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Polite Cell Phones

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the don't-be-THAT-guy-at-the-movie-theater dept.

yEvb0 writes "Researchers at Motorola and Carnegie Mellon University are developing more polite cell phones. Strategies include programming the ringer to turn on and off according to the time of day, monitoring sound light levels to determine if the owner is a movie theater or talking to his boss, and even letting callers decide whether they'd like to interrupt based on this information."

4 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. once again, trying to get machines to "think" by acroyear · · Score: 4, Interesting

    since people obviously don't anymore...

    --
    "But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
    -- Joe
  2. But... by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But can it tell the difference between a movie theater and my pocket?

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  3. Re:It's Called 'Vibrate' by LinuxHam · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not to mention something Nextel has had for years. If I put my regularly scheduled meetings in my datebook, I can program the phone to switch to vibrate on its own, shut off the two-way radio feature, and even decide who in my phonebook is allowed to ring through, just for the length of the meeting. Its really an excellent feature, and I love it.

    --
    Intelligent Life on Earth
  4. How about human politeness by binaryDigit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems to me that most of the "rudeness" of phones stems from peoples strange addictions to ringtones. I just leave my phone on silent/vibrate all the time, and just never worry about disturbing anyone. It's sad that so much energy has to be expended to deal with such an issue. Plus, many of those strategies sound iffy at best since, for instance, many women keep their cell phones in their purse/bag, rendering any attempt to guage light or sound pretty much useless. Plus, as far as sound is concerned, how many people are going to feel a bit disturbed by the fact that their phone is now ALWAYS "listening".

    That being said I see two useful features (which may have been mentioned in the article that I admit I haven't read). One, simply have the phone check your calendar to see if you have a meeting scheduled. Two, provide some type of "snooze" button. Right now, if you decline a call because you're in a meeting, you still get an annoying beep when they leave a message, or the same damn "ringing" 10 min later when they call again. Why not have a single button basically put the phone in silent mode for the next half/hour/n minutes?