Show HN: We built Callroulette, a chatroulette for phones

Show HN: We built Callroulette, a chatroulette for phones(tier.cs.berkeley.edu)

76 points by shaddi 14 years ago | 29 comments

jericsinger 14 years ago |

If you read through, this actually has a super interesting purpose. From the site:

>Why are we doing this?

Our research group is interested in the use of technology for development. We are building a low-cost, low-power cell phone base station platform for deployment in underserved areas. Once you set up your own cell phone tower, you can do a lot of cool things, like run a chatroulette service.

In this particular project, we are studying how choice and context affect the quality of online interactions. We will be deploying this service in a small isolated cell phone network at an upcoming event where we expect to have several thousand users. We're hoping the Internet can help us test how our system performs under load before the real deployment so we can work out all the bugs.

ericb 14 years ago | |

> In this particular project, we are studying how choice and context affect the quality of online interactions

Sounds like a psych study to me...

prayag 14 years ago | | |

No these are one of the most talented Berkeley CS grad students working in the field of Information and Technology for Development (ICTD).

samstave 14 years ago |

Absolutley no interest in being connected with a random via voice. I cant stand to talk on the phone to anyone as it is...

I am sure there is a wide swath of youth though who would think this is fun/funny... I just cannot say that they would have anything in common with myself.

You know what would be an interesting pivot on this though;

ServiceRoulette:

You need a service - and you have the system connect you randomly with that service over the phone. Afterwards - you rate your experience and the connected service gets a weighting.

This could be used for reservations, support, plumbers, whatever - where the people need a service and there are lots of options to choose from.

You seed the service with info from sites like Yelp weighting the connection based on proximity to the caller and the positive reviews on Yelp.

They basically put their service order in on a page and receive a call from the provider.

They could set a "ill pay X for Y service" sort of thing as well...

Anyway, jsut being randomly connected to a creep for voice chat just seems like a waste of energy...

IsaacL 14 years ago |

My Galaxy has this "feature". For some reason it's recently started to occasionally call or text a different person to the one I selected. Hilarity ensues. I call it the "iPhone Shuffle".

irrumator 14 years ago |

The trolls have already got in, there's some guy who's screaming PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS PENIS all day.

hessenwolf 14 years ago | |

I anticipated 'smacking' noises.

justinhj 14 years ago |

Financial institutions selling new types of credit cards thought this was invented years ago

citricsquid 14 years ago |

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2862780

Previous post...

theIntuitionist 14 years ago |

When I worked for the Exploratorium as an exhibit developer a few years ago, I wrote some software that operated a real life "game of telephone". A voice modem randomly called phone numbers. If somebody answered the system told them they where playing a real life game of telephone, and that they were about the hear the previous callers message and to repeat it after the beep. Messages were posted to a website. I looooved that project. Never really worked, though. Most people just hung up. I think if you tweaked on it, you could get it to work- perhaps by soliciting numbers from the site, so you were aware that such a system might call you, etc. Anyway, phone mayhem = fun!

_aes 14 years ago |

I built this very same thing about 4 months ago: http://phoneshuffle.com

I didn't try very hard to promote it so it never passed the tipping point for adoption; too many people called in and had no one to talk to.

shaddi 14 years ago | |

Yeah, that's the tricky part. It took a couple revisions in front of users to figure out the right way to do bootstrapping.

robbiea 14 years ago |

I like it. I also created something similar called friendlyaudio.com - similar concept but more towards matching people, and this is all over the internet - no phone #'s

alecco 14 years ago |

Blind people would likely appreciate it. Why don't you forward this to some schools for the blind?

ComputerGuru 14 years ago | |

Why would blind people appreciate this any more or less than seeing people would?

alecco 14 years ago | | |

Because it's audio oriented. Many of the phreakers in the 70s were blind. Some could whistle the phone codes without boxing. They had massive phone parties.

matmann2001 14 years ago |

Great, I can't wait to hear what the verbal equivalent of a man pleasuring himself sounds like.

fletchowns 14 years ago | |

Don't know that I agree with the downvoter. When I had tried Chatroulette after it first became popular it was literally like a 1 in 4 chance you are going to be looking at a dude masturbating. If you are going to go public with a system like this, you have to have an effective moderation system in place for it to even have a chance.

matmann2001 14 years ago | | |

Yeah, to be honest. Branding the product in comparison to Chatroulette is just a bad idea. When Chatroulette first came out, it seemed like a really cool concept. The ability to travel the world from your computer and meet people face to face seemed promising.

Sadly, the inability to moderate the system has left the vast population disenchanted with the service. Branding yourself with Chatroulette will only bring along that baggage and negative opinion.

choogi 14 years ago |

This is a really cool idea. I can't wait for more people to start using it :)

aculver 14 years ago |

Definitely give this a shot if for no other reason than to hear the hold music. It was only funnier that it played right after being asked to hang up if I was under the age of 18.

prayag 14 years ago |

Woah!! Wasn't expecting this here. I guess facebook/google+ wasn't a good enough stress test? Are you guys thinking of making this into a venture?

sliverstorm 14 years ago |

Is this notably different from the old pen-and-phonebook method? (drop phonebook on floor, close eyes, stab page with pen)

jules 14 years ago | |

Yes, instead of being connected to somebody who doesn't want to talk you'll be connected with somebody who does.

reustle 14 years ago |

Twilio had demos that used this concept as well

chefsurfing 14 years ago |

Just like chat roulette... mostly dudes.

glimcat 14 years ago |

Instead of random penises, you get Prince Albert in a can?

Not that I wouldn't have fun mining the transcripts.

antidaily 14 years ago |

Funny. Hell no im not trying it.

fyi, there is an Omegle iphone app.