A group in England has designed some cellphones that punish users with bad cellphone etiquette. These phones aren't intended to ever be put into production, but are an attempt to enliven the debate about how cellphones should be used in public places [ArsTechnica].

I think that the biggest problem is a lack of audible feedback from the handset itself. When you talk into a cellphone you have no idea how loud your voice is to the person on the other end of the line. This creates the perceived need to speak at high volumes.

Cellphone microphones are very sensitive to the frequencies of the human voice and they have built-in waveform compression which keeps the volume fairly constant in a wide range of conditions. What is lacking is feedback to the speaker so that they know how loud their own voice is on the other end. Adding a simple feedback circuit would make it natural for the user to speak at an appropriate level while using the phone.

Of course, convincing users not to drive with a cellphone in their hands is another problem entirely. 11:45:17 AM    comment []