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JavaPhone Design Ideas
JavaPhone Design Ideas
Last updated 1997 October 20 by Roedy Green
© 1996 Canadian Mind Products.
When I was a kid growing up in West Vancouver in the 1950s, phones had
no dials. You picked up the phone and said "I'd like to talk to Robbie
Jones please" and the operator connected you. Modern technology is
eventually going to get us back to the level of convenience we used to
enjoy.
Java will make possible intelligent telephones. Here is my concept of
the ideal Java-based phone which I have dubbed the JavaPhone. So
far as I know JavaPhone is not a registered trademark. I would hope
it could remain a generic term. Some of these ideas have nothing to do
with Java, but I thought we might as well get the mechanical design right
while we were rethinking the common phone.
Software features
- variable fidelity. You pay only for the bandwidth you need. This means
that you can hear every nuance when your lover kisses you over the phone,
but save money with low fidelity when he or she has to take a bathroom
break.
- It has many features first pioneered by the MiniTel system in France.
It replaces the paper white pages and yellow pages for directory lookup.
Customers look up numbers themselves. It becomes not only a phone, but
a cheap compute terminal for the masses.
- Call call blocking for long distance, 900 numbers etc. without the
appropriate password. This lets parents have a little more control over
their kids and businesses control over employees or walk-in customers.
With Java-powered monitoring, more flexible rules are possible, e.g. allow
you to phone a 900 number consulting service, so long as the bill stays
under $50/day.
- You can order fancy features by downloading Java software into your
JavaPhone. It is a fully functional little computer, capable of running
a applets downloaded from the party you call. You might use it for something
as trivial as selecting which pizza you want off a menu. Downloaded applets
are an opportunity for companies to entertain callers with novelties.
- The BusTel (pronounced buzz-tell) button is white with a red heart
symbol. When you press it, it exchanges electronic business cards with
the other party and displays the information on the electroluminescent
panel. You initially program in the electronic business card by phoning
a service bureau computer that downloads it. The electronic business card
looks very much like an Internet email header with named fields followed
by a colon, e.g. Surname: GivenName: BusName: HomePhone: WorkPhone: DayPhone:
NightPhone: Fax: Email: Apt: Street1: Street2: City: Postal: Country: Web:
etc. etc. The BusTel/Heart key could also be called the trust key.
You tap it once to exchange business cards. You tap it twice and key a
P.I.N. number to also include charge card or debit card info.
- You can program the memories, caller id associations and ringing sound
by being talked through the process by a synthesised voice on a server
computer, or for simple tasks by reading the electroluminescent panel.
You can also phone a human who can talk to you, and patiently extract from
you what you want done, then download the change into your phone. This
way even techopeasants will be able to get full power out of their JavaPhones.
- Assign phone numbers to individuals, not residences. When the phone
rings, the distinctive sound lets you know who it is for. Existing call
forwarding redirects calls for everyone using that phone. The JavaPhone
service would track individuals.
- Built in phone directory of alphabetical names/numbers This way you
could "dial" by using the up/down arrow keys to select, or by
hitting a 4 digit code short dialing code. This long list would be backed
up by your phone provider and could be updated using a computer. If you
were visiting somebody else's phone, you could phone your provider and
have your list temporarily downloaded into that JavaPhone.
- Battery backup of information stored in the phone. Service providers
would also store a backup of that information for you so if your phone
forgets, the JavaPhone automatically dials a number and refreshes its local
copy. The number of your service provider would live in EAROM. This encourages
evolution of new services, and spreads money around still further.
"Money is like manure, it's no good unless you spread it around."
-- Horace Vandergelder in Hello Dolly by Thorton Wilder and Jerry
Herman.
- Various custom features currently only seen in PBX systems now become
possible for the standard residential JavaPhone. Instead of memorising
a zillion arcane codes, you use them by chasing nested menus on the display.
These menus adapt to your usage so the things you do most commonly are
easiest to get at.
