The measure of man

Citation

Loughlin, C. (2003), "The measure of man", Sensor Review, Vol. 23 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2003.08723daa.001

The measure of man

The potential for loss of privacy is very high these days.

Ironically it is in those countries in which we would probably consider that we had greatest freedom that our privacy is most at risk. In fact is largely non-existent.

We are free to travel, free to vote for who we like, free to take on excessive debts, free to eat what we like, say what we like and pretty much do as we like. But you can guarantee that the great majority of our actions are being monitored.

Make a telephone call and an electronic voice can give you directions to the nearest Macdonald's, which of course means that it knows where you are in the first place. And I am routinely amazed that whenever some crime or other gets committed that more often than not it was caught on camera.

In my view we have long since past the point of discussing whether or not such monitoring of our actions should occur. The fact is that it all happened in tiny subsidiary increments and that no amount of discussion will ever reverse the process.

All of which brings us to one of our themes for this issue – biometrics.

Fingerprints are probably the best known biometric but these days retinal scans, voice recognition, gait recognition (refer Automatic recognition by gait: progress and prospects, pp. 323–331), hand recognition and ultimately DNA recognition are all at various stages of development and acceptance. And our efforts are not limited to people, as our article on pig and fish biometrics clearly illustrates (refer Biometric developments provide scientific farming techniques, pp. 287–293). George Orwell certainly hit the jackpot with both "1984" and "Animal Farm".

Given that any thoughts of reversing this trend are likely to be a waste of time, it then becomes logical that we should make every effort to make practical use of the technologies and work to make them as reliable and accurate as possible.

One example of this is illustrated by our research article on capacitive sensors for air bag applications (refer Morphological capacitive sensors for air bag applications, pp. 345–351). Recognising important biometrics such as body weight and location can have a marked influence on the optimum activation of air bags and many other devices that can help ensure our safety and comfort.

One area of biometrics that I have yet to hear of any work on, but which to me has great potential, is that of measuring the loads being applied by individual muscle groups and body joint angles. Here I am considering applications such as repetitive strain injuries and awkwardly lifted loads. There are regulations (at least here in Euroland) that govern what loads people can be asked to lift and from various positions.

Working within these limits makes very good commercial sense because time off work due to injury and compensation claims cost industry dear. I know that research has been done in this area in the laboratory but I am imagining a system that can be applied in the everyday working environment where these accidents and injuries occur. It must be non-invasive and unobtrusive and I have no idea how it might work.

Clive Loughlin