A cellular telephone feature for making your coworkers not angry

Turns off the ringer when the user is not nearby. Calls go straight to VM or the screen blinks "incoming call" (user settable)

"Nearby" is judged by one of a few settable options, some of which are:

1) bluetooth headset is out of range (I hate these things, but this would work really well, as people seem to wear them even to bed these days)

2) temperature of phone is low (it is out of the users pocket) There are many reasons why this wouldn't work well, but it might be good for someone

3) phone is in some specific physical orientation (set horizontally on desk, etc) (accelerometer based feature)

4) phone wasn't checked/touched or physically shifted since the last call wasn't picked up. (accelerometer based feature)

I especially like #4 - it reminds me of how old answering machines would let the phone ring 4 times if there were no messages and 2 if there were - to save the toll from a call and speed up the transaction. It also means I only have to listen to Hava Nagila once per coworker lunchbreak.
-- ericscottf, Mar 25 2008

Or you could buy the person one of those little phones that they could carry around with them at all times.
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 25 2008


We have a tradition in our lab. If someone leaves their mobile around and switched on more than three times in a row, we set it in acrylamide. If we're in a good mood we put it in a ziploc bag first.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 25 2008


May I mail you a small collection of phones for "setting?"
-- ericscottf, Mar 26 2008



random, halfbakery