Friday, January 18, 2008

Time to be aware of Microsoft?

Are you an employee having a hard time with your employer? WARNING! You’ve been watched. Microsoft is on the process of developing a spy kind of software, which is capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence using wireless sensors connected to their computers. As they say, it’s a Big Brother style software.

The system is designed to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure.

As TIMES ONLINE say, Microsoft has submitted a patent application in the US for a “unique monitoring system” that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure”, the application states.

The system could also “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker’s weight, age and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he needed help.
HHHMMMM… Wanna be your own boss?

Source: TIMES ONLINE (Alexi Mostrous and David Brown)

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