mobileu.co.uk

Japanese develop mobile to keep tabs on staff

The Japanese phone company, KDDI, has developed a mobile phone that can tell if an employee is working or idling.

The phone works using accelerometers. It needs to be worn on the back of the employee's wrist and the accelerometers track the movements of the wearer. The phone can tell what kind of activity the employee is engaged in such as walking, sweeping, climbing stairs etc.

Up to now, motion sensors on mobile phones were only able to detect repetitive movements such as running or walking. But KDDI uses analytical software to match user movements to common movement patterns and can thus offer a more complex analysis of user movement.

The technology can be used in areas such as telemedicine and other situations where tracking a person's movements may be helpful. But KDDI has made it clear that they also plan to sell the new service to companies who wish to track employees' movements, such as companies employing cleaners or manual workers. It is already in talks with a Japanese employment agency who is interested in buying the technology.

Kazuo Hizumi, a leading human rights lawyer, has said: "This is treating people like machines, like so many cattle to be monitored and watched over. New technology should be used to improve our lives not to spy on us. It beggars belief that a prominent company such as KDDI could come up with such a surveillance system."