Mobile Device Usage Control via Event-Based Message Redirection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile devices often disrupt corporate meetings and public environments due to their ubiquity, causing distractions and making it difficult for companies to control attendance, as users may inadvertently receive messages or calls, leading to interruptions and undesirable consequences.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing redirector software that operates on both desktop PCs and mobile devices to redirect user data items, such as emails and messages, based on predefined event triggers, allowing users to configure what data is pushed to their mobile devices, thereby minimizing distractions during meetings or specific events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If mobile devices are made ubiquitous for business and personal use, then communication convenience and accessibility are improved, but interruptions and distractions in public environments such as corporate meetings increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system proactively determines meeting events based on calendar data before they occur, and preemptively redirects messages to the desktop system during these periods. This preliminary action prevents distractions before they happen by automatically suppressing mobile device notifications during scheduled meetings, thus maintaining communication convenience while eliminating interruptions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If users can access emails and messages on mobile devices while away from the office, then communication flexibility is improved, but company control over attendance and device usage becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The desktop system acts as an intermediary between the mobile device and external communication networks. During meeting periods, the desktop system receives and manages all incoming messages, preventing direct access to the mobile device. This intermediary approach maintains communication flexibility by allowing users to check messages on their mobile devices when not in meetings, while simplifying control by centralizing management through the desktop system during restricted periods.
3Productivity
If message redirection to desktop system is implemented during meetings, then meeting focus and productivity are improved, but real-time access to mobile communications is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a copy mechanism where messages are redirected to the desktop system during meetings, which then forwards them to the mobile device when the meeting ends. This copying approach ensures meeting productivity by blocking distractions during the meeting, while preventing permanent loss of communication access by maintaining a backup copy pathway that restores access after the meeting concludes.
Data Source
AI summary
Mobile device usage may be monitored and restricted by pushing enabling/disabling events from an administrator the device. The events impose a certain set of rules that can “lock” certain features provided by the device, according to permissions and pre-established policies, for a certain period of time. Such restricted periods may coincide with meetings or other events in which distractions should be kept to a minimum or be during regular, predetermined time periods. Preferably, the rules include conditional locks that allow a user to use a feature a reasonable number of times before the lock is activated to place the onus on the user for minimizing such distractions, while enabling the user to maintain access to such a vital communication tool. Cancel packets may also be used to not only control but to monitor the application of the rule sets and when certain conditions are breaches, which provides an employer with sufficient information to use in auditing device usage or in reprimanding users for misuse of a privilege such as the use of mobile data communications devices.