X-Message-Number: 14438 Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 08:08:37 -0700 (PDT) From: Scott Badger <> Subject: Re: Motion Sensors Lee Corbin <> wrote: > Quite a number of cryonicists are naturally looking > forward to the advent of cheap and practical > monitoring devices that would send an alarm in case > of death. An idea that I'm wondering about is this: > why not have three or four motion sensors watching > while I sleep? If they all report no movement > for a certain time, then a small chime begins to > sound. The longer that they continue to see no > movement, the louder the chime. Within a minute or > so of the first alert, the noise has become enough > to wake me, and if I fail to respond after that, > then signals are sent to emergency response or > a cryonics service. From an aritcle at salon.com: "One technology with the deliciously sci-fi name of the "Digital Angel," a prototype of which will be unveiled next month, could be implanted under the skin and used to monitor not only the chip-wearer's location, but vital signs like heart rate and body temperature." Full article at: http://salon.com/tech/feature/2000/09/07/chips/index.html And from the company's website: http://www.digitalangel.net/ ********************** Digital Angel has numerous potential applications: Medical Applications Digital Angel could be used for monitoring patients. Doctors could access their patient's vital signs remotely and then analyze them. They could detect potential problems before the patient even begins to notice the symptoms. The doctor would know where to locate the patient at the same time. This differs from the emergency pendulums some people wear. In many cases, patients are unable to push the button, and even if they do, the doctor would not know where to find the patient in order to help them. Commodities Supply Chain Management - Food Safety Digital Angel can be attached to commodities such as cattle and other livestock to track health and location information from birth to processing. This will improve the standard of quality control and ensure a higher level a safety for commodity-related products provided to the customer. Security Another application is in the area of security. Digital Angel would be very useful in locating people who are in danger of being kidnapped. In the case of little children, the elderly, and athletes, such as skiers, getting lost is always an issue. In these cases, Digital Angel could be used as a guardian. Warfare In warfare, knowing where the soldiers are located, if they are alive or wounded, is a crucial factor to the Commanders. Law Enforcement Digital Angel can be used in law enforcement in keeping track of parolees, people under house arrest, and in the witness protection programs. Animal Protection Although Digital Angel is designed for the human being, it can be applied to household pets and endangered species. Tracking This device can be used to protect and trace valuable items such as museum art pieces, computer equipment, etc. Identification Digital Angel could be an important security method of protecting information because it could carry personal identification information. It could transmit this ID via wireless communication with personal computers. In this way, only the individual would be able to access his or her own information source. Firearms Safety Another example to this would be the accessing of firearms. It could be limited to the owner of the weapon only. There could be many other applications, but, in essence, Digital Angel will become an interface between the human body and the electronic network. ******************** Wow, that last sentence is (to use an archaic term) ... very heavy! There is, of course, considerable controversy over how slippery this slope is by those who fear being tracked by dark government or corporate forces. Personally, I suspect my activities could already be pretty easily monitored if dark forces wished to do so .. what with my usage of credit cards, the phone, e-mail, etc. Plus, these devices may be deactivated by the bearer at any time and are actually dormant most of the time (though I'm sure there will be those who refuse to believe the device is truly deactivated). Still, I don't know how that would work for certain groups (e.g. prisoners or soldiers). Would the institution have the ability to activate the device whenever they wished? With all it's potential problems, this still seems to be an exciting breakthrough product for cryonicists. Vita Perpetuem, -- Scott __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Free email you can access from anywhere! http://mail.yahoo.com/ Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14438