Motorola patent would allow seniors to rock regular cellphones

by Evan Blass posted May 5th 2006 at 6:00PM

We've seen a slew of cellphones designed for use by senior citizens, but they always tend to be big, bulky, and/or rather unstylish -- what if Grandpa is a little hard of hearing, but still wants to impress the hunnies on the shuffleboard court with his handset? Well Motorola may have a solution for the fashion-conscious senior by way of a patent application it just filed, which envisions an audio processor for regular cellphones that boosts the volume if being used by a member of the AARP crowd. Even better, the phone would be able to automatically detect when it was being used by an elderly individual, thanks to speech recognition software that analyzes the tone and pace of the speaker's voice. We used to laugh at the Boost Mobile commercials featuring those hip senior posses, but if this Moto patent is any indication, a world of RAZR- and SLVR-sporting old folks may be right around the corner.

[Via Mobiledia]

Filed under: Motorola

Tags: audio processor, AudioProcessor, boost mobile, BoostMobile, Culture, elderly, elderphone, moto, motorola, patent, razr, senior citizens, SeniorCitizens, slvr

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Timmy @ May 5th 2006 6:09PM

Seniors... Hell finally a cellphone I can hear in my truck!!!

Neutral

Taylor Alexander @ May 5th 2006 6:49PM

Hmmm.. Lets patent a louder cellphone... It's never been done before!
-Taylor

Neutral

Dominic Jones @ May 6th 2006 10:04AM

"Even better, the phone would be able to automatically detect when it was being used by an elderly individual, thanks to speech recognition software that analyzes the tone and pace of the speaker's voice."

Must be hell if you have a nasty hangover or a migraine and sound like an old person when you answer the phone.

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