Microsoft Patents Tech That Would Silence Your Phone For You

tsamsoniw writes "Microsoft has filed a patent for a mobile technology called Inconspicuous Mode, aimed at helping you not be 'that guy' who disrupts movies, meals, or meetings with noisy, bright-screened phone alerts. It's a setting that would effectively put your phone in stealth mode when the device sensed it was in a movie theater (thanks to location information) and that the lights had gone down. The idea is, you could still receive alerts if a call or text came in, but no one around you would be disturbed by phone sounds or screen flashes."

Comments

Already got it.

[Frosty Piss]

I already have a phone that does this. As someone who is aware of my surroundings and generally conscientious, I simply turn my phone to "vibrate" or even - God forbid - OFF... It works very well indeed. And I even still receive alerts if a call or text came in. Amazing technology.

Re:Already got it.

[iamhassi]

I already have a phone that does this. As someone who is aware of my surroundings and generally conscientious, I simply turn my phone to "vibrate" or even - God forbid - OFF... It works very well indeed. And I even still receive alerts if a call or text came in. Amazing technology.

Yes Apple already patented the technology, silencing the phone based on GPS location. Similar to geofencing that came out in iOS 5

Re:Already got it.

[dkleinsc]

No, this is also about shutting down somebody else's annoying phone.

Which I can do, too - it's amazing what you can accomplish with a simple sledgehammer.

Re:Already got it.

[CanHasDIY]

I already have a phone that does this. As someone who is aware of my surroundings and generally conscientious, I simply turn my phone to "vibrate" or even - God forbid - OFF... It works very well indeed. And I even still receive alerts if a call or text came in. Amazing technology.

Yes Apple already patented the technology, silencing the phone based on GPS location. Similar to geofencing that came out in iOS 5

Cute, Apple patents something in 2012 that I've had on my Android phone since 2010 (little app called WhereRing). That sort of thing never happens.

Minor bitch, a script that takes input from existing sensors and uses said input to cause a particular action in existing hardware is not what I would refer to as "technology."

"Bloody obvious" would be a good alternate term.

Re:Already got it.

[jedidiah]

The missus already programmed her Android phone to engage in location based auto configuration. She uses it for power management but certainly the same principles can be use for "do not be a jerk" purposes.

A lame *ss software patent for the USPTO. Whodathunkit?

Re:Already got it.

[Dishevel]

I love Tasker for this kind of thing.
Turning on wifi at home and at work.
Toggling GPS off when battery power gets low.
Guess though would would need some kind of patent on stuff like this to use it on iOS or Windows Phone 8.
On Android though Tasker has been on every one of my phones for a few years now.

Re:Already got it.

[bugs2squash]

I occasionally go to movies and leave my kids with a babysitter. She has my number and I expect a call if something really bad comes up that she needs to deal with (after she dials 911) and the kids have my number too. If the movie theater were to deliberately cause me to miss such a call I would sue their ass regardless of whatever legal crap they posted in their "conditions of ticket sale" fine print.
I'm sure I'm not alone.

Re:Already got it.

[iamhassi]

And regardless, isn't it a genial, brilliant idea? Of the kind that even your dog might think while taking a crap. The obviousness of these patents is so clear that it stopped being funny long ago, now it is only outraging.

I agree, sucks companies have to patent the obvious, but if apple didnt patent it someone else would in 2015 and then sue apple for using it for 8 years like the patent troll patenting podcasts in 2009.

Re:Already got it.

[BasilBrush]

You're so spoiled. Mobile phones have only been commonplace about 15 years and already people talk about them as if they have an inalienable right to be connected everywhere at any time.

People were able to cope with leaving their kids with a babysitter in the 1990s and earlier you know. Without going all prima donna and threatening lawyers.

Or you could turn it off ...

[Kittenman]

Or silent mode...

this is like trying to make people good drivers

[alen]

people drive like asswipes because they think the world revolves around them

same here, the people disrupting the movie won't care about this. and probably won't enable it even if their phone had it.

the only solution is to wait two weeks or more until after a movie comes out to see it in an almost empty theater

Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers

[Joce640k]

the people disrupting the movie won't care about this.

Even if they did, they'd still answer and say "I can't talk, I'm in the cinema... Really? No way, dude!! Haha. So what did he do next??? You're kidding me!!! " etc.

Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers

[icebike]

the people disrupting the movie won't care about this. and probably won't enable it even if their phone had it.

