Comments on Don't Worry! It’s Only a Terrible Nightmare!

S-C-A-R-Y
Scary!!!
I want one. For myself. Who wouldn't want to keep track of all that for oneself?
Oooh... One for my boyfriend!
Then I will really know who my boyfriend is looking at and just how he feels about it!! YEAH!!

I'm totally appalled that my employer is doing this.

The system could “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”.

So that stupid little paperclip guy is going to pop up every time I get a little stressed out? Great. Thanks a lot Microsoft.

Microsoft is dead.

No, it's not dead Mr. Poe. It's a great corporation making great software. Just some in MS Research are taking themselves too seriously and need to get a grip.

Aren't there easier ways to detect when one's employees are surfing pr0n?

This software would be so easy, and so fun, to spoof. Hyperventilate a bit, make angry faces, then relax your face and slow your breating down to a normal rhythm. Do this in cycles every minute or two.

That, or take a hammer to each and every one of the sensors.

Oh please. It'll work twice, then repeatedly crash until people give up on it altogether after a hail of squealing and cussing.

It'd only be scary if Apple built it, then hapless, candy-colored marketing-susceptible employees would be begging to have Big Sister's private eyes watch their every move.

And after that take a hammer to every middle-management fuck-up who thought stealing your vital signs was a good and bleeding edge idea....

@3:

I have a feeling you'd be seeing more of that cute lil' tail-wagging puppy instead!

And you know, I'd be down with this - IF - employees were similarly allowed to monitor their supervisors' biometric data - like for example the drop in pulse rate and BP when said manager is napping at their desk, or the increased stress levels caused when for example they're really buzzing along on that 12th level of Tetris, or, when they're checking their stock portfolio for the twentieth time that day while the market is tanking again.

After all, fair is fair, right?

Bombarded with "your employee is making a face" or "is stressed" a hundred dozen times a day, the average manager would either ignore it, quit, or fire the employee.