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Amazon Patents Wristbands Designed To Track and Steer Employees' Movements (nydailynews.com)
New submitter hyperclocker shares a report from NY Daily News: Amazon workplace employees may soon be guided by their wrists. The tech company this week received two patents for a wristband designed to guide warehouse workers' movements with the use of vibrations. The concept relies on ultrasonic sound pulses or radio transmissions to detect the position of an employee's hand in relation to a series of inventory bins, GeekWire reported. Upon receiving product orders, warehouse workers are required to retrieve the requested item from such bins or shelves and pack it in a delivery box before moving on to the next order. If a worker's hands begin to move toward the wrong direction, the proposed "haptic feedback system" would cause the wristband to buzz and direct their hand in the correct direction. The wristbands, according to the patent documents, were designed as a means to keep track of products within Amazon warehouses as well as up day-to-day productivity. The proposed tech, however, could also provide Amazon management with a new means of workplace surveillance that would alert them to staffers who are wasting time or breaking for too long.
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
This is interesting, but what they really need is some kind of system to keep track of inventory levels. This would prevent situations where I buy something and then they tell me they don't have any on the day it was supposed to arrive. Hopefully they will soon catch up with my advanced thinking.
Something's wrong with Hank's wristband, it's giving us nonsense data. Repeated up down and motions for the past 7 minutes, now it looks like it's speeding up. And it says he's in the bathroom, not at his station. This makes no sense at all.
Enjoy having every single move you make be scrutinized by your bosses, Amazon employees.
This reminds me of the current state of being a truck driver: there are cameras and microphones and GPS installed in the cab, and every single thing you do, say, or expression on your face is reviewed. If they don't like the way your face looks, you can get fired. Real handy for them when it's time to give you a raise or a promotion, or when you try to use your paid leave for any reason.
No, I'm not a truck driver, I've never been affected by any of this. But someone I've known for 30 years has been, and lost a job with Arco because of it. Bet you cash money things turn out this way for Amazon employees.
Track and Steer Employees Movements? this creeps me out ;)
;) Just a stopping point until they can move on totally ;) lol
;)
Turning humans in to semi autonomous robots
Just my 2 cents
But honestly, the types of jobs where this is implemented probably are exactly the kinds of jobs that are going to be automated away before too long. Kind of screwed either way.
Proper dystopia shit there.
This would be a shitty thing to do to workers or any creature, for that matter. If they would be happy to do this to their workers, I imagine they don't give two dog turds about me, either.
A wrist band that tracks employees AND shocks them when they make the wrond decision?
People could probably fake hand movements, they should instead make all workers put on a GoPro camera hat so they can constantly monitor what every one is doing and looking at then shock their brain when they do or look at something wrong. Problem solved.
Sounds like smart handcuffs for Amazon slave workers.
Why convert to robots, when you can convert your human workers to computer control!? Hey! Why not have your "employees" chained to their posts!? And have them work 16 hour shifts, for pennies an hour!! Actions like these are what caused unions and higher overwatch of employers by governments. Too bad the corporations own both nowadays.
Please pay no attention to the dystopia behind the curtain!
George, for the last 2 weeks we have detected your left hand moving vigorously after lunch time in bathroom 3B. Can you explain this unusual reading?
Amazon just files a patent that, instead of a buzzer, activates the built in Taser.
Your cell phone on vibrate in your pocket will train you to check your phone on interrupts. It'll also train your brain to falsely trigger physical sensations. This brief view into chaos, mixed with something where your arms are constantly being vibrated to steer you and judge distance sounds like some people will be having way too many worker bee dreams. Honestly, I don't think this is an ethical product, but it depends on the duration of exposure and frequency of use. "I can't shake these vibes, man!" Na, I'm sure they're all champions at the big AZMN
From 'The Caves of Steel': The guide rod was set for Department CG, Section 2. What that meant in factory terminology, Baley didn't know. He didn't have to. The rod was an inconspicuous thing which could be palmed in the hand. Its tip warmed gently when lined up in the direction for which it was set, cooled quickly when turned away. The warmth increased as the final goal was approached. To an amateur, the guide rod was almost useless, with its quick little differences of heat content, but few City dwellers were amateurs at this particular game. One of the most popular and perennial of the games of childhood was hide-and-seek through the school-level corridors with the use of the toy guide rods.
