Smart Holograms Used as Biosensors

Roland Piquepaille writes "In this short article, eWEEK writes that the next generation of biosensors will consist of small holograms costing only fractions of a cent. Prototypes developed by a U.K. company, aptly named Smart Holograms, include contact lenses that monitor glucose levels or thin badges that detect alcohol levels. Not only these holograms used as sensors will be cheap to produce, they'll also require less training for nurses or police officers. This is because these holograms can be designed to show results graphically, such as morphing into an image of a green car if someone subjected to breath analysis is sober and can drive. Read this overview for other details and an illustration showing how to create a sensor hologram."

Comments

Big Brother

[Anonymous Coward]

Great! More ways for the authorities to keep tab on our drinking and other habits...

I wonder when they'll come up with a hologram that tells whether you've been handling a weapon (gasp!) recently or what's your religious affiliation.

Yeah, just what we need...

[bjwest]

"they'll also require less training for nurses or police officers."

Less training for those that need more as it is.

Article Moderation

[Anonymous Coward]

-1, Roland

Roland

[Lord_Dweomer]

Make sure you don't click on any of the links in the story. It was submitted by Roland, and by doing so you would just be contributing to his ad revenue and encouraging him to keep posting on Slashdot.

God I wish we could have an option to not display Roland stories.

Complex Tests

[buckhead_buddy]

raydobbs said:

In a way, it's opened up the field of diagnostic medicine - as many of these functions require complex tests now. if technology can boil down the plethora of tests into a stick-it-on-and-read type instrument, then the standard level of healthcare will rise.

A complex test has more than the two positive and negative outcomes. Though I don't drink alcohol, I have a problem with a seizure-like condition that can confuse my coordination and reaction time like an inebriated person. In this condition, I'll pass all chemical tests for alcohol and drugs even though I shouldn't be driving. Now these tools will go ahead and render the verdict whether I can or can't drive? At least now with a result absurdly low (0%) it indicates that there's something else going on that is misleading the tests. With these tools obscuring the data the technician may just assume that I'm a "just squeaked under the borderline" case.

I dislike "wizards" in my software development tools that tell me what kind of mentality I should use to start my development; I don't want "wizards" to bug the emt's, police, or nurses that have very tight and constrained opportunities to help people. These tools may very well cover up some sort of useful data that would have indicated some other problem or more complex outcome.

Beyond just the annoyance and delay factor, we can also get into a Brazil or Philip K. Dick like realities where we no longer know what these results are showing us. Perhaps the CEO of the hologram company gets the DUI tests to check for a white list of genetic signatures and to always show them as passing the test no matter what the actual results. Perhaps a religiously obsessed development manager surreptitiously adds additional constraints that will cause certain pregnancy tests to fail until the fetus can't be aborted.

These tools are not developed under security and strong testing now because they don't render the judgement. If these tools can in any way cloud or mislead the judgement of those using them then they are a bad idea.