I'm sure this is not the one and only patent of this type applied for in this area...my reason for posting this is to rather bring an awareness....as this could be a good thing in some areas where folks such as pilots are operating airline jets, etc. as the article states, but I would truly hate to see the day when something along this line become a main stay for the average company worker...as the battle for healthcare is getting quite heated and if employers were to monitor employees in this type of fashion, it would really intrude on the privacy we know today...how much information does an employer really need to have? I don't believe they need to know our heart rates in real time nor have a profile easily available at any time...the patent application is there, but how and when something like this could come in to play is another matter....but the patent has not been granted yet either...BD
Microsoft submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.
The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state. The US Patent Office confirmed last night that the application was published last month, 18 months after being filed. Patent lawyers said that it could be granted within a year.
Peter Skyte, a national officer for the union Unite, said: “This system takes the idea of monitoring people at work to a new level with a new level of invasiveness but in a very old-fashioned way because it monitors what is going in rather than the results.” The Information Commissioner’s Office said: “Imposing this level of intrusion on employees could only be justified in exceptional circumstances.”
Microsoft seeks patent for office 'spy' software - Times Online
Microsoft Comments...
ReplyDeleteThere have been concerns about the "Big Brother" implications such a technology could have, such as notifying an employer if a worker appears stressed or is not being productive.
Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing Horacio Gutierrez, commented on the patent in a statement:
"This particular patent application, in general, describes an innovation aimed at improving activity-monitoring systems and uses the monitoring of user heart rate as an example of the kind of physical state that could be monitored to detect when users need assistance with their activities, and to offer assistance by putting them in touch with other users who may be able to help."
"It is important to keep in mind that with most organisations in the business of innovation, some of our patent applications reflect inventions that are currently present in our products, and other applications represent innovations being developed for potential future use," he continued.