IT CAN be dangerous to jam cellphones to stop people using them—as the
jamming signal can spill into the street and prevent people making emergency
calls. But concert halls and restaurants could be free from ringing cellphones
if manufacturers take up a new technology called Q-Zone, which keeps phones
quiet without jamming.
Small antennas in a venue transmit “quiet please” signals to cellphones
entering the Q-Zone. Depending on what the user has programmed the phone to do,
it automatically turns off or quietens its ring tone—or vibrates.
Developed by BlueLinx of Charlotte, North Carolina, and researchers from the…
