A Black Box for People

lightwaveman writes "Developed for astronauts, a small device called 'the CPOD' does for people what black boxes do for airplanes. It's a compact, portable, wearable device -- a single piece of equipment that gathers a wide variety of vital signs. About the size of a computer mouse, a CPOD is worn around the waist. It's comfortable enough to be worn while sleeping. It's non-invasive. It takes only minutes to don. Importantly, it can track a person's physiologic functioning as they go about their normal routine -- they don't have to be tethered to some stationary device. It can store data for eight-hour periods for later downloading; alternatively, it can send it wirelessly, in real time, to some other device."

Comments

Perfect for my daughter

[capt.Hij]

This is exactly what I have been looking for! If only it could be made so that it is hard to remove then it would be perfect for my daughter....

Re:Perfect for my daughter

[dasmegabyte]

Dude, if you want to keep tabs on your daughter, just call my house...

Re:Perfect for my daughter

[Greedo]

I think you should wait a wait for a few months for the miniCPOD.

It's smaller than the CPOD, and comes in 5 fashionable colours. It doesn't store as much information as the larger model though.

Oh, but of course, neither have Ogg support.

Real log

[grub]

10:03:01 waking signs detected.
10:04:31 leaning at 70 degree angle, right hand grasping
item at temperature of 5 degrees C.
10:04:42 2 litre Pepsi consumed.
10:10:52 8 slices pizza consumed.
10:14:23 User vertical.
10:15:38 User sitting, bowels active.
10:15:43 3 slices pizza consumed, user sitting, bowels active.
10:16:31 1 litre Pepsi consumed, user sitting, bowels & bladder active.
10:18:34 User vertical.
[...]
10:30:18 User in vehicle.
10:31:12 450 gram bag "Chee-tos" consumed.
10:42:12 User enters parking lot.
10:43:01 User parks, spot "reserved: George Lucas"

Sheesh

[stoolpigeon]

If they can make the cpod keep working after a human dies- why don't they just make the whole human out of the same stuff as the cpod?

Re:Sheesh

[JLyle]

Lane, would you mind if I took out Beth?

I want my two dollars!

hmmm...

[trix_e]

I was thinking they were going to make a black box to put people *in*... it seems that thing always survives the crash, so it only seems logical to make the entire plane/car out of the stuff...

I'll sure be wearing it...

[Lord of Ironhand]

... under my tinfoil hat!

Advertising

[gr8_phk]

When you're hungry it can send that information to hot spots that can then send you ads for nearby food stuff :-)

A "Black Box" for the body?

[Gudlyf]

So I guess if I wear this thing and I blow up into thousands of chunks, drown in hundreds of feet of water or smack into a building at hundreds of miles an hour, people will know WTF was going on with me at the time.

Other than that, a good autopsy would probably suffice, eh?

wow

[WormholeFiend]

If they add a miniature harddrive and mp3 playback, I think they'll have an iPod killer!

Then you could analyse your body's response relative to your favourite music... and if you put a big enough color lcd screen on the thing, you could also have a screensaver thingie that produces psychedelic swirls based on your physiological data!

Re:CPOD?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like that but I'm a 33 year old virgin. Even though I can hack through the thickest maze of quantum path integrals and field quantizations, I can't hack women. Quite frankly, I'm seriously afraid of them.

Therefore I've set my goals at becoming a mediocre academic until one day I can't stand it anymore, at which point I'll promptly go home and watch more television.

Re:for babies and small children

[Anonymous Coward]

he wants to know when her body is showing signs of sexual activity or masturbatory practices so he can videotape.

Re:It's Huge

[JLyle]

Sleeping on that thing would be comparable to sleeping with a toaster.

How many toasters did you have to sleep with to come to that conclusion?

But..

[cZ4r]

WTF, it can't play mp3!!1

Re:I hate trolls.

[orangesquid]

If the CPOD is so indestructible, why don't they just make the rest of the human out of the same stuff?

Re:Sounds disgusting and morbid, but ...

[hoggoth]

> small passenger jet went offline, cruised until it ran out of fuel, then crashed? The fighter pilots scrambled to intercept it reported that the windows were misted over, hence they couldn't tell anything about the crew and passengers.

What do you think misted over those windows?
I think we all know what happened.
Stewardess: "oh yes"
Captain: "oh yes"
Stewardess: "oh yes"
Captain: "oh yes"
Captin and Stewardess: "OH NO!"

It's like a plane's black box?

[Anonymous Coward]

So like, after i die a strange death, people will be able to replay my final moments?

thud thud thud...
sound of traffic whirring by...
*cough*
"hey man, check out that hottie at 9 oclock"
"WHERE!?"
SCREEEECCHHH!!!
"AAAHHH!"
*t hud* *crinkly* *thunk*
"eerrghhgh" ...

Useful mods:

[Cyran0]

I can see it now... all the mods:

Warwalking mod: vibrates when you're in range of an open node

Bootcamp mod: cusses you out if your heart rate drops below a specified limit ("Get off yer ass, slacker! Double-time! hup! hup!")

slack mod: tells you to chill out if your blood pressure rises above a specified limit ("deep breath, dude... feel your chakra")

A Box For Black People?

[greygent]

I thought Slashdot went Slaschdaut on me for a second, there.

Re:I'm ready for it

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

Only if she went down- I mean hers, only if hers went down!

Warnings

[dafz1]

For nursing home patients:

"(user) needs food."

"(user) needs food BADLY!"

"(user) is about to die!"

Re:Sounds disgusting and morbid, but ...

[hoggoth]

Maybe it went more like this:

Captain: 'oh yes'
Stewardess: 'oh yes'
Captain: 'oh yes'
Stewardess: 'oh yes'
Stewardess: 'oh yes'
Stewardess: 'oh yes'
Stewardess: 'Captain?'
Stewardess: 'oh oh...'