Slashdot Mirror
New Gadget Tells You When To Take a Break
Kilrah_il writes "An Israeli company developed a gadget that measures your blood pressure and tells you when you are stressed and need to take a break from your computer. 'The user grasps two sensors shaped like computer mouses to measure the electric activity of the heart in minute detail. Software then combines the measurements with prerecorded personal details such as age and sex to calculate various indicators for stress and mood.' Looks like a must-have accessory for Slashdotters everywhere."
Editor needs to take a break.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
I'd forget my own IPhone next!
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
if it told you when to work. I rarely have problems taking a break.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
How do momentary stress and momentary productivity correlate in software developers?
That last thing I need is something beeping at me whenever I get in the zone.
I don't see any requirement for an app to tell me when to take breaks. If I'd care, I'd read what's written on the keyboard, telling me to take regular breaks every two hours; I don't care, and I take breaks when I'm done with whatever was at hand.
U+F8FF
This will go great next to my sarcasm detector!
...it's called A CLOCK!
Twin or more? ITA
Apache/Spring/La
This usually happens when my head hits the keyboard, just like in the picture above!
For some reason, I can see the Co$ coming out of the woodwork, claiming a patent on this...
to use this when cybersexing.
How long before this tied to a drug pump that will hit with stuff to keep you working and perk you up?
EA may want something like that to keep there coders working all night!
An aspect of my job is disaster recovery (IT).. Does this mean that as soon as something breaks, I can say it's time for my break (as I'm pretty sure the machine will register me as highly stressed)?
At least my model is getting old...
It's called a bladder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urinary_bladder
It's pretty good about letting me know to take a break and deal with something else.
Sheldon
"Mr. Smith...our records indicate you've been taking breaks despite your BioDynamic Signature not indicating a specific need for such. Our Productivity Fingerprint computer has analyzed your Bio-Data and determined, that in our competitive environment we can not afford unproductive people like yourself. We wish you the best of luck in your next place of employment. Please remember to smile brightly on your way out as otherwise the door-face-scanners will not allow you to depart the premises. Goodbye, Mr. Smith!"
Regardless of what Wikipedia may say, using "mouses" instead of "mice" is really jarring and weird.
what does this have that the gym machine heart rate monitors dont have?? apart from pulse .. is it going to actually measure blood pressure / systolic and diastolic through resistivity?
Will EA games start using this to find the people who can go the longest before setting this off?
Looks like a must-have accessory for Slashdotters everywhere
Since when does reading Slashdot cause stress?
WTB [sig], PST!!!
I had something like this - it was a piece of paper that just said "now" on it. Unfortunately, for some reason I found I wasn't getting much work done so I have had to update it.
Now it just says "soon".
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
On my corporate workstation, there's a small app called ErgoSuite running in the background to monitor activity. If you've been typing or mousing constantly for a while, it will notify you to take a break and suggest exercises. Since most of my work is done on my development workstation, I can't really evaluate how effective (or annoying) it ends up being during the workday.
apt-get install workrave
Let me get this right.. I'm sitting at my desk trying to do 3 things at once all to a deadline, my phone keeps ringing, and I also have a backlog of emails I really need to answer right now. And you expect me to drop all that and use some weird gadget that will most likely tell me to take a walk. Sorry, but that gadget it getting 'accidentally' broken very soon.
How does it alert you that you need to take a break? By shooting you three times in the face and once in the chest?
Step 1: Convince company that these are vital to increased work productivity and they become the new standard and you take a break when it says you do Step 2: Hack the software so it will increase the frequency with which you are told to take a break Step 3: Sell the hack to your co-workers Step 4: Profit These sound like the best devices ever. I am off to the safety department to let them know of the need for these!
I wonder what the infamous Lord Xenu might think of this new device...
- Dan.
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
This device should be called a robot that is serving the function of "overlord" ability processing. You see, as a human we are very creative, but at times easily distracted by LOLCAT's and other things that seem to make up what the computers dub "our internetz"; therefore this new ability processing feature should drastically improve our creativity throughput by scheduling when we have lapses in concentration. Just think of the reliability!
Personally I'll just get the device, hack it, and use it as an excuse to take a break whenever I deem necessary.
We should start a new Slashdot and return control to the geeks. It actually wouldn't be that hard to get some users to
you know what they say if it doesnt come out of israel its not worth using!