- An RS-232 port (or some more modern equivalent) that squirts out data
in ASCII to an attached computer so that computers can automate any function
you can do by hand from the phone's keypad. A lawyer could use the information
that the JavaPhone provides on call start/stop and called party for automatically
generating billings of her time. Computers could request caller id or BusTel
information and instantly bring up a customer's record before the receptionist
even answered the phone. It would also allow your phone to be used as a
modem.
- The JavaPhone may run off the usual copper wire to the telephone company
CO (Central Office), or it might run off a coax cable modem to an ISP.
In either case it can do advanced voice compression and/or encryption.
Only both ends need know the scheme, not the carrier. This will permit
more rapid evolution. For extreme secrecy, you could even go to the one-write
XOR radioactive-decay (from the Americium in an old smoke detector) generated
random number pad CD-ROM or Mexican peasant scheme I talk about so often,
which is mathematically uncrackable.
Display Features
- The more expensive versions of the phone have various sizes of flat
panel colour displays. The basic version uses a blue electroluminescent
display.
- The display has four main functions:
- Displaying menus, phone numbers and other textual data.
- acting as a whiteboard on which you can scribble. Your combined scribblings
are visible to both parties. You can also think of it as legacy FAX receiver.
- To act as a low-res, slow-update picturephone.
- To act as a GUI display for applets.
- Display of the last number dialed. In case you reach an unexpected
party you can check that you dialled correctly and avoid the embarrassment
of phoning the same wrong number a second time. It also gives visual feedback
as you dial. The panel also shows a list of numbers recently dialled and
the caller id of last 100 calls. Caller ID accesses a JDBC database to
display names. Various models come with various sizes of display. This
is transparent to the software. Users with small displays just do more
scrolling.
- Call timer and running dollar cost display for long distance. Businessmen
are interested in optimal use of their time. Home users are primarily
interested in the cost of the call. This also makes it easier to pay someone
fairly when they let you make a long distance call on their phone. Alternatively
you could pay by billing the call to your own number. Such calls are password
validated.
- 900-type service on any phone. A consultant could set up a telephone
tech support service where people call with questions and get billed just
by hitting the heart key a couple of times. Consultants could afford to
take on one-shot phone clients since billing would be totally automated.
The customer could even see the time and money meter running on his display.
Keypad Features
- Big buttons. This helps avoid misdialing and makes it easy even for
old folks to see the numbers. Buttons are labelled both with numbers and
alpha, with numbers much bigger. Even young people can benefit from such
a phone with faster and more accurate dialing.
- No overloading of buttons. One button, one function.
- Some months ago I was in Mountain Equipment Co-Op. I saw these oddly
shaped things used to create artificial climbing walls. They intrigued
me no end. It lead me to speculate that perhaps the keys should have distinctive
shapes and textures so you could even use the phone in the dark or if you
are blind. In any case the distinctive shapes or textures would give subliminal
tactile feedback that you had dialed correctly. Possibly the keys should
have Braille patterns, particularly if various designers insist on being
"creative" with the standard key layout.
- Red 911 button labelled 911 -- with no confusing symbols. The 911 button
should be at the top of the phone set off from the rest of the buttons.
- A green redial button is labelled "again".
- The "quick" rapid dial select key should be blue, and placed
next to redial. It should have a little lightning bolt symbol on it. To
rapid dial, you hit "quick" then a digit.
- The violet "setup" configuration menu key should be set off
by itself. It is violet to subliminally discourage people from accidentally
touching it. Most people don't like that colour.
- Perhaps it is time to add check digits to phone numbers which are checked
locally by the JavaPhone. This helps prevent misdialing. I have a phobia
about phoning people, but I found that I don't have it when I use the memory
feature. I think it comes from unpleasant confrontations when in past I
dialed a wrong number.
