Telephone Ringpole

The problem: I work in an office with an open floor plan. There are no cubicles, walls, or other barriers. Co-workers are frequently away from their desk when their desk phone rings. One of the most frequently heard questions in the building is "Is that your phone or mine?".

My solution: A raised visual ring indicator. Each of our desk phones does have an incoming call light on it, but the light is really only visible if you're at your desk. If you're by the copy machine, you can't see it, nor can you see anyone elses if you need to pick up their call. So, I propose the Ringpole: a short 18" to 24" attachment to the phone with an LED on the top of it.

There's nothing fancy here. When the phone rings, the LED lights up and a person can see which desk is ringing. The pole would be flexible and semi-rigid, just enough to keep it from breaking when bumped yet allowing it to spring back to vertical. I suppose there could be a market for extra flashy lights or other "bling", but in an office environment I'd keep the design as simple as possible to avoid further visual clutter.

I would market this both as an after market add-on, and also as a built in on new phone designs.