Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal Side tone and cell phones --

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Paul Baran" <paul () baran com>
Date: November 4, 2007 11:36:46 AM EST
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: RE: [IP] Re:  Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but  
Illegal
Reply-To: <paul () baran com>

Hi Dave:
Remember good old “side tone”?   Back in your Bell Lab days Dave,  
remember when wired telephones were designed to leak a sample of  
signal from the microphone back to the earphone to assure the user  
that he or she was being heard at the other end.  If you spoke too  
loudly you heard yourself and automatically then spoke more softly.  
This acoustic feedback reduced the dynamic range of signals the phone  
system had to handle, and people rarely shouted into their wired  
telephones. It was win-win for all.

With cellular telephones the speaker and microphone tend to be close  
together, so implementing side tone is more difficult than in a  
conventional wired telephone. (The feedback could cause a loud  
squeal.)  But, today we have wonderful signal processing in a small  
chip area that could address this issue.  The underlying assumption is  
some cellphone users shout thinking they will not otherwise be heard  
clearly. If so, then, requiring acoustic feedback in cellphones would  
encourage them to speak more softly -- as the sound of their own voice  
otherwise would be so loud as to be uncomfortable. Might this allow us  
to instill a little politeness into some cellphone users, without  
having to do so in an impolite manner?

What do you think, Dave?
Paul


Paul , I completely agree.  On All Things Considered, December 15, 2004
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4229967)

on a program titled "What's behind the shouting on cell phones" I  
suggested the same path to alleviate the problem.

Dave

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