The Japanese government has approved local service provider Softbank to conduct an experiment with schoolchildren involving GPS-enabled phones. Basically, select kiddies will be designated as “carriers”, and their transmission of the disease will be tracked based on GPS proximity to other students. The goal of the study is to track how diseases move, and see if an SMS notification system could realistically warn people of potential danger zones.
This sounds cool on the one hand, but on the other, it would necessitate a phone keeping close tabs on your health readings, or otherwise manually marking yourself as infected. Call me crazy, but one way or the other, I don’t think anyone will jump on board to effectively wear a sign that says “Oh hai, I’m a plaguebearer!”, even if it may be considered a service to others nearby. Right now biometrics in cellular tech are mainly limited to peripherals, so it will be awhile before our phones start reading our vitals natively, but it’s not outside the realm of imagination.
[via GoMo]