In science fiction televison (trek, etc) notification beeps always
seem to wait until they won't be interrupting things. While
occasionally someone will be paged while talking, it's always for
the dramatic effect of cutting them off in the middle of an idea.
This has always seemed neat but basically impossible to me. Except
that it may not be. What if the communication divice always was
listening, and could delay notification by, say, three seconds
waiting for a gap in conversation?
(The amount of gap time could even be variable: the interrupter sets
a gap time, then as long as it's not less than the minimum allowable
gap time the interruptee has set on their device, the longer gap is
used. This would allow people to be more polite in non-urgent
situations.)
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