February 13th, 2006
Polite Cellphones Heading Our Way?
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Who hasn’t had this happen: watching a movie in a theatre, and someone’s cellphone starts ringing? And then they don’t shut it off, they actually answer it! Or, same situation in a church, at a funeral, a play, you name it. It makes me wish they would allow jammers in the U.S. (in Japan, it is legal to have jammers in certain areas, such as theatres. France has a similar setup). Many people are too forgetful (forgetting to turn it off) or too rude (answering it!).
Larry Marturano is an engineer who runs a lab for Motorola near Chicago. He’s been thinking about this, and some prototypes they’ve been working on “learn” in which situations you answer or ignore calls.
In the future, Marturano says, “as I use the phone, day after day, it learns what I like to do. It learns in what situations I answer calls. So, the vision is that over time, the cell phone gets easier to use because it only presents options to me that I’m likely to use.”
For that to happen, phones will have to know what you’re doing at every moment. Many phones already have GPS chips that know your location, and more sensors are on the way. Source: NPR
We Say: I’d love this. Actually, I’d love it if people could learn to be more thoughtful and polite, but if they can’t do it on their own. Cellphones and other such rude behavior are one of the reasons I (and many people) are attending movies less and less. Something like this (or the jammer!) would really be great.
David Johnston says:
Ironically, another annoying thing about cellphones in movie theaters in particular is that they make noise as people either check all their voicemail/text messages before the movie starts and then proceed to turn them off. Sometimes you walk in to the theater and are greeted with a chorus of beeps, chirps, and buzzes as everyone plays around with their phone in the dark through the previews before (hopefully) turning it off for the feature.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Mr. Pointy Head says:
People who use cell phones in restaurants, theatres, etc, should be SHOT.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Michael Santo says:
That’s a good one, David. I true to handle this stuff before I get into the theatre. Plus, my phone is a Pocket PC PDA / Phone, so I usually use Voice Command and tell it “Flight Mode On”. Heh. Wouldn’t want to to that in a theatre.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Stephen says:
I go to the movies at least 3 times a month. I have not heard a cell ringing in the theater in my memory and if people do check their cells prior to the movie starting its oblivious to me. I don;t hear a thing. This is in downstate CT.
February 13th, 2006 at 11:34 am
N. Lauze says:
I spent a year in Japan, and wasn’t even aware of any jammers. Over there everyone is amazingly good about cellphones. Then again, cellphone plans are sane (no roaming, no long distance, no exorbitant fees, no cancellation fees, and you can buy a phone for under $20 without a rebate or contract) and vibrate mode is called “manner mode”. Text messaging is extremely popular too - it isn’t disruptive to others, and it’s cheap.
Though I think the reason people are going to the movies less and less is because the movies are getting worse and worse…
February 13th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Omari says:
How about something simpler: Anyone ever seen a phone that can be preprogrammed to turn off the ringer at designated times? When I was a student it would have been handy to program the thing to automatically silence itself during my classes. The phones already have calendar programs, so this doesn’t seem to be much of a stretch to me.
February 13th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Rob says:
“For that to happen, phones will have to know what you’re doing at every moment. Many phones already have GPS chips that know your location, and more sensors are on the way.”
The tin-foil-hat side of me is cringing. GPS + “know what you’re doing at every moment” + wire-tap-happy gov’t = omgwtf.
And regarding jammers … I think they are a terrible idea. I just don’t like the idea of a person/establishment deciding whether or not I should have cell service. I think rather than jamming the signal, emitting a “Quiet Phone Zone” signal that turned phones to vibrate would be much more sane.
February 13th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
Zack says:
A quiet phone zone signal is a very agreeable idea, but I have a hard time believing that all the manufacturers could come to agreeance to recognize this signal, let alone do so without providing options in the phone to turn off recognition. It’s one thing for an establishment to control their environment (jammers, or even something like this), but I’d prefer they did not have any control over the functioning of my gadgets.
February 14th, 2006 at 2:33 pm