- Unlisted numbers could have a password to make it harder for telephone
solicitors or patient paparazzi to get through by random dialing. If your
number and password leaked out, you would just need to change your password,
(which you could do yourself) not get a new phone number. I always thought
it odd that you must pay extra to persuade the phone company not to make
a million or so copies of your name, address and phone number (but no postal
code) on slips of paper and deliver them to people who have no intent of
ever telephoning you.
- Optionally, you can dial, then wait for a confirming display of the
name of the caller you are about to call before you confirm the call and
allow ringing to proceed.
- Even local calls should be allowed to be dialed with full area and
country codes to support standard-format computer databases of phone numbers
since there is no way end users or even portable computers can be expected
to know which exchanges are considered local.
- Yellow button labelled "flash" to provide a timed hook flash
for handling a call waiting.
- Up down arrow keys are used for scrolling the display. The line in
the center of the display is automatically the selected line.
Sound and Ringer Features
- Adjustable volume would be nice for older folks and the hard of hearing.
It is also useful where background noise is high.
- choice of 10 interesting "organic" ringing noises
selected by twirling a rotary dial on the bottom of the phone. This
way there would be no confusion which phone is ringing in a
multi-phone situation. These noises would be distinct from the noises
used by convention for phones on TV, movies or VR. You could also
download custom sounds as AU files. You might use the call of a loon
when you are outside, or a waterfall sound when you are inside.
- Infinitely-variable ringer volume.
- I startle easily. Every time the phone rings I get a nasty jolt of
adrenalin. Something must be done. The ring starts out quietly and gets
gradually louder with each ring. This is less startling, especially if
I am asleep.
- Distinctive ring depending on who the call was for, see programming
features for more details. Rings sounds may also be coded in other ways
-- e.g. emergency, or low priority.
- Do not disturb can direct your calls immediately to an answering machine
on the first ring without making any sound. The answering machine may be
a virtual one provided by your JavaPhone service provider. If you tend
to ramble on and on in your greeting message, telling everyone all the
news about all your relatives, somebody without time to hear all the juicy
details can "interrupt" you and leave a message. You can of course
leave different greeting messages for different callers so you don't tell
just anyone about what happened when Mabel ×××××××
××× ×××××××
×× ××× × ×××××
×××××, (or more tersely: pattern 73723155).
- You can turn off the ringer without unplugging the phone. The display
flashes when there is an incoming call.
Miscellaneous Features
- Your serivce provider lets you look up numbers given whatever information
you've got e.g. old phone number, street address, rough area of the city,
postal code...
- Available in 10 decorator colours. I'm getting tired of beige and white.
- desk or wall mount.
- non-tangling, springy cord so you can wander off to the bathroom with
the phone should the need arise.
Designing Techniques
- Have the designers read Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday
Things".
- Hone the design by using a prototype and log any confusion, awkwardness
or error in using it. These dissatisfaction points need to be honed.
- Have a fresh supply of "JavaPhone virgins" to use to test
the phone. Give them no instruction on how to use it and see what features
they can discover and use without fumbling.
- Check that people after a little experience can use the phone blind-folded.
- Let testers take the phones home and use them in real life situations.
Give them a pad to put next to the phone, and pay them for every noted
irritation they jot down.
- Drop the phones off desks and pour cups of coffee on them.
Jobs
The JavaPhone will create many new entrepreneurial jobs. By this I mean
jobs where you directly work for more than one client, not jobs that require
any great financial daring. For example:
- Receptionist/butler to screen both telephone and physical callers.
With JavaPhone technology, you can work for dozens of people out of your
own home. With the JavaPhone, anyone can afford a butler or receptionist.
- Operator to help technopeasants, those who are infirm, idly rich or
mentally challenged, deal with the complexities of the phone system. All
they need do is talk to you. They may be techically adept, but simply prefer
the human touch. Your job is something like a conventional waitress namely
to make lonely people feel better with a little casual contact.
