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AT&T Pushes 'Connected' Clothing For Healthcare
gManZboy writes "Babies, athletes, first responders, the elderly — a growing list of people could benefit from connected clothing, says AT&T, which claims 'the stars have aligned' for this technology. Prices of clothing sensors have come down; Wi-Fi and wireless networks have become ubiquitous; and mobile apps have become easier to design and simpler to use. 'For example, parents of babies could cover them in connected clothing to check on their children when they were out of the house ... And relatives of elderly people who are "aging in place" in their homes could check on their vital signs and make sure their loved ones haven't fallen. This could help the elderly stay out of assisted living facilities, as most prefer to do.'"
...as long as someone other than AT&T implements it, so those of us who live in the Bay Area or New York City can actually use it.
On a more serious note, if wireless clothing becomes a tool for remotely monitoring medical status, doesn't this open carriers up to potential lawsuits when their network fails and someone dies of treatable maladies as a result?
There are major privacy implications with at&t's endeavor. Also, what sort of paradox results when there are many people whos vital signs are directly impacted by EM radiation from the telcos equipment which is being used to relay the health information!
One 3G data plan per piece of clothing.
AT&T, which claims 'the stars have aligned' for this technology
That's ... some really weird lingo. Any stars in particular or just those well disposed to aspiring phone monopolists?
Yes, could be quite useful ..
"Little Joey is late getting home from school, could you check in on his clothing sensors, dear?"
"Right. Looks like he's getting a proper kicking by the neighborhood lads again. Probably shouldn't have gone with the clothes with that AT&T logo on 'em"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I thought AT&T was complaining about saturated wireless phone bandwidth, to the point where purchasing T-Mobile was a supposed business neccessity. What would happen if tens of thousands of these "BioHarness" systems were connected through the network currently used by phones?
They'll take the shirt right off your back!
On the plus side, this also implements a framework for health sensors.
For example, the clothing could have an array of sensors which monitor various aspects of ones health - temperature, blood O2, and heart rate come to mind.
This could be linked to alerts, such as "having a heart attack". Having more information will allow us to better tune our detection criteria, will allow us to detect problems more quickly, and administer emergency care quicker.
Like any technology, can be used for good or bad.
This concept gives a whole new meaning to "Blue Screen of Death"... if your elderly parents are wearing a smart, web-enabled track suit that tells you their vital signs on your smart phone... who the heck wants to see their parents flatline in real time? And suppose the smart clothes crash or go offline? This seems to me to be akin to what we get from car alarms: I hear car alarms going off in parked cars all the time without ever checking to see if the car is actually being stolen. Its just security theater. Criminals aren't actually deterred by the sound of car alarms. I guess that seeing my father flatline several times because of hardware or network failure will prepare me for the inevitable end of his life. So, ATT can start marketing a line of clothing that is linked to your cell phone bill... sure, everyone would by a web enabled shirt for their elderly parents but in reality all those shirts are going to end up hanging unworn in closets all over America. It sounds like a great way for ATT to open up a whole new revenue stream without actually having to deliver very much at all in terms of service.
if your life is such a big joke then why should I care?
"For example, parents of babies could cover them in connected clothing to check on their children when they were out of the house ..."
Don't worry, I'll get a text if he starts bleeding.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
So if I get my undies in a bunch I have to call Banglore?
Could they connect that to an on-star like service? So if grandma gets lost or wanders off again, they could shut her down remotely.
WTF. I am the father of a 12 month old. Since coming home from the hospital, we've checked his temperature a grand total of 1 time. (And it was normal.)
For the vast majority of normal, healthy babies, why would you possibly want to be able to continuously monitor their vital signs?
We'll put on connected clothing that's just a bit behind the technology curve.
For the first few years, it'll cover only the parts of our bodies which have the most money.
We'll slowly get more material to cover the rest of our body, but only in exchange for tax breaks.
Instead of changing our entire outfit, we'll replace the clothes in sections, and then only when that piece has a catastrophic wardrobe malfunction.
And we'll keep the underwear on for more than 80 years.
lets not get into internet and tv ... now they want to monitor my baby for me? WTF? are they going to try and charge me 80 bucks? when my baby dies and suggest I buy a new one?
In case you were wondering why you haven't seen me in a while in your end stages, you shouldn't worry. Instead of stopping by, or calling... I just checked a quick app on my iphone and it said you were still alive.
Ahem...
There is a point where technology passively degrades your true human values. We've had it for decades, and it will only become more of a burden to be aware of. In all cases, don't forget what really matters --- ease and efficiency may be the ends by which important things, like face to face interaction with loved ones, are lost. Always remember what matters most.
First, nowhere in the article was there any talk of mandating this clothing for anybody, let alone everybody. And while, yes, it could represent a revenue stream for AT&T, that doesn't keep this from being a very welcome development for a very large number of people. If your choices are between being confined to a nursing home so that you can be visually monitored 24/7, or being able to live a reasonably normal life monitored remotely through your clothing, most people I know would pick the latter.
Eventually most people have to pick between the lesser of two evils in some context of their lives. This, to me, seems like it's setting the "lesser" bar considerably lower.
But I know that, when you're young and invincible, it's difficult to appreciate that, despite your best efforts, your body will eventually start wearing out. In fact, most people in the West spend a lot more time in decline than in the ascent, and you've got about a one in three chance of spending at least 3 months of your life disabled in some way before the age of 65, and the likelihood of a permanent long-term disability to vision, hearing dexterity or mobility, let alone disorders like diabetes and cancer, increase every year.
While the hope is that we can each put off needing this sort of technology as long as possible, I'd much rather it was well developed both technologically and sociologically/legally by the time I need it. We need to work on legal protections for privacy. Technology is going to keep removing the physical ones.
If you feel like being cynical, that's your right. It's a free country. But I find it's best not to put too many statements out there for Karma to work with.
Next week: how to conceive, gestate, and birth a baby in a wi-fi ready uterus from GigundoCorp.
"Babies, athletes, first responders, the elderly — a growing list of people could benefit from connected clothing, says AT none more so than AT&T corporate executives and their obese bonus cheques, and their personal investment bankers.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I am one of those type of people that assumes that anything that can have a backdoor, does. That being said, the idea of having clothes that can be used to track my actual body functions is just about as intrusive as I could have possibly imagined, short of direct neural interfacing.
What other nifty purposes might these clothes be put to? Built-in lie detector interfaced w/law enforcement BlueTooth technology? Direct-connection Taser application w/specific nerve targeting? Remote passive-aggressive bio-feedback manipulation? Automated, instantaneous Facebook updates of bowel movements and BFF status?
I've come to the conclusion that one in every five slashdot submissions are actually a joke--the hard part is figuring out which one is the joke.
(commence with the "pants with a backdoor" jokes in 3...2...1)
As long as it won't automatically tweet your status
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Why does it say "C4 - Hand Dry Only"?
Orwell: "In a Time of Universal Deceit, telling the Truth is a Revolutionary Act"