You are the product

[Ó Draighnáin]

