Ebola-Proof Tablet Developed By Google Set For Deployment In Sierra Leone

MojoKid writes Google has co-developed a tablet device for use by workers battling Ebola in Sierra Leone. The modified Sony Xperia tablet comes with an extra protective shell, and can withstand chlorine dousing as well as exposure to the high humidity and storms that are typical of life in West Africa. It can even be used by workers wearing protective gloves. Since even a single piece of paper leaving a high-risk zone poses a risk of passing on the infection, doctors on site at the height of the current outbreak of the disease were reduced to shouting patient notes to workers on the other side of a protective zone fence. Those workers would then enter the information into patient records. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) technology advisor Ivan Gayton said this practice was "error prone, exhausting, and it wasted five or 10 minutes of the hour medics can spend fully dressed inside the protective zone before they collapse from heat exhaustion." To address the issue, MSF challenged a number of technology volunteers to create an "Ebola-proof tablet" to improve efficiency. This collective, which included Whitespell's Pim de Witte and Hack4Good's Daniel Cunningham, grew to include a member of Google's Crisis Response Team, and it was this group that co-developed the device.

Comments

Hardened gear is important

[MichaelSmith]

Until recently I worked for a company which supplied industrial grade computers, including tablets. All the tablets we supplied ran windows. Google need to push hard to break into that market segment and developing a product like this is a good place to start.

ba bum bump

[PopeRatzo]

Can't they just install anti-virus software?

Re:Shouting patient notes?

[hairyfeet]

But as others pointed out it'll be stolen so fast they'll be lucky to get a week out of 'em when there is a frankly more obvious solution...disposable tablets.

You can buy dual core tablets straight off the boat from China for like $45 and that is single unit prices, and I've seen single core ones go for $27 and again single unit prices. For what they are doing I'm sure they could buy in bulk and I wouldn't be surprised to see 7 inch single core tablets in the $14 or less range and then they can just send the data to a wireless microtower set up outside the zone and if they have to trash 'em or some get stolen...so what?

Waving around expensive tablets in THAT area of the world? Like waving fistloads of cash in the ghetto, they ain't gonna have that for very long, not long at all.