Meeting in quiet: choosing suitable notification modalities for mobile phones

This project starts out from one of those awkward moments when one's mobile phone sets off with a loud noise in situations one would definitely not want it to; e.g. at the opera or in an important meeting. The design challenge is how a mobile phone, as a computer device that appears in several different human contexts, could come to adapt its behavior to the situation. Is there a way for a mobile phone to know, or at least have a clue, which notification modality would be the most appropriate?Our prototype design detects if a user is within a certain distance from another user. If so, the two users' mobile phones automatically set up an ad-hoc network and exchange information about notification modality. It makes use of a near-field communication technology using magnetic fields rather than traditional radio waves.