iSlave

Researchers have produced a mobile phone that could be a boon for prying bosses wanting to keep tabs on the movements of their staff.

Japanese phone giant KDDI Corporation has developed technology that tracks even the tiniest movement of the user and beams the information back to HQ.

It works by analysing the movement of accelerometers, found in many handsets.

Activities such as walking, climbing stairs or even cleaning can be identified, the researchers say.

Not clear if it's the phone or the software that's the key technology here. Some form of this could work with any phone with iPhone-type motion sensors -- though it sounds as if something even more intrusive is intended:

. . . the KDDI mobile phone strapped to a cleaning worker's waist can tell the difference between actions performed such as scrubbing, sweeping, walking an even emptying a rubbish bin

But assuming that the company monitoring its employees so closely would then have to require them to wear the phones, why bother with the phone at all, and just have done with it and have them wear electronic slave collars?

It is not the first time remote spying technology has been enlisted by employers to keep an eye on their workforce in Japan or elsewhere.

Lorry drivers are regularly monitored through mobile phones in Japan, while salespeople have been regularly tracked by their employers using GPS since it was introduced to Japanese mobiles in 2002.

Full article here.

Posted by David on March 10, 2010 10:03 AM