911-only public phone [telecom]

As a reporter, I once did a story on the Oklahoma City Fire Department dispatching operation. They had every address in the city cross-reference (on 3x5 cards) to a fire call box number, even if there were no call box there. They also had another list showing every real or putative fire box number and what response was appropriate--whether that fire box location might designate a school house, a department store, an apartment house of whatever, and the appropriate response--a single engine, a massive response for a school house or a skyscraper and just what equipment was to be dispatched and any additional hazards, such as a chemical warehouse or whatever and what specialized response would be needed for it, or whatever. The card also told what fire station should respond and maybe second or third choices if the first station was already out on a fire. There were still some fire boxes left, and they occasionally would be use, maybe once a shit, and the old hands could listen for the number from the relays clicking even before someone had brought the printed tape over. Every call was announced over a P.A. loundspeaker in every fire house, even if the call was not in that area. Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com

Um, what's the practical difference between this and a poster on the wall with the phone numbers of the various businesses, so you can just call them from your phone?

The airport phone thing made sense when the only phone most people could use in the airport was a pay phone. It's pretty obsolete now.

R's, John

That "airport phone thing" *still* has advantages over a call made from a sell phone or a pay phone, primarily this one: that the firm being called knows exactly the location of the originating phone. (Random callers at the luggage carousel in an arrival terminal might be blissfully unaware of just which terminal they're in, let alone between which entrances to that terminal, both of which would be important to the driver of any service van coming to fetch them.)

It's also a great "meeting spot" for traveler and service-van driver to meet, and it facilitates service van drivers phoning home for further instructions without needing to rely on sometimes unreliable cellular or walky-talky service.

Cheers, -- tlvp

with the response:

John, I suppose the core feature for this kind of 'stick your phone in a slot and it gets auto-dialed to some number, or gets called back by some number' idea is that it could provide a fast-track, instant-response, one-hand, no dialing, no breaking your train of thought, no having to learn or remember or key in a number, and auto-authenticating way of getting connected to someone or somewhere, in a _great_ variety of situations, travel and otherwise.

I have no idea at all whether this is technically possible with current phones (likely not), but I'm sure it could be. The concept of making it a 'slot' of some kind, rather than just a 'swipe' over a surface, would be to make it less likely that your phone would be inadvertently or unintentionally (or even surreptitiously) triggered wen you're just walking past.

Seems to me on further thinking there are an immense number of situations in which this could be useful

As for the airport hotel boards and limo services situation, the implementation could be one central phone slot, plus a push button beside each advertising panel, or better a separate slot (or slots) for each panel. In either case, advantages of this over a poster (besides the basic but far from trivial result of no hand-dialing) would include:

• Re-programmability (the hotel could reprogram the number associated with its slot when needed; or a new hotel could buy the slot).

• Multiple people could rapidly access the same slot (you stick your phone in; a beep sounds or a green light turns on, saying "We recognize you"; you pull your phone out and walk on, starting to talk; the person behind you does the same (big hotels can presumably handle multiple reservation calls at once).

• Or, for small hotels, the green light says, "OK, we've got your number, we'll call you back in just a minute" -- same result.

But, the more I think about it, the more ideas emerge: Imagine a small panel or post with a SuperShuttle (or Washington Flyer) slot, way out at the arrival gate; you stick your phone it, tell SS you just walked off the plane and where you want to go; and they start setting up a group shuttle to your region, while you're walking in and getting your luggage. (If you don't show up soon, they've captured your cell number and can call you back to see what's up.)

Or the same thing for an auto rental: While you're collecting your gear and taking the shuttle out to their lot, they're setting up your car.

Or a slot at the unatttended entrance to the airport parking lot, that lets you drop your car at an area just inside, and order maintenance services while you're gone (and gives them your number, to call if need be).

Or as an access control method at _any_ unattended secure entrance to anything, providing a way to get connected to a central building manager or security office, with at least some information and authentication. provided by your phone. (If this access point is actually at the gate to some large sprawling facility -- like military bases I've visited, for example -- you can get directions to the building you want.)

Or a slot like this way back at the entrance to a fast-food drive-in line; place your order there, they've got your billing info, your order is ready when you reach the window.

Too bad I've never had any entreprenurial genes (and am far past the age when I'd use them if I did). I think this broad concept is a lot more promising that any number of things I've seen emerge, and succeed, here in Silicon Valley. :-)

***** Moderator's Note *****

These ideas could as easily be implemented by swiping a credit card: the difference, of course, is that consumers are leery of giving out financial info or billing permission without talking to a human first. A cellular telephone number, however, is something that consumers are _also_ very reluctant to give out, especially since their protection against "cold" calls vaishes as soon as they establish a "business relationship" with the company calling.

