Ever been annoyed at a fellow diner who received a call during YOUR quiet dinner? Or gotten a call when you are rushing from home to school to pick up a child? What if your mobile device could sense your situation, location, speed, or other environmental factors that could determine when is a good time to get a call, and when it might not be quite so good?

Slashdot carries a piece today about Motorola's and several universities' testing of smarter mobile devices that do just that - adapt their behavior to yours. While it isn't a new idea, it is getting more attention as we find ourselves in more situations where having a ringing mobile isn't optimum. It also mirrors work going on around intelligent environments and devices -- creating smart technology that deliver information based on our ability to consume it, because of our work pattern, probable attention span or another criteria.

As more and more calls on our attention are made on a daily basis and we rely on technology to triage incoming information and communications for us, mobile devices will serve a critical role as principal gateways to our time and attention, which puts a burden of awareness on these devices if they are to serve us well.