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General discussion

Use Smartbands to allow factory workers to get notifications

Aug 1, 2016 11:43AM PDT

I just found out that many tech factories don't allow their workers to have their smartphones on them during their shift. It makes sense of course, I just never thought about it. They say it's for espionage reasons, but obviously it's for productivity/distractions too. Well, I think in today's day and age it is unecessarily cruel to deny people access to real-time, potentially life-changing information just because they own a pocket supercomputer. There's got to be a good tech-based compromise. No doubt geo-fencing and firmware/app based compromises will be presented as solutions to this issue, but I think that an old-fashioned physical locker is the most secure way and easiest to manage. I envision a locker (in any number of shapes and sizes) that, like a sophisticated vending machine, mechanically exchanges a fully-charged, inexpensive smartband with the user during the "period of denial". The smartwatch or smartband can be set to receive (via RF) whatever information the administrator sees as necessary (missed calls, texts). Numerous automated authentication schemes can make the process automatic, and if a smartwatch gets lost or broken, the machine at least knows who was at fault. It's admittedly a bizarre concept, but who knows, we might have to go there someday. The Military, Government, Concert Venues, etc, might also benefit from this. Here's a conceptual sketch:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6VIwvkoUxnXQXcySEpiTkhfSW8/view?usp=sharing

Discussion is locked

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Sorry so be skeptical but
Aug 1, 2016 12:01PM PDT

this sounds more like an idea looking for a purpose. Perhaps the extremely paranoid might get some comfort from feeling that they are never out of touch with the world. Perhaps some folks think that being constantly connected displays some greater importance to their being. Personally, I like to leave the house and go to the woods and hiking trails and spend hours away from any kind of communication device. I've never felt an oncoming panic attack from doing this. Good luck with your venture anyway if that's what you have in mind.

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I agree.
Aug 3, 2016 11:51AM PDT

Thanks, I agree with all your points, but I'm gathering you're above a certain age (as I am) and as such you/I can live completely out of "digital" touch. I think that'll be harder and harder as the generations advance, and ridiculous concepts like this might become necessary. It's not just factories, there's Military, Government, certain private venues, etc.

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You've just about got me pegged
Aug 3, 2016 12:07PM PDT

I don't even own a smart phone and feel no reason to be joined at the hip to one. My navigation device says "Rand McNally" on the cover. I almost never get lost. I find that people who rely on a GPS have no idea where they are in space once they get to their destination. I'm also seeing that, with such technology gadgets turning over so often, they have the potential to become a huge environmental issue. All that trash which has only trace amounts of useful material that becomes too costly in energy to recover. We have people who rarely see the sky as anything other than a reflection in their hand held screens. If that's the life they want, so be it. It's not for me. We are surrounded by noise everywhere we go. One can't go buy a few groceries without having their ears assaulted by awful music that's electronically enhanced to hide terrible singers. I prefer the quiet times.

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Today and in the past
Aug 1, 2016 12:28PM PDT

The family would call the office and send the message to the worker.

This is one of those ideas that don't make sense.

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and how long have factories
Aug 1, 2016 12:52PM PDT

and how long have factories been around before notifications????? They don't allow smartphones where I work not because of distractions, not because of espionage but because it could interfere with the wifi and other wireless signals required to be operational. besides smartbands also means tracking.

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Thanks for the input.
Aug 3, 2016 12:01PM PDT

The Smartbands I envision wouldn't track you, they would simply be conveyors of basic information, and POSSIBLY have the ability to relay a few canned messages like "got it" or "no" back to the storage/charging station. The communication would be RF, basically an encrypted digital walkie talkie. I'm pretty sure you could make a base-to-watch signal radius large enough to cover 99%+ of workplaces. Wouldn't it be nice, in your case, to at least know in real time that you just missed an important call from your attorney or at least see an important text? Then at the end of the day, you have a fully charged phone to boot? I know it's unrealistic that any employer who currently restricts phones would be so kind as to begin to offer this apparatus to their workers, but who knows, it could actually boost morale in some places.

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(NT) if it gets notifications, it can track.
Aug 3, 2016 1:11PM PDT
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Point well taken.
Aug 3, 2016 2:24PM PDT

However, there wouldn't be any on-watch GPS, so at least geographic tracking wouldn't happen, mostly time-stamping and things like.