If a company by the name of BlueLinx gets its way, mobile phones ringing in places where they're not supposed to could become a thing of the past - all thanks to Bluetooth.
If you've ever been at the cinema, in the theatre or in a restaurant and suddenly hears a mobile phone bleeting in someone's pocket, followed by frantic searching to either pick it up or make it shut up, chances are you'll like the idea of BlueLinx' latest product. Its Q-Zone mobile phone courtesy system will soon be available through a monthly subscription plan, allowing public venues to effectively shut mobile phones up in desired locations.
The patent-pending Q-Zone system creates "quiet zones" in hotels, theaters, and meeting facilities by automatically lowering ring volumes while users are inside the zone. When users leave the zone, alert systems return to normal settings - all conducted using Bluetooth. The subscription service will make use of existing cellular networks and be administered by carriers, a structure which the company saus allows providers to activate or deactivate the system remotely - lowering maintenance costs.
"By utilizing the existing cellular networks, we can provide our customers with an affordable solution to a recognized problem," said Griffin. "The new product has the added benefit of creating an entirely new market segment for wireless carriers as well as introducing a profitable application for them based on Bluetooth."
Company officials expect the system to be fully operational within six months of widespread Bluetooth mobile phone offerings, and its pricing will be based on the number of Q-Zone nodes installed.
BlueLinx did however not offer any information on just how it intends to perform the muting operations over Bluetooth, as no current products on the market support such solutions over any standardized profiles. In addition comes the added obstacle of security settings in Bluetooth which allow owners of Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to deny any kind of Bluetooth device access to the device without approval from an owner first; a process which would take approximately the same amount of time as muting the mobile phone manually.
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