Tag Archives: policing

The Sniffer, Dec. 2nd, 2011: Trends in Medical Monitors and Crowd Control

In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young wonders who owns the data your devices generate? She started thinking about it because of a story about a man with a defibrillator implant who is trying to get access to the data it generates, in order to better understand what triggers his heart condition (via Technology Review). As more of us have implants or other devices that generate data about how we’re using them, is this the shape of things to come?

Looking for a gentle alarm for the guitar lover in your life? Cathi Bond brings you the Acoustic Alarm, a clock that awakens you to a strumming guitar (via Ohgizmo. Take a look at it here.

Cathi also discusses a new Segway-esque police vehicle, the T3, augmented with the ability to use non-lethal weapons such as rubber projectiles or dye bullets (via Gizmag). Smart approach to riots and crowd control, or gateway to overuse? What do you think?

Trends in Policing and Cyborgs (No It’s Not Robocop!)

In today’s trendwatching podcast, Cathi Bond mentions the Dazer Laser, as an alternative to the taser (via Gizmag). Essentially, it shines an incapacitating (and sometimes nauseating) light in your eyes, but does no permanent damage. Plans are to market it to police, rather than the general public (whew).

Meanwhile, Nora Young mentions this post about cities for cyborgs, over at Tim Maly’s Quiet Babylon blog. Keiichi Matsuda talks about how we would design cities if we thought of the human inhabitants as nomadic cyborgs. It reminds Nora of Philip Beesley‘s comments about responsive architecture. Check it out!