Experimental app silences phone when user is physically on a call

South Korean researchers are working on an app that, based on input from sensors, detects whether the owner of the phone is physically talking and then suppresses notifications. Only when the call is over, the phone of the app may make sound again.

The researchers from various South Korean universities call their system Social Context-Aware smartphone Notification system, or Scan for short. It is an Android app that tries to find out whether the owner is talking on the basis of multiple types of input. If so, Scan will suppress all notification sounds and vibrations. If the app detects a ‘pause’ in the conversation, such as when someone else goes to the bathroom, Scan will speak to let you know that there are new messages.

The intention is that users do not disturb conversation partners with the sounds and vibrations of notifications. That should also reduce the tendency to pick up the phone in face-to-face conversations.

The application uses the microphone to hear if the owner is on a call. Every second, the app listens for half a second and processes that data through the Tarsos sound processing engine to see if a conversation is in progress. Scan checks whether the user is walking via the pedometer, while Google’s ActivityRecognition API provides additional info about the user’s activity. The Accessibility Service allows Scan to suppress notification sounds and vibrations. Scan can also inform other users’ phones about the social context via bluetooth. The app must ensure privacy by not storing data locally or online and destroying sensor data after every pause the app detects.

The researchers tried Scan in a controlled setting in a Japanese restaurant with groups of students. During the test, 399 notifications were received, of which 183 caused a sound or vibration. The rest stopped Scan. On average, users were able to see notifications 51 seconds later, during a pause in the call.

In the paper on Scan, the researchers say that the current prototype still has many limitations. For example, the experiment was conducted with only South Korean students and social conventions may be different in other countries. In addition, the app has been tested in an otherwise quiet restaurant. The South Koreans will present their findings next week at a conference in Portland, Oregon. The Android app is not yet online.