Why can't they just use passive-SSIDs instead of infrared? A simple idea for a similar situation (where phones needed to be automatically put in silent mode as in a church or a hospital) is detailed below (and at https://gist.github.com/tariqm...)
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People are generally caring. When in a gathering, especially indoor gatherings, there is often a need to put the cellular phones on silent mode (with or without vibration mode on, depending on users preference).
Despite the good intentions, people often forget to put their phone sets on mute only to realize when the ringtone suddenly disrupts an otherwise serious, somber or respectful activity (such as a board meeting, a serious discussion, a funeral or a ritual/prayer) and causes a) disruption to the event and embarrasses the phone users.
With most of the modern phone features, a solution to this problem is possible which will enable phone users to display their sincerity to the requests of phones silence being made by the hosts to the gatherings by automating this process.
Over a period of time, this could become an international norm. The feature is being summarily called 'Honoring Silence Requests'
This is a feature that Nokia can be proud of in the area of sensible social responsibility features that come as part and parcel of Nokia phones and reflects the innovative image of Nokia.
The phones that will carry this feature will have wifi access. For this feature to be used, the wifi service layer must be activated on the handset. Upon activation of the feature, the phone set will scan available wifi hotspots periodically.
The event/conference/meeting hosts will need to add a preset text string at the end of the SSID of their existing wifi router/access point (say, NK-HSRF-999000). So a wifi hotspot which was previously named, let's say, 'BoardRoom Nokia' will now say 'BoardRoom Nokia - NK-HSRF-999000'.
When the phone user with HSR feature on enters this area, it will detect the wifi network and the preset trailing text in the SSID. Irrespective of the fact whether the user connects to this SSID or not, the phone will immediately go into silence (with or without vibration) mode.
There is no need of any additional hardware to be put in by the hosts or the phone user to implement this feature. All components are already present. The solution is non disruptive to existing functions of the phone sets and the meeting are hosts.
The activated HSR feature will only activate the silence mode once it receives a fairly strong (say, 80%) strong wifi signal. This will ensure that silence requests set by wifi hotspots that just happen to be nearby are not considered as valid requests and the feature is only used as intended.
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Slashdot Mirror
Why can't they just use passive-SSIDs instead of infrared? A simple idea for a similar situation (where phones needed to be automatically put in silent mode as in a church or a hospital) is detailed below (and at https://gist.github.com/tariqm...) [Starts] People are generally caring. When in a gathering, especially indoor gatherings, there is often a need to put the cellular phones on silent mode (with or without vibration mode on, depending on users preference). Despite the good intentions, people often forget to put their phone sets on mute only to realize when the ringtone suddenly disrupts an otherwise serious, somber or respectful activity (such as a board meeting, a serious discussion, a funeral or a ritual/prayer) and causes a) disruption to the event and embarrasses the phone users. With most of the modern phone features, a solution to this problem is possible which will enable phone users to display their sincerity to the requests of phones silence being made by the hosts to the gatherings by automating this process. Over a period of time, this could become an international norm. The feature is being summarily called 'Honoring Silence Requests' This is a feature that Nokia can be proud of in the area of sensible social responsibility features that come as part and parcel of Nokia phones and reflects the innovative image of Nokia. The phones that will carry this feature will have wifi access. For this feature to be used, the wifi service layer must be activated on the handset. Upon activation of the feature, the phone set will scan available wifi hotspots periodically. The event/conference/meeting hosts will need to add a preset text string at the end of the SSID of their existing wifi router/access point (say, NK-HSRF-999000). So a wifi hotspot which was previously named, let's say, 'BoardRoom Nokia' will now say 'BoardRoom Nokia - NK-HSRF-999000'. When the phone user with HSR feature on enters this area, it will detect the wifi network and the preset trailing text in the SSID. Irrespective of the fact whether the user connects to this SSID or not, the phone will immediately go into silence (with or without vibration) mode. There is no need of any additional hardware to be put in by the hosts or the phone user to implement this feature. All components are already present. The solution is non disruptive to existing functions of the phone sets and the meeting are hosts. The activated HSR feature will only activate the silence mode once it receives a fairly strong (say, 80%) strong wifi signal. This will ensure that silence requests set by wifi hotspots that just happen to be nearby are not considered as valid requests and the feature is only used as intended. [Ends]