jumping into the pool, strapping on your Lunar Lander floating headset, and getting all situated, just to find a telemarketer on the other end of the line!
I don't know what's worse, that you have to get out and dry off, or that the telemarketer has your TOTAL ATTENTION.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
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
so now i have to run upstairs, strip down to a swimsuit, jump in the pool and get the headgear on all in the 4 rings before it goes to voicemail?
!(^((ri)|(mp))aa$)
Yeah I am sure these will catch on. Not only that it should be a big boost to the pool industry. Don't worry about the fact that in many areas you will only be able to use your phone during the summer months. Hmmm, I can just see it now... "well, I am not going to call my mother/sister/brother during the winter, because I know she/she/he will not be paying attention to me.
Just some random thoughts:
Everytime I get in the pool I always have to pee, which would be a distraction in itself.
Other people would probably be swiming in the pool, there is nothing more irritating to me then someone splashing me while I am in the pool.
Do you have to sit in the pool all day waiting for a call, or do you answer a call and ask the person to hold while you put your bathing suit on.
What if there is an electrical storm while you are on the phone? You would not know and could die.
Do you think the ring tone should be the theme to Jaws?
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.
You turn ONE LITTLE bus full of nuns into burning wreckage and that's all everyone talks about. "Hey AL! How many hail Marys did ya get?"
a new phone technology that isolates the user from all other sensory input
You mean like... a PHONE BOOTH?
Granted, anyone can talk on the phone while driving in a straight line at a constant speed (I've actually known guys who've fallen asleep on long straight roads and done fine), but it's the emergency situations that the people on phones can't deal with. And the problem is 1) they forget the basic rule of driving of looking as far ahead as you can see and 2) they won't stop their conversation to deal with the situation. Since talking on a cell phone should be equivalent to talking to a passenger, they need to realize that when talking to a passenger, you both stop talking when someone cuts you off.
Personally, I've told people to hold on, put the phone down, done what I had to do, and then resumed the conversation (with explination). I also drive 10-15 mph slower (I like to drive 80-90 mph) when on the phone, as I realize that they are a distraction and my reaction speed will be slowed (I do the same when I have passengers in the car, too). I'd also like to mention that I don't use cell phones on local roads, as there are too many things that could happen that can't in the controlled environment of a freeway. A little bit of thought (often lacking) and cell phones aren't as much of a problem as you think they are.
Given that you said you drive 50mph I take it you're not in California, and probably not anywhere with much traffic, or hour+ long commutes that really have turned the cell phone into a necessity (I don't even have a land line, 'cause I'm never home except to sleep). Maybe instead of assuming everyone is like you (I salute you if you recognize that you don't have the ability to talk on the phone and drive at the same time), realize how diverse people are in their abilities. Hey, someone was doing alright at running a country, but thought that fooling around with an intern in the White House would stay a secret.
Kurdt
I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.