Always-On Comes To China

Three years ago, I wrote often about The World of Always-On. This consisted of wireless applications which lived in the air, sensors and motes that could collect data from your home, your yard, your stuff, even your body and evaluate it using your WiFi connection.

It didn't happen. I guess I didn't shout loud enough. (Yes, I know. This is actually the cover art to a Blink182 song.)

Or did it? Jude  Jake Ludington has been to Demo in China and comes back with a report on an outfit called Beijing Perfect Sky Information Technology Co. Ltd.

Here is how he described it:

The system monitors health data for cardiogram readings, pulse, blood pressure, body temperature and a number of other factors to track changes in vital signs. Data is sent wirelessly to a server that tracks patient information to check for any changes that represent an out-of-normal condition. In the event of a dramatic change in health status, the service will alert physicians, family and anyone else scheduled to be notified in an emergency.

Bingo! This is an Always-On medical application, which I called a "killer app." The patient wears sensors which take regular readings. The WiFi network sends these to a computer for analysis. When an alarm condition exists, a text message can be sent to a designated person, or a list of persons.

This is the kind of thing that can keep you in your home, instead of putting you in nursing care when your time comes. Embed the sensors in something like an UnderArmour shirt (grandpa wants to style), run the data through an ordinary WiFi router, use cellular text messaging for the alerts. Now you're aging in place instead of in some strange place.

You can put together different sensor sets depending on the condition which needs monitoring. (And just imagine the new market for UnderArmour!)

The fact that this innovation is happening in China, and is not happening here, disturbs me. But not as much as not seeing it at all would have disturbed me.

Dana don't want to go to no nursing home.