Nanotube Paint Blocks Cell Phones on Demand 679
Kozar_The_Malignant writes "Newsday is reporting on a new nanotube paint that is able to block cell phone signals on demand. The nanotubes are filled with copper, suspended in paint, and can be applied to the walls and ceiling of places such as concert halls, churches, and classrooms."
Illegal? (Score:3, Interesting)
Technological solution. (Score:3, Interesting)
can do the same with a sheet of copper mesh (Score:4, Interesting)
The only thing newsworthy is that this paint contains nanotechnology. Sure, that's nice. But the summary and title are misleading: The paint blocks, always. The additional antenna blocks on demand, and there's nothing special there.
Re:People in movie theaters... (Score:3, Interesting)
Go to movie theater, find seat, get number of seat, bring cell phone to the "cell phone check", which is outside the painted area, register it with your seat number. Minimum wage popcorn jockey sits and waits for phone to ring. If it does he takes a brief message with callback number and delivers it inobtrusively to your seat.
It's how things like that have been handled for years...and the solution is needed.
I do live comedy performances, and nothing ruins the flow of the show more than a cell phone going off in the middle of a scene. The Troupe I'm with has implemented this solution, it works pretty darned well.
RFID blocker (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:People in movie theaters... (Score:2, Interesting)
Exactly why I haven't seen a movie in years. I don't like facist "contracts" that I don't have an equal hand in negotiating.
How hard is it to put your phone or pager on Vibrate and put it down your pants. No way are you going to miss a call and then politely leave the theatre to find out what the problem is.
I am on call 24/7 to support my computer client. The servers for 4 factories that I contract to are my responsibility. Guess what... I get an extra $15,000 in the contract to be on call like that. I got a call in the middle of Walk the Line, Harry Potter and Underworld. Have not seen the end of any of those movies yet. I put my cell on vibrate, put it in my pocket and politely leave the theatre when I see the number on the phone is my client. If it is someone else I ignore it and enjoy the vibration between my legs.
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Re:People in movie theaters... (Score:3, Interesting)
When you came up to buy a ticket, you were sorted based on how you looked and acted (oh no, discrimination!)
In one theater went unaccompanied teenagers, adults with really small children, people who couldn't get off their cellphone to buy a ticket, etc.
In the other theater went people who looked like they could be trusted to be quiet in a movie.
We had someone at the theater doors checking ticket stubs to make sure people didn't switch theaters and the like, as well as people in the theaters themselves. In the noisy people theater, we had a police officer, and several employees, and we managed to keep it down to a decent level. People were sending text messages back and forth, and whispering, but absolute quiet simply wasn't a possibility without removing half the theater. Excessive talking, taking phone calls, etc. got a warning, followed by removal from the theater.
In the second theater, we had a single employee, and announced a zero tolerance policy beforehand. You talk, you leave. Anyone who wanted to join the noisy theater was welcome to do so. Also, anyone who complained about the noise level in the other theater got a free readmit pass, and was issued a ticket in the "quiet" theater.
All in all, it worked out well. We had only a few complaints from the noisy theater, and a whole bunch of people saying "thank you" for being able to sit back and watch the movie in peace. Some people simply won't be quiet, so it makes a certain amount of sense to shove them all in their own theater. They don't seem to bug each other, so it all works out in the end.
Sadly, we couldn't do this for every showing, or even every movie. Movies like spongebob simply aren't going to be quiet no matter how hard you try. Also, I found keeping quiet (opening night) in movies like "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" to be impossible. First, it would have been necessary to remove a good chunk of the (largely adult) audience; second, I didn't want to be the lone white employee removing the aforementioned chunk of the (largely black) audience. I don't care one way or the other about race; however, the management really hated it when anything got escalated to Corporate, and that sounded like a good way get something escalated.
Re:People in movie theaters... (Score:2, Interesting)
This represents a fair compromise between folks on call (by the way, for anyone who hasn't figured it out, on-call IS NOT always just for a week at a shot - I was on-call continuously for several years at MP3.com) and the rights of other moviegoers. All this moronic BS about totally blocking cellphones is just that, BS. What needs to happen is the forcible education of the inconsiderate morons who do more than whisper, "I'm in a movie, I'll call you back", then get up and WALK OUT.
For the record, I do not ever use audible rings on my cellphone - it's never off of vibrate, in or out of movie theaters.
Re:Or why not introduce a reasonable standard? (Score:2, Interesting)
But to tie that back to your suggestion, maybe it could be part of the theatre's profile, like allowing ringing or vibrating, to conditionally allow interruptable voicemail, or handle it like the phone is off. Like if you're in a restaurant, it would allow the interruptable voicemail, but in the opera, it would just act like your phone is off.
Hell, they might even have different signals for inside the theatre watching area versus the lobby, so that you could only pickup once in the lobby.