Re: John Glenn's Biometrics

From: Brian D Williams (talon57@well.com)
Date: Mon Oct 26 1998 - 09:27:34 MST


From: Eugene Leitl <eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de>

>Instead of pushing the finicky implant design, how much easier it
>would seem to merely wear a wristwatch with added functionality:
>short-range biotelemetry to an immobile modem-equipped device in
>a flat, or a belt-worn biotracker with cellular modem and GPS
>outdoors, periodically linking up to a tracking server cluster.

>Using Li-cell driven (power good for a month at least) contactless
>sensors like MEMS accelerometers, photophlethysmography and
>photooxytometry etc.signals evaluated by a low power embedded,
>periodically bursting data via a cellular modem to a
>high-availability Linux system cluster with a GIS (all open
>source, of course) you can prototype such a design within months.

>Personal/pet trackers using GPS have been already disclosed,
>adding biotelemetry would seem just an afterthought. Actually I am
>surprised such designs have not entered the marketplace a few
>years ago, as they would have vast commercial potential, geriatric
>structure trend of the developed societies considered.

A couple of thoughts:

Animal researchers have had a device like this for a while, it was
called a "Mortality Transmitter" it was designed to send a signal
if the device didn't move for so many hours. They were tagging
young moose and elk as I recall and discovered that black bears
were significantly more advanced predators than previously thought.

Even now the RBOC's are putting systems in place to locate cell
phones by triangulation (big brother mandate), add a few sensors
and viola!

I remember reading an article, I believe it was in WIRED, about an
Australian who was promoting data transmission of small packets to
low earth orbiting satelites for cattle tracking, remote monitoring
of water levels at remote sites, etc.

From: Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com>

>I read a book about 15 years on design of radio telemetry devices
>you put into gelatin sized capsules which pass through the
>digestive system. No, I don't recall the title, but "biotelemetry"
>is a good word to search for.
 

I read, and some fellow classmates and I experimented with devices
like this when we were in high school. We got the idea from an
article in Scientific American's Amateur Scientist's column. It was
a how-to complete with drawings and schematics. I very distinctly
remember the warning to let the epoxy coating cure thoroughly to
prevent gastrointestinal irritation ;) . This article would have
appeared in 1975 or earlier.

Brian
Member, Extropy Institute
www.extropy.org



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