Unless you can figure a way to make a "bulletproof" security protocol that lets Alice give Bob a time-limited copy of her cellphone number which Alice believes Bob can never use for anything else, it's a non-starter. The cryptography part is, by the way, the easy one.

Bill Horne Moderator

What fraction of modern cell phones include a camera?

How about just printing a bar code on the corner of the poster, pointing your cell phone at it, and poking a button?

I would assume that it costs an extreme amount of money. Perhaps enough to buy an airport, a hotel, or a car-rental company. This sort of functionality just begs for a scam.

Someone would figure out a way to overcome distance limitations, and cause everyone's phone to call the inventor's 900 number. Then he'd set it up at a place with a lot of pedestrian traffic (say, an airport entrance or airport security checkpoint, a sports stadium, at a train station, ATM, store, etc.). Distance limitations can be overcome by using more power (who cares if a megawatt burst burns out a few phones and causes a few cateracts and brain cancers? The electricity is probably stolen from the venue owner anyway.)

I'll suggest an alternative, which might require minor changes in existing smartphone apps: put up a QR 2-D barcode with some kind of prefix indicating it's a phone number (http: indicates web, perhaps tel:8555551212 indicates it's a phone number), and invite users to scan it. (Does Japan already use QR codes for phone numbers?) The app asks if you want to call the number. Also put the number up there in plain text for those without smartphones or those who want to write it down for later. Put up other details that calling potential customers should know, like "YOU ARE AT DFW AIRPORT BAGGAGE CLAIM AREA #37A".

A setup where you can read the phone number off the phone will be useful to collect telemarketing call lists (even if no call is made immediately). That's also a big security problem.

Same applies if you dial it yourself (with or without the QR codes).

Even that sounds like a great way to do a denial-of-service attack. Keep popping up windows to prevent anyone in the area from calling

911 during, say, a bank robbery.

This is similar to New York City. A "box" can be a couple of city blocks or a major building. There may be a telegraph box or a newer speakerphone system as a street box, or the box may be a number only. The dispatch system is computerized and the dispatch policy is complicated and depends on the type of alarm (structure fire, dumpster fire or whatever) as well as what type of building(s) are at the box location as well as hazard information on file (chemicals or whatever).

The speakerphone system is a drop-in replacement for an old Gamewell panel so they go into old housings and use the current loop wiring, and are not part of the public telephone system. They are wired in series like the old telegraph boxes. Loops are upgraded one at a time to the new system. Some boroughs no longer have telegraph boxes.

+--------------- | >> Um, what's the practical difference between this and a poster on the wall | >> with the phone numbers of the various businesses, so you can just call | >> them from your phone? | >

| >John, I suppose the core feature for this ... is that it could provide | >a fast-track, instant-response, one-hand, no dialing, no breaking your | >train of thought, no having to learn or remember or key in a number, and | >and auto-authenticating way of getting connected to someone or somewhere... .... | What fraction of modern cell phones include a camera? | | How about just printing a bar code on the corner of the poster, | pointing your cell phone at it, and poking a button?

+---------------

Indeed, this is already happening with QR Codes:

... QR Codes storing addresses and URLs may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or on just about any object that users might need information about. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR Code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the phone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks. Google's mobile Android operating system supports the use of QR codes by natively including the barcode scanner (ZXing) on some models and the browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR Codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device. ...

A giant QR Code [on the side of a building] linking to a website, to be read with a mobile phone.

I've even used it -- I was walking with friends in Menlo Park one night and happened to pass a store we were interested in which didn't have the hours posted [at least, not where we could find them!], but they *did* have a sign in the window with a QR Code on it. No problem: I pulled out my Android phone, tapped the icon for the "Barcode Scanner" app, pointed at the sign, and in just a few seconds was on the store's web page reading their hours. Their phone number was *also* there, so if I'd tapped on that text string the phone would have dialed it.[1]

-Rob

[1] Yes, the phone's browser will do this even if the number *doesn't* have an explicit HTML anchor tag (link) on the page! [Probably because AFAIK there *isn't* a URL "dial://" scheme, is there?]

----- Rob Warnock

627 26th Avenue San Mateo, CA 94403 (650)572-2607

Silly boy. See RFC 3966, particularly section 8.

R's, John