This time, let's combine a cell phone and a Lovegety/PartyBAPP device, you know, those goofy Japanese proximity mate finders.
As a cell phone feature, you could enter in a series of preferences into your phone (not just the 3 settings that Lovegety gives you). You could set a series of self-descriptive settings, and then set a series of settings describing your potential mate.
Then, when you are out wandering about, when you get within a certain proximity of someone who matches your mate-settings, and you likewise match theirs (an important advancement over current Lovegety technology), each of the respective phones could respond, perhaps 'calling' each other. You answer, and a brief message alerts you that Cell-Mate has found a match, and a conversation shall ensue. (Alternatively, a voice message could be left, with a call-back option. Or an SMS.) All numbers would be blocked from sight at this stage, accessible only the Cell-Mate responding system, not viewable by the phone users.
I don't think that cell technology would work the proximity bit. I seem to recall hearing that the cellco itself can tell where your phone is, but I don't believe there's a way for one phone to know where it is in relation to other phones on the system. So these phones would have to include a proximity sensing technology, probably the same as what the Lovegety uses now.
The phones could be manufactured by Nookia. And Cell-Mate is perhaps a good name for the system, in light of the possibility that a match could conceivably develop toward marriage.
(I know there are on-line matchmaking sites that can be accessed by web-enabled phones. This is not that. This is a function of the phone itself. No net needed.)-- waugsqueke, Apr 30 2002 (??) Lovegety http://www.interland.co.jp/gety/eigo/The aforementioned doohickey, for the uninitiated. [waugsqueke, Apr 30 2002] Wikipedia: Bluedating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BluedatingThe Bluetooth-based dating genre. [jutta, May 23 2006] Am I allowed to mention Bluetooth? Because with many new mobile phones now coming with Bluetooth short-range radio networking, this must be easily achievable.
I'm not convinced I want one, but it would be neat technology, and could have other uses, e.g. if it had a buddy list it could let you know if a friend was nearby.-- pottedstu, Apr 30 2002 Yes! At last, after all these years with this thing it my pocket, it might finally be able to somehow make my life better. I love the idea of anonymously calling the person, provided you've both hit the 'yes' button.
Phone makers are planning to include presence (buddy-lists) in phones some day, and possibly GPS, so they'd probably be all over the idea. I'm not sure it'd be worth buying a whole new phone for this, so it had better be usable on standard phone technology.
And make the criteria intelligent and detailed. I don't want to be paired up with an idiot, a religious nut or any of the other 99% that just aren't right for me.-- sadie, May 01 2002 And what if your cell-mate mate turned out to be your cellmate?-- RayfordSteele, Oct 25 2002 random, halfbakery