Amazon patents wristbands that track warehouse employees’ hands in real time

Image: via Amazon upso

Amazon has been granted a pair of patents for a wristband that can pinpoint the location of warehouse employees and track their hand movements in real time. The patents, first spotted by GeekWire, describe an inventory management system comprised of trackers and receivers used to monitor workers’ performance. The originalpatents were both filed back in 2016 but were granted on January 30th.
The proposed system includes ultrasonic devices placed around the warehouse, the wristbands themselves, and a management module that oversees everything. The wristbands also feature an ultrasonic unit that’s used to track where the worker is in relation to any particular inventory bin. If their hands are moving to the wrong item, the bracelet will buzz.

Image: Amazon via uspo

While the patent describes this tech as a time-saving system, tracking workers in this way seems dystopian. That’s especially true for Amazon, a company that has been accused of enforcing intolerable conditions at its warehouses, like timed toilet breaks, 55-hour work weeks, and packing timers that ensure a worker is packing enough boxes per hour.

In the patent, Amazon says that storage facilities face “significant challenges” in responding to requests for particular items. “Existingthe verge approaches for keeping track of where inventory items are stored may require the inventory system worker to perform time consuming acts,” says the description. Using haptic feedback to guide workers’ hands to the right place is, apparently, the answer.

Of course, this is just a patent, so there’s no indication that Amazon will actually deploy the wristbands. But considering the company’s love of efficiency and its ever-expanding warehouse facilities (in January 2017 it said it planned to hire 100,000 more workers, with the majority of postings for warehouse jobs), it might not too far-fetched to think it’s considering such technology.

Source | the verge |

Comments

Exynos Galaxy S10 visits GeekBench, still behind the iPhone XS in single-core test

The Samsung Galaxy S10 has been spotted on GeekBench and the numbers are in. This time, it's the Exynos 9820 variant for South Korea (SM-G973N), and there are notable differences with the previously seen results from the S10+ in Snapdragon 855 trim . The single-core result, in particular, is far ahead of any other chip in the Android world - the current Kirin 980 (around the 3400s) and Snapdragon 845 (ballpark is in 2400s) are no match for the next-gen Exynos, and early Snapdragon 855 figures are much lower too (3400-3550 depending on who you ask). In fact, the older Exynos 9810 gets closest, posting single core results upwards of 3600 and into the high 3700s under the right conditions. Even so, the iPhone XS remains out of reach. GeekBench 4.1 (single-core) Higher is better Sort by Label Sort by Value Apple iPhone XS Max 4777 Samsung Galaxy S10 (E9820) 4382 Samsung Galaxy S9+ 3771 Samsung Galaxy Note9 3642 Samsung Galaxy S10+ (S855) 3413 Huawei Mate 20 Pro 329...

Bata to pay ₹9,000 fine for charging ₹3 for a paper bag

The Chandigarh Consumer Commission recently ordered Bata India Ltd to pay ₹ 9,000 in fine for charging ₹ 3 from a customer for a paper bag to carry the shoebox. Legal experts say the order is legally valid across the country and that stores cannot charge consumers additional charges for the bag if the product is purchased from the same store. The forum's order came on a complaint filed by a consumer, Dinesh Prasad Raturi. Raturi told the consumer panel that he had purchased a pair of shoes on February 5 from the shoe store located in Sector 22D. The store charged ₹ 402, which also included cost for the bag. Raturi contested that by charging him for the bag, Bata was also endorsing its brand on the bag which was not justified. Raturi sought a refund of ₹ 3 and compensation for deficiency in services. The forum slammed Bata for charging an additional amount for the paper bag. The forum ordered that a customer cannot be compelled to pay for...

Google Will Pay Apple $9 Billion In 2018, And $12 Billion In 2019 As Default Search In Safari

Google might be the king of search right now, but it's not an easy task staying at the top. Aside from being efficient enough to convince users to come to them, Google also occasionally has to make sacrifices. Sometimes, that's a $9 billion sacrifice to maintain its monopoly. According to a Business Insider report, courtesy of Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall, Google will pay Apple approximately Rs 65,000 crore in 2018 in order to remain the Safari browser's default search engine. That number will also climb to $12 billion in 2019 (approximately Rs 87,000 crore). If that seems like an unreasonable amount to pay for such intangible benefits, think again. After all, Safari is the default browser on everything from the iPhone, to the iPad and Mac. A lot of those users actually prefer Apple's browser to other options, meaning Google would in turn be generating a really high amount of ad revenue from searches. According to Goldman Sachs, the fee Google pays ends up be...

Look in

Search This Blog