For those who follow my twitter feed (@dewsbury) I mentioned
how the Xbox’s always aware functionality caused Xboxes to switch on when Aaron
Paul says in the advert says ‘Xbox on’ people report their Xboxes switching on
(see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27827545).
This annoying functionality does have its upside as well as the downside.
With the recent Google IO (https://www.google.com/events/io)
it was mentioned that the new Android operating system will have a always aware
functionality, so even in the closed state it will still listen for the command
‘OK Google’. This for some might be a little worrying, especially in the light
of Facebook’s attempt to be constantly aware and record the sounds in your environment
whilst you use its app (http://guardianlv.com/2014/05/facebook-has-new-microphone-application/).
Therefore, the benefits of always-aware applications might
not appear to outweigh the security and privacy issues. This was certainly my belief, until I was
alerted, by my bother to an article in the ABC news (http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3484579.shtml?cat=127)
in which a two year old uses Siri (the voice aware IOS platform) to call for
emergency services as her mother suffered from “an autonomic nervous system
disorder that causes her to faint”. The child was taught to press the button
and say call emergency services, if her mother fell over, which was the case at
the time.
As telecare and telehealth devices evolve the standard pendant,
based technologies will be surpassed by smarter more common/mundane
technologies such as the standard mobile phone.
Many smart phones have the ability to dial numbers through speech input
and this will only increase over time as operating systems become smarter. The
advent of smart watches will also add to this if they have accelerometers built
into them and can determine if a person has fallen.
The rise in health apps (see http://phonesngagdets.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/my-favourite-fitness-app-virtuagym-www.html)
can only be a good thing as the poor ones will eventually be weeded out and the
best ones will remain. Adding the ability to determine health characteristics
is essential to make the move from a mobile phone being a standard communication
tool to being a fully interactive useful piece of hardware.
It is good news that technology is finally being used appropriately
to help people in a number of ways. One such way that caught my eye was the
Brianwriter (http://www.techrepublic.com/article/the-brainwriter-the-200-open-source-wearable-for-the-paralyzed-that-can-read-and-write-thoughts/#ftag=RSS56d97e7)
which turns your thoughts into drawings and communications. This was originally designed for people who
were paralysed and in many ways is better or more promising than Oculus Rift (http://www.oculusvr.com/) or Google Glass (http://www.google.co.uk/glass/start/).
We are at the dawn of an incredible change in the way in
which technology can be used to make people’s live better and facilitate their
safety. I just hope that my idealistic dreams is not proved wrong. Technology
developed for one thing can reused and re-purposed for something else. My
fingers are crossed.