Most of the people who disrupt movies are not jerks, just forgetful, or they came in a few seconds late and missed the ever present "Cell Phone Off" request that appears on the screen in every theater I've been to in the last 5 years.

This would save a lot of embarrassment and I suspect a lot of people would turn it on if it worked properly.

If they do get it working properly, I'd like to see it on by default, with the setting to turn it off buried 5 menus deep. That would keep the clueless users who can't figure out how to silence their phones from being able to defeat it without the manual.

Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers

[Beardo the Bearded]

They're illegal for good reason.

Perhaps you've never had an important call before. One of the jobs I interviewed for was Communication Engineer for the Ambulance Service. That job required 24/7/365.24 on-call duties because

when 911 stops working, it has to get the fuck up fucking fast.

Sometimes doctors go home, sometimes MPs will go to a movie.

Re:this is like trying to make people good drivers

[bitt3n]

the only solution is to wait two weeks or more until after a movie comes out to see it in an almost empty theater

that's what I do. otherwise there's always some jerk who thinks it's funny to throw popcorn at me while I'm trying to talk on the phone.

How does it know when the lights go down.....

[Ellis D. Tripp]

as opposed to just sitting in your dark pocket?

Turn it off, or leave

[innocent_white_lamb]

I own and operate a movie theatre. I have policy trailers that I play before every show telling you to turn your cell phone off. If I see a light from a cell phone while the show is on, I'll go in and ask you to turn it off until the show is over. If I see your light again, I'll ask you to come to the lobby with me, and when you get there I'll tell you to go home.

Since I have been doing this for years, ever since cell phones existed, I have very little problem with cell phones here.

Consistent enforcement is the answer. I have to tell maybe one or two people a month to turn their phones off, sometimes I can go a few months without having to do it once. And I can't remember the last time I threw someone out for that -- it's been at least a couple of years.

This Already Exists...

[Farmer Pete]

There are several programs that can be set to automate your phone like this. The problem is that location awareness isn't as good inside a movie theater as you might hope. For instance, I live about a half a mile away from the nearest megaplex. I setup a rule on my phone to turn off the ringer and wifi when the phone is at the address of the cinema. However, the rule kept triggering when I was sitting in my living room. Even if I didn't live so close, if I was shopping at the stores next door, my phone would be going to vibrate mode automatically. I've found that doing location based things only works well if your location isn't near anything else. For instance, I work in the middle of nowhere. I set a rule to turn off WiFi & bluetooth from 8am to 4:45pm when I'm at my work location. Works great to save battery. But for the movies, I still set it manually.

You wouldn't buy a screaming hat

[Cajun Hell]

As someone who is aware of my surroundings and generally conscientious, I simply turn my phone to "vibrate" or even - God forbid - OFF... It works very well indeed.

I agree with you, in this particular case. But there will be situations where I find something trivial and obvious that you find to be a pain in the ass, and vice-versa. Once person might say "I'm aware of what I'm watching and it's trivial and foolproof to press fast-forward on my Tivo remote when there's a commercial" and the other person might say "I shouldn't have to do that or think about that, when I'm trying to concentrate on the actresses' boobies, so mythfrontend should automatically commercial-skip for me." One person might say "I want a padlock icon when it is a totally sure thing (except for a glossed-over list of exceptions, all of which I want to always be un-acknowledged) there is no MitM attack, and I want lack of an icon when the certainty is less than 100.00%; I don't want to think about grey areas and degrees of certainty" and another person might prefer a realistic UI which says "MiTM is probably not happening" or "MitM is very very likely not happening" or "The level of conspiracy required for a MitM right now, has precedent." or "You only have one stranger's assurance that nothing shady is going on, and betrayal would require no conspiracy at all."

We say just a little awareness and common sense solves the problem, maybe because our phones happen to be something we sometimes think about, for whatever reasons that have emerged from our personal quirks. Someone else says "I shouldn't have to be aware of something as unimportant as the current sleep/wake state of one of my pocket computers, among the dozen items I happen to be carrying." If eyeglasses or shoes or hats sometimes spontaneously started screaming in response to external activity, that same person might want the behavior automatically suppressed at some times, whereas you and I would probably raise an eyebrow at the thought of ever buying a screaming hat in the first place, because we already have enough to worry about (our phones) without having to worry about screaming hats.

Different strokes for different folks.