Interaction designer Dice Yukita to explore new — or rather old — paradigms for drudgingly routinized daily work from home meetings with his Zoom Phone.

By hacking a commodity USB headset into a traditional telephone handset, plus incorporating the HID capabilities of the Teensy 4.0 and some Swiftbar scripting, Dice was able to realize the classic interactions of telephone usage, like picking up the phone, covering the mic, and having to sandwich the phone between your neck and shoulder in order to accommodate other tasks.

The project builds on his earlier Teensy-based Bidirectional Physical Zoom Mute Button, with the curious “bonus” that upon muting yourself by replacing the handset on the phone’s base, you are also unable to hear other meeting participants, as demonstrated in this video demo.