Concept Idea: The Phone Control System

Concept Idea: The Phone Control System

Note: the Concept Idea is a new series I'm hoping to start describing technology I envision. They are not anything that has happened, nor is necessarily going to happen.

We've all experienced someone's cell phone ringing at an inconvenient time. Even more annoyingly, people have developed a nasty tendency to ignore everyone around them at times when they should be paying attention and use their phones instead. Even more importantly, there are problems with people communicating information that is supposed to be kept secret. This can be done by text message, or by taking a picture (for instance, a student sending a picture of a test to his friend who is going to take the test the next period). Some people suggest jamming signals to prevent people from using their phones in certain places, but this hardly seems like an ideal solution. Something better would look like this.

Point 1: Control zones
Any institution that desired to put restrictions on cell phone use could purchase a control box that allows them to do so. With the control box, three other nodes would be provided, which would end the controlled zone and form a restricted-area triangle. These nodes would prevent any restrictions beyond the location of the triangle. When setting up the zone, the people responsible would have to make sure that the zone did not extend beyond their own property. (If a conflict were to occur, there could be an inspector to make people adjust the controlled area.) I don't know exactly how such a thing could be set up, but this is, after all, a concept.

Point 2: Control Levels
Level 0: Unrestricted—cell phones would work normally as if they were outside any control zone.
Level 1: Silenced—If sound level was above vibrate, the level would automatically be lowered to vibrate on any phones that were on. (Leaving the area would restore the previous setting.) Incoming calls could be received, but answering the call and placing calls would be prohibited. Attempting to place or answer a call would give a message instructing the user where to go in order to talk. Text messaging and internet use would be allowed, although the backlight level would be lowered to minimize distraction to surrounding people in the dark. This would be a good mode to use in many public places, like concerts and movie theaters, because it would allow people to be notified of important calls and events (because, let's face it, there are some times when being in contact can actually be important), but not distract others.
Level 2: Communications Blocked—Calling, text messaging, internet use, and any other activities that used a cell phone signal would be blocked, as if there was no signal available. Once again, attempting to do one of these things would trigger a message pointing the user to an unrestricted area. The camera, calendar, calculator, some iPhone apps, etc., would be unaffected.
Level 3: Communications+Camera Blocked—To prevent removal of important information (like pictures of tests) from the area, the camera would also not work. Attempting to use the camera would trigger a message stating that no photography was permitted in the area. (Although one could bring in a dedicated camera to bypass this restriction, someone using an actual camera would be easily spotted.) This would probably be a good level for schools, so that students could use tools that would be appropriate for academic use, but not be able to use phones to cheat or talk to friends.
Level 4: Cell Phone Blocked—Any cell phones that were on upon entering the area would turn off. Attempting to turn on the phone would result in a message directing the user to move to an unrestricted area to use his phone. This would be a good mode to use, for instance, in testing environments. For instance, when I recently went to take the SAT, people were discouraged from bringing phones in, and anyone whose phone went off during the test would be dismissed and have their scores canceled. For me, I needed my phone to call for a ride home when the test was done, so I resorted to removing the battery and placing both the battery and the phone in my bag. Having this mode would remove the problem completely.

Point 3: Emergency Use
I can just see the people who are opposed to this sort of control going, “But what if there's an emergency?”

o An emergency switch would be located inside the battery compartment of each phone (to prevent accidentally triggering it). Turning the switch would allow the phone to pass through the communications and phone blocked modes (after answering a question on the screen as extra confirmation). To prevent abuse, the phone would immediately and automatically connect you to 911.
o The control box, which would be located in a public place, would have an emergency lever that would call 911 and activate emergency mode.
o Emergency mode would be triggered by turning the switch on one's phone or by pulling the lever that would be situated on the control box. Emergency mode would have the following effects:
--The mode would immediately be set to unrestricted, allowing anyone to make any calls.
If the mode was triggered from a phone, the control box would also submit an emergency call.
--Whatever device triggered the mode would be connected to 911.
--An event would be logged on the control box stating what device triggered it, to track down people setting off false alarms.
--An alarm would sound on anyone's phone who had been blocked from switching it on within the past few minutes, allowing them to make any important calls they had been trying to make. A message stating that an emergency mode had been triggered would also appear on the control box.
--The mode would remain in unrestricted until an administrator reviewed it and reset the mode.

Point 4: Control Box
The control box would be located in a public, easily accessible place. On a display at the front of the control box, anyone would be able to see the area the zone extended to and the mode the area was currently in. An administrator could also log in from the control box to change settings, the mode, and review logs and emergency events. Logging in would require a key and a passcode, to avoid anybody messing with it. The control box would also log any failed logins.

Point 5: Technical Aspects
Setting up a system that could control phone use effectively would be fairly complicated, but could be accomplished by having phones listen for signals from control boxes. The signal would state the current zone the system was in, and would immediately cause their respective effects on the phone when received. Also, all communications would be intercepted by the control box, and provided that they weren't from a banned phone, sent on to the tower. To lower the chance of phones' restrictions being cracked and broken, it could be made simply illegal to own such a phone. Therefore, anyone caught using a phone breaking restrictions would be automatically pointed out as guilty. In addition, control boxes could be set up to block all communications from a phone (ban the phone) that had been caught breaking the restrictions. As extra defense against this, control boxes could log events that occurred on the phone, such as a ringtone sounding. (Perhaps that's a little bit overboard, as it could be seen as an invasion of privacy; it could also possibly be spoofed by having one's cracked phone firmware send incorrect messages to the log. If the system really worked, anyone whose phone went off in violation of restrictions might be so unaccepted by society that someone would report them anyway.)

Point 6: Setup
Of course, phones can't be made to respond to these signals out of the blue, nor can my suggested emergency switch be reasonably added to phones that already exist. The simplest way, therefore, to get any such system to work would be to simply include the necessary software and logic on all new phones, and after some period of time (say, 7 years), all phones that were purchased before that time would simply cease to work (after sufficient warning from the provider, of course), and the rest of the system could be implemented.

Point 7: Conclusion
Naturally, I have no leverage whatsoever to get something like this working. It's a very ambitious concept, and I have severe doubts that our society will welcome anything like this. Maybe you don't agree with me on all the points; maybe you don't even agree that something like this is necessary. The thing to remember is that having phones ringing during performances and at other inappropriate times is extremely annoying, and that people have a tendency to try to use phones when it is not reasonable to do so. If we can't trust people to take care of this themselves (and it seems that we can't, from the past few years), I see no other real solution than to implement some kind of control. I don't even trust myself to always turn off my phone at the right times (and I'm writing this)—more than once, I've discovered I've left my phone on during school, or an equally bad time.
--
Soren "scorchgeek" Bjornstad
http://www.thetechnicalgeekery.com

Microsoft is not the answer.
Microsoft is the question.
The answer is "No."

Copyright 2010 Soren Bjornstad.
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