- In comp.lang.java and comp.lang.java.advocacy I discussed the way you
could use GPS positioning, integrating accelerometers, miniature video
cameras and voice activated cell phones to let you keep track of the whereabouts
of your pet Dalmatian Fido, and to trigger a call if he barked repeatedly
or whimpered excessively to report a potential security threat or injury
to himself. Somebody else has to screen these calls or he will drive you
nuts. To see any of my postings just ask Dejanews
who keep a permanent record of nearly everything anybody says on the net.
Courtesy
I often used to answer a phone call in a spitting rage because the sudden
ring interrupted my train of thought at a crucial point and I would lose
the idea forever. The poor caller had no idea why I was so curt with them.
Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History Of Time ISBN?? attributes
his success at thinking about physics to being unable to receive phone
calls or other interruptions. I think it was Michael Smith who noted that
if you win a Nobel prize, you have almost no chance of winning another
because you will be driven nuts with phone calls and can't get any work
done.
Strangers would not dream of barging into my home and demanding my attention
by banging on a bell. That would be incredibly rude. Yet they think nothing
of doing the same thing with the telephone. We will find ways to make the
JavaPhone behave like a butler to gently inform me that a caller craves
an audience at my earliest convenience.
People who would not dream of shoving others aside to get to the head
of a queue, think nothing of it if they use the telephone as their instrument.
The moment the imperious telephone rings, the shopkeeper drops all the
real customers to cater to some potential one. This infuriates
the paying customers. Phone callers should wait in line like anyone else,
and perhaps wait until all the real customers are dealt with.
The phone caller should have some way of knowing how long the queue
is, and be able to go off and do something else and have the her phone
ring when her turn in the queue is just about due. Making people wait on
hold, tying up bandwidth all the while, to listen to low fidelity elevator
music is not only nuts, it is sadistic. Surely we will find ways around
these problems with an all-digital system.
With the traditional telephone, callers cannot appreciate just how irritated
you are with them. You can't get rid of them, even for a pressing bathroom
emergency. They see none of your visual body language clues and continue
to babble on inanely, blissfully unaware of how dearly you would love to
wring their bloody necks.
In thinking about the JavaPhone, I realised I already had an electronic
butler, my plain old answering machine. I finally got the nerve to disconnect
the phones that I have detested all my life. I don't like calling people
on the phone. I don't like people interrupting me, though sometimes I like
the calls when a face-to-face meeting is impossible.
I don't like emailing people. It is rather presumptous to demand their
attention to my ideas, or to answer my questions, rather like buttonholing
them on the street and demanding a response. Public posting is not much
better. Setting up a web page seems to be the best solution. I am not forcing
myself on anyone then. The catch is, there is little discussion. Perhaps
a solution will come to be when I am not modeling such a grumpy old man.
Child Mode
Young children love to play with telephones. They can make a
nuisance of themselves calling the operator. The phone should
have a child mode you can enter/leave with a code. In child mode,
the child cannot dial anyone, other than 911 or perhaps grandma, if she has
entered a code saying she is willing to accept calls from the
grandchildren. The children can dial her by hitting 8.
A more elaborate child mode might offer a selection of sounds or
games when you dial different numbers.
The Phone Store
Retail phone stores of the future will have the following features:
- You pick up the handset to listen to a recorded voice describing the
phone's features. This let you get an idea of how good the quality of the
earphone/loudspeakers is.
- You can speak into the telephone then hear your your own voice played
back, so that you can judge the quality of the microphone/mouthpiece.
- You can try out the various programmable features since the phone is
plugged into a simulated miniature phone system. If you can't figure out
how to use them in the store, you will have even less chance at home without
the salesperson to assist you.
- The demostrator models are labelled with the date they went into service.
This will give you an idea of how durable each model is, and how easy it
is keep clean.
- There is a computer terminal the public can use. It guides you through
a multiple choice list of questions about how important various features
are to you and your budget range. It then shows you a list of models that
fit your criteria, highlighting the differences from your ideal specification.
It shows you which are in stock, which can be shipped from warehouses,
and which can be built on special order.