Theaters and restaurants etc should be able to purchase a transponder which declares the area as a quiet zone. Cell phones in range should then be required to automatically put themselves into quiet mode, maybe with a notification to the owner that they are going into quiet mode. This automatic silencing would be much better than having those places try to tell users to silence their phones manually-- less work for users, and greater compliance as well.

Here is a scenario for how a call from a patient to a doctor would work if that doctor was in a quiet zone.

1. The patient would hear: "The person you are calling is in a quiet zone. Press 1 to get transferred to voice mail, or if your call is urgent, press 2 and they will be alerted of your call".
   
2. If the patient presses 2, he would hear "Please hold, your party is being alerted to your call, this could take a minute".
   
3. The doctor's cell phone would then vibrate, and she would see on the caller ID who is calling. She could decide to ignore it, or she could signal her phone that she would like to take the call.
   
4. Because the doctor is in the quiet zone, her phone would not actually allow her to speak with the patient until she leaves the quiet zone.
   
5. If the doctor acknowledges the patient's call, the patient would hear "The other party has been alerted and is now leaving the quiet zone so they can take your call, please continue to hold."
   
6. When the doctor is out of the quiet zone, her phone would start to ring, she could then answer it and hold a normal conversation.

What do you think? ¶12:35 PM; digg