Ideas for mobile phone

Ole Tange openmoko.org at tange.dk
Tue Nov 28 14:58:30 CET 2006


I had a brain storm with a friend: What would you like your phone to do?

Some of the ideas require Wifi, but some of them do not.


Calendar dependant profile
If it is night or you are in a meeting the phone should go to silent
profile. In silent profile the phone will only vibrate.


Caller dependant profile override
If the caller is on the important person list then caller will be
asked if it is important (press #) this will cause the phone to ring
loudly even if the phone is in silent profile.


Caller firewall
Numbers not on the whitelist will be put to voicemail. All numbers
called will be whitelisted if not explicitly blacklisted. Hidden
caller id is always unknown.


Remote command execution.
Have a list of authorized clients (your friends) that can execute
commands on this machine, if they know the password. If the phone is
stolen you will borrow your friends phone and execute Send GPS
coordinates to this client.


Antitheft.
If the SIM card is changed: Send information about calls (where, when,
duration, to whom?) to authorized clients. This can only be disabled
if you know the phone code.


Locate open access point.
Do a wardriving and locate open access point. Optionally upload this
to a central database. When needed show the closest open access points
(own found and the ones in the central database) on a map.


Child tracker
The child and the adult will both have a phone. If the child phone
leaves a defined zone the adult phone will alarm. The zone can be
defined as a number of GPS points or dynamically as a distance from
another phone (typically the adult). The adult can now find the child
using gpsfriends.


GPS location dependant reminder
Like a calender reminder, but not dependant on time but on location.
Useful for shopping list (Remember to buy milk when you are at the
mall).


Location based commercials
If customer subscribes to commercials he will get commercials based on
his location, e.g. a commercial for a competing wine seller when in
the wine department of the mall. Customer will subscribe if they have
a chance of winning a price.


Mirror
A total black LCD is usable as a weak mirror.


Flashlight
A total white LCD is usuable as a weak flash light.


Calender with voice memo
Just like a calender entry except the text of the event is a voice memo.


Dictaphone.


Dynamic travel plan on cell phone
You want to go from location A to location B using public
transportation (PT). This is solved by www.rejseplanen.dk if the PT is
on time according to the schedule.

However, this is often not the case, which will make you miss a
connection. If www.rejseplanen.dk was dynamically updated (e.g. with
data from Byens Puls), then this could be better. But you still need
an internet connection to see the data.

Another reason for missing the connection is if you do not know where
the track the train departs from or where the bus departs from. This
can be solved by detailed maps of the switching area.

My idea is to combine this with the location based service a cell
phone provides: On the cell phone you simply enter your destination;
your current location is taken as the source location. Then you will
get a route plan (much like www.rejseplanen.dk) and a map of your
approximate current location with a marker of the place where the
bus/train will go from. You then walk to the place. Here you get a
detailed map of where the PT stops.

If the plan changes during the travel (either due to you missing a
connection, delayed PT, queues, accidents or similar), you simply ask
for a new route from you now current location.

You pay for the service and can then use as much as you like for a
couple of hours (ideally until you reach your destination).


Dynamic taxi service using cell phone
You can order a taxi to pick you up. In Copenhagen this takes 5-20
minutes to get the taxi - normally around 10 minutes. But it is often
faster to go to a road cross and look for a free taxi.

It would be even faster if you could get a map of your current
location (computed automatically by your cell phone) and have all the
free taxis plotted in on the map. The map should update every 30
seconds, so it is possible to see, if a free taxi is coming your way.

You can call the taxi by tapping the taxi on the map. The taxis will
of course have to have a phone with GPS too.


Gas price.
Give the gas prices for closest gas stations. If the price is wrong,
user should be able to report the correct price.


Car route planning and navigation
Like the GPS navigation. Should be able to compute ETA based on road
conditions and if the driver drives faster than the average on the
current road.


Road condition reporting
Collect information on position and time when in a car. Report this to
central database. This can be used to determine if the road condition
make cars go slow always (bad road), or only at certain times
(queues). The collected data can be sent immediately or using batch
reporting.


Batch reporting using Wifi/Bluetooth
Collected data can be sent in a batch using cheap communication using
Bluetooth or Wifi.


Weather report
Ask for a weather report for a given location (default: here). Weather
reporting can be done quite acurately for small areas.
Computergenerate a report for a location for a given time. Pay using
overprices SMS.


Cinema shut up signal
Cinemas and other locations where you are encuraged to turn off your
phone: Send out a short range signal that advices a phone to turn off.
The phone may or may not respect this.


Find X close by
X being restaurant, gas station, tourist attractions etc. It should be
possible to read and leave comments for the next user.


Multiplayer games
Using Wifi/Internet or Bluetooth.

/Ole




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