A Wristband to Track Workers’ Hand Movements? (Amazon Has Patents for It)
- 6 years ago
A Wristband to Track Workers’ Hand Movements? (Amazon Has Patents for It)
2015 because of health concerns, he said: "I got burned out." Mr. Crawford agreed
that the wristbands might save some time and labor, but he said the tracking was "stalkerish" and feared that workers might be unfairly scrutinized if their hands were found to be "in the wrong place at the wrong time." "They want to turn people into machines," he said. that He worked back and forth at two Amazon warehouses for more than two years and then quit in
Critics say such wristbands raise concerns about privacy and would add a new layer of surveillance to the workplace, and
that the use of the devices could result in employees being treated more like robots than human beings.
ing on the floor, I felt like I had become a version of the robots I was working with." He described having to process hundreds of items in an hour — a pace so extreme
that one day, he said, he fell over from dizziness. that After a year work
Current and former Amazon employees said the company already used similar tracking technology in its warehouses
and said they would not be surprised if it put the patents into practice.
In theory, Amazon’s proposed technology would emit ultrasonic sound pulses
and radio transmissions to track where an employee’s hands were in relation to inventory bins, and provide "haptic feedback" to steer the worker toward the correct bin.
One company in London is developing artificial intelligence systems to flag unusual workplace
behavior, while another used a messaging application to track its employees.
2015 because of health concerns, he said: "I got burned out." Mr. Crawford agreed
that the wristbands might save some time and labor, but he said the tracking was "stalkerish" and feared that workers might be unfairly scrutinized if their hands were found to be "in the wrong place at the wrong time." "They want to turn people into machines," he said. that He worked back and forth at two Amazon warehouses for more than two years and then quit in
Critics say such wristbands raise concerns about privacy and would add a new layer of surveillance to the workplace, and
that the use of the devices could result in employees being treated more like robots than human beings.
ing on the floor, I felt like I had become a version of the robots I was working with." He described having to process hundreds of items in an hour — a pace so extreme
that one day, he said, he fell over from dizziness. that After a year work
Current and former Amazon employees said the company already used similar tracking technology in its warehouses
and said they would not be surprised if it put the patents into practice.
In theory, Amazon’s proposed technology would emit ultrasonic sound pulses
and radio transmissions to track where an employee’s hands were in relation to inventory bins, and provide "haptic feedback" to steer the worker toward the correct bin.
One company in London is developing artificial intelligence systems to flag unusual workplace
behavior, while another used a messaging application to track its employees.