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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."
Something else for the hypochondriacs to buy to make sure they aren't sick
Something else for the Tin-Hat crowd to complain about
Something else that has a reasonably good medical use
High tech
But does it run Linux? And if so, which distro?
I'm so confused as to whether I like this idea or not.
LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!
... data is always useful, and if astronauts and pilots wear these, we can get a much better picture afterward of how they met their deaths. For the price of a silly dongle hanging off their belts, this can give us a better outline of the accident.
Remember a couple of years ago about that small passenger jet that 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.
On the flip side, a combat vet with thousands of flying hours can find his flight status revoked due to some health metric that the flight doc didn't like. Flying a desk is a living hell for these guys.
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
spurratic symptons for those so fewer than the norm. if there is practicing physician here. i have to ask you: is this unnecessary paranoia?
Sexual harrassment cases? "Sir, we have evidence that, during a meeting Ms. Hotbabe walked in at 10.35 and your heart rate rose 20 beats a second. Are you seriously suggesting you were not dangerously aroused in her presence?" "Atkins, you're not stressed and you don't need a holiday. Your figures prove it."
I wonder whether future versions will offer predictive capabilities? Imgine being told you are going to have a heart attack in 15 minutes? Now add wireless, and imagine have an ambulance show up, ask you to get in, and take you to the hospital just in time for your impending cardiac arrest. Gee wireless, just in time supply chain, predictive diagnostics, with that many buzzwords, its gonna be a hit for sure!
It could be a good way to not only monitor their health but to make sure that they do not wander off. - the only issue I see is the size. It is pretty large. I couldn't sleep with that thing strapped to my stomach - and I would think it would be even worse for someone of large girth.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
The CPOD is really just an extension of a device called a Holter Monitor that cardiologists use on their patients. Holters used to be just a tape recorder that recorded your heartbeat/respiration for up to 36-hours. Now you can get digital versions that do all that and MORE (for only $19.95! Order now!)
You can also plug them into ECG machines, have them transmit data over phone lines, via a radio while in a hospital, etc. I'm actually surprised it took NASA this long to adapt something that has been in use publicly for many years. It used to be that technology was developed by NASA and then the public sector adopted it.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
Monitor
breathing
heart rate
body tempature
ekg
etc
send data to a monitoring receiver via rfid / bluetooth / wireless
And best of all, an alarm pager which you wear if the kid stops breathing, heart rate falls, etc...
Oooh I've been waiting for something like this to come along. A total bio-feedback device (or as total as current technology allows). I can watch the effects of what I eat, attribute my mood to biological factors when necessary.. In fact the psychological potential is huge.
If it's the level of self-awareness that makes humans unique, then this can only lead us further in the right direction.
How do I buy one? ThinkGeek- are you working on this?
I assume that this could be the next generation 'medical alert' bracelet. Just having all that information for the paramedic team in the interim between the time where the person was incapacitated and medical treatment could be the difference between life and death. That, and of course, have the wireless reciever set with an autodialer anytime certain vitals go wild. It could be a revolution in care for the elderly and sick.
Imagine how much this could help with the training and racing of serious endurence athletes.
Imagine the US postal cycling team support car having stats in real time on all of the cyclist during the tour de france. They could tell who needs a rest and who has the energy to lead, and adjust their drafting stratagies accordingly.
The posibilities seem almost limitless...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
Add another Trek device to the list of real-world inventions.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.