turn ringer off for a specified time

[Sean C. McCord]

On Fri, Aug 17, 2007 at 10:05:03AM +0200, ramsesoriginal wrote:
> On 8/17/07, Sean C. McCord <openmoko at cycoresys.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Aug 16, 2007 at 10:42:21PM -0700, R. Tyler Ballance wrote:
> > > >Why not use the GPS for determining, if one already left the
> > > >meeting room?
> > >
> > > Interesting but extremely complex for a simple problem.
> >
> > For something that would be a little more interesting, you could use the
> > accelerometers for this, as well.  I don't know how accurate they are,
> > but they would certainly work even indoors for determining distance
> > moved.  The problem, here would be getting a high enough and accurate
> > enough time strobing in order to come up with a reasonably accurate
> > distance.
> >
> > This would be closer to "extremely complex" than the GPS, but still
> > fairly trivial from a top-down view.
> >
> >
> Why not combine them? we have he possibility, simply use the calendare,
> after the specified time, the gps checks if it's inside the meeting room. if
> not, it switches back. if yes, it remains mute, makes some sort of "bling:
> meeting is overrunning its time" sound (one time only, not to annoy, but to
> nitfy),and displays a message: "meeteing-time is over. wanna unmute?", with
> yes and no as options. 

I like this.  I think this is exactly what it should do for a 
time-based approach.

> Also, in the background, it starts the
> accelerometers, and if there is a constant motion for more then, let's say,
> 20 sekonds, check position with gps. If outside of meeting-room, make sound
> again. if not,keep on. 

I am thinking this may be reaching that "complex" area.  In reading
through: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Accelerometer_Fundamentals it
appears that there is not enough resolution to really be able to do this
properly straight-up... (unless, of course, you are really bolting out of
that meeting, and in that case, turning on the ringer is probably the
last thing you are worrying about).  I'm sure it could still be done,
and I'd be curious to see how much guess-work you could make the device
do to fill in the gaps.

> It should also be possible to make some sort of "emergency code": if someone
> sends an sms with a given key, then calls from this number are not muted for
> the next 10 minutes. This allows, for example, to let familiars call you
> when something is really urgent.

Also a good idea.  I don't know how practical the use of it would be,
but it sounds good.

> It's also important that we don't forget the option to simply manually
> disable the mute, because if the system, for some reason, fails to unmute,
> the user shouldn't be locked to mute ;)

Absolutely.

> Just my 2 cents (with maaany tax, i'm italian :( )

Not only that, but 2c Euro is more than 2c USD.  Hence the relative
values of our suggestions, as well.