(Page 211 in my edition.)
Inevitable, but still spooky.
I seem to recall that the Romans invented iron wrist bands that were able to direct employees (slaves) with an attached communication link (chains). They also had a neck and ankle versions too.
The device delivers an electric shock to employees who step out of line.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
How does this patent intersect with rule 34?
Requiem for the American Dream
Apple watch already has haptic feedback GPS guidance and has done for a few years at this point.
...use the other hand!
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Why does it have to be that the wristband is tracked and managed rather than the band doing navigation through it's own logic?
Twinstiq, game news
the nazis had pieces of flair they made the jews wear.
Every worker who spent time with that individual who attempted to start a union....
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
At this point warehouse workers are going to become commoditized robot workers, controlled by a central system and mainly valued for their grasping capability. Show up to work, walk to the item(s), collect the items as you're told, put them in the box. Then you may rest for X minutes then back to waving items around.
From an engineering standpoint it's brilliant, you "control" the "last mile" of the warehouse equation, at least until the robotics department finally rolls out their replacement for the humans.
As a human working there though, I'm sure it's pretty degrading.
moox. for a new generation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
"Humanity constructs advanced military spacecraft, but the ships learn to think for themselves. They kill their crews by disengaging the life support systems. However, they keep a small number of humans alive for repairs they cannot do themselves."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
The 2nd gen version of the wristbands will use TENS or similar to directly control the worker's muscles. No human cognition/'effort' required. It's like a reverse-Waldo.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
... haptic "steering" has been going on for a long time. It's handy if you're plowing in near zero visibility: http://www.govtech.com/e-government/Smart-Snowplows-Keep-the-Highway-to-Valdez-Alaska-Clear.html
Meanwhile one might think that reading a single 2-1/2 year old NYT article about Amazon makes formerly clueless idiot an expert on Amazon's culture and management practices. Sort of like hearing that you should drink 8 glasses of water a day makes you an expert on hydration.
He came up with precisely the same ideas I independently had come up with, except his version is still deeply inside the typical American socially conditioned beliefs, including some very fucked-up ones.
I had to stop when he wrote "It is impossible to do it anonymously, and everyone knows what happens when you [basically do anything at all]. People do commit crimes occasionally. Mostly it is kids who have not completed their education." Cynthia said. "They are disciplined and the problem goes away. You'll learn all about this in the orientation."
That sounds like just another nightmare scenario.
The story might go on to present it as such too, but that chapter contained too much glorification masturbation over it, to assume that. It seems like he actually loves that mindset.
It seems he does not yet have realized the fucked-up-ness of the usual legal system that involves invalid concepts like blaming/guilt, absolute rules, or punishment not being a crime too. I mean "re-education is usually all the discipline needed". What the actual fuck! Is this shit normal already to you Americans?? Please tell me it's not! Not even our Nazis here in Germany were that psychopathic and creepy!
It also still includes the mindset of unlimited exponential growth being both good and necessary, when it is literally a signed guarantee for extinction and probably destruction of the entire planet. Which is really fuckin obvious for anyone who can think further than the next decade.
Why is it telling me to put my hands in my panties?
I developed a similar system 3 years ago for an art project.
It's very trivial to make, actually, with Arduino and piezo-electric speakers...
then you wear machines, and then ...? Then you serve machines.
-- John Brunner
I always thought that last part could just as well have read "Then you become machines".
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
I was wondering how long it would take Amazon to make their warehouse robots more human looking... Apparently not long.
If you buy from Amazon, you're an accomplice in these neverending Bezos humiliations.
If you were to gamify it, post high scores, give out trophys/achievements like Strava, Fitbit and what not, then the average drone in Sector 7-G will actually embrace this.
Could also be used to shame workers who post low scores. Management exempt of course.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Everyone wailed when it looked like Walmart was becoming a monopoly, and they've got nothing on Amazon. STOP BUYING THEIR STUFF.
A bigO Sieg Heil to that, Amazon!