Anyway, basically I was waiting for important phone calls and text messages so I set my phone on a windowsill at the other end of the house where it gets the best reception. Every time the notification tone went I had to get up from where I was working / relaxing and walk through two rooms to get to the phone.
I thought that it could be a useful add-on to people who are addicted to extwitfacemazongle etc., that the notification would go "There is a new cool thing" but it woul dnot show you the new cool thing until you had got up out of your seat and walked a certain distance.
Perhaps it could be some kind of bluetooth networked thingy with a near-field detector as well, that you could fix to a window or somewhere interesting that was a wee walk away from where you usually are.
Or perhaps it could be entirely self-contained in software, so that to reveal the content of the notification you would have to stand up and walk a certain number of steps, as counted by the accelerometer in the phone. Not sure if the GPS could measure the position finely enough. The system could keep track of your movements and correlate with google street view or whatever so it knows where you are, in a high-rise, or in a village square, or at home, or whatever and it could tailor the required challenge so it would be appropriate to the location. E.g. in a high rise building it could require you to go up the stairs to the next floor to read the notification.
You will probably end up like me, hearing the BONNNNGGGGGGG of your notification sound, get up to your feet, and walk along through the house, open the notification to read a marketing message "Special offer! Buy 574 extra-large packets of Nokker's Breath Congealing Pills and get a FREE safety pin holder! Your voucher code is OBLOBBOBOLLOBBOLLOLOLOBOBOOBB which you will need to type manually into our web page to avail of this exclusive offer!"-- pocmloc, Feb 05 2024 Dear Sir or Ma'am, we are pleased to inform you that due to the high quality of past work you have been awarded a probationary bun in anticipation of a new great idea. As a probationary bun we maintain the right to withdraw it at any time for any or no reason. Sincerely, the concerned party.-- Voice, Feb 05 2024 [placeholder for witty/critical/jubilant annotation]-- hippo, Feb 05 2024 [placeholder for asking who boned the idea]-- tatterdemalion, Feb 05 2024 Oh for god's sake I'm not sure I want to even try to type the idea up after all that-- pocmloc, Feb 05 2024 Take twenty press-ups, and see if that fixes it.-- pertinax, Feb 06 2024 Phew! I'm almost too exhausted to post a reply!-- pocmloc, Feb 06 2024 Making tech inconvenient for the purpose of tech being inconvenient is a bad way to get your exersise. [-]-- Voice, Feb 06 2024 Another way to implement this is using a wearable heartrate monitor. The notification is not revealed until you increase your heartrate to a certain (pre-set) level.-- pocmloc, Feb 06 2024 //The notification is not revealed until you increase your heartrate// - the user's anger at this annoying bit of technology refusing to show them what they want to see is sure to raise their heartrate-- hippo, Feb 06 2024 random, halfbakery