OT: Multi-tasking, attention and talking on your cell while driving Options

[raynekat]

Big time off topic, but really interesting.

Was watching a show last night call "Brain Games."

The topic was how your mind works while paying attention to things....as in how we concentrate.

1) The 1st big misnomer was "multi-tasking." No such thing. Your brain just completely 100% switches from one task to another. Now maybe some are better at switching back and forth than others, but they are still breaking their attention from one task to get on with the other.

2) 95% of magic tricks work on this premise. Since your mind can only concentrate and pay attention to one thing at a time, magicians use this to distract you from what they are trying to accomplish. Pick pockets do the same. Maybe no real news here, but to see it in real time and slow motion was interesting.

3) So this leads to driving while on the cell phone. They put a guy on a small road coarse had him talking to someone on the phone, and would randomly throw stuff in front of the car. Nearly all the time he was out of control as he wasn't paying attention to his driving.

Their conclusion was that driving while talking on the cell was "equally" as dangerous as driving while under the influence. The day might be coming where you'll lose your license for a year if your caught on your cell. I for one think that would be a good thing.

Food for thought at any rate.

You are just kidding yourself if you think you can multi-task. Driving while yacking on your cell is the ultimate example of this.

[Rob-O]

Almost all smartphones have hardware accelerometers in them now. Cell phone makers join that info with cell tower pings to really nail down your speed and position. This is why, for the most part (depends on the area), emergency services don't really need your location when you call from a cell phone. They already know it.

What we need is something built into the phone that disables it when the accelerometer and cell tower info established that you're moving over a certain speed. Not an app, not something that can be disabled by a 'setting'. Make the emergency call available (just like it is on every iPhone currently) from the initial intro screen.

[Andyrew]

Almost all smartphones have hardware accelerometers in them now. Cell phone makers join that info with cell tower pings to really nail down your speed and position. This is why, for the most part (depends on the area), emergency services don't really need your location when you call from a cell phone. They already know it.

What we need is something built into the phone that disables it when the accelerometer and cell tower info established that you're moving over a certain speed. Not an app, not something that can be disabled by a 'setting'. Make the emergency call available (just like it is on every iPhone currently) from the initial intro screen.

ATT had this on my Galaxy S5 when I got it new. Disabled it immediately... If your a passenger it still disables your phone. I dont think they added the tech to their new phones due to the fact that no one left it on.

[cwpeden]

Almost all smartphones have hardware accelerometers in them now. Cell phone makers join that info with cell tower pings to really nail down your speed and position. This is why, for the most part (depends on the area), emergency services don't really need your location when you call from a cell phone. They already know it.

What we need is something built into the phone that disables it when the accelerometer and cell tower info established that you're moving over a certain speed. Not an app, not something that can be disabled by a 'setting'. Make the emergency call available (just like it is on every iPhone currently) from the initial intro screen.

ATT had this on my Galaxy S5 when I got it new. Disabled it immediately... If your a passenger it still disables your phone. I dont think they added the tech to their new phones due to the fact that no one left it on.

And it makes it really hard to catch pokemon... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif)