WTF?

[ffutures]

I've spent most of my time at work this week putting together a big order for scientific equipment. This has inevitably involved looking through quite a few catalogues.

One of my discoveries was that the catalogue of a certain science education company includes a lot of electronics kits. One of them is for building a switching mechanism (with various timing modes etc.) that is triggered by the light from a cellphone's screen as an incoming call is received.

They suggest using it to switch on central heating. I have a nasty feeling that it would be remarkably easy to find other uses for it, which would be considerably easier than trying to hack the internal circuitry of the phone. Tomorrow I think I may drop them a line...

Comments

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

That's quite scary...

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Scarily stupid, certainly.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

Er, I'd an electronic kit in the early seventies that had a light-triggered switch: it's not rocket science.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sure, but deliberately designing and marketing it as a "cell phone activated switch" is in my opinion not the brightest of moves.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

Anyone who wants a "cell phone activated switch" has got lots of ways to get one. It's pretty much the easiest part of making a cell phone activated anything.

Worrying about it is the same sort of nonsense as not letting people carry their nail clippers onto a plane.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely. It's neither practical nor desirable to ban everything which might be destructively misused - and we've already gone way too far in that direction. (The kit is probably harder to make than opening the case and running a couple of bell wires off the buzzer motor, in any case)

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

The kit is probably harder to make than opening the case and running a couple of bell wires off the buzzer motor, in any case

That's what I'd do if I wanted to make a cellphone-activated anything. People have been doing that since cellphones came out.

Though it does make it harder to just use the phone as a phone (not that the obvious use would need that anyway), so a snap-on kit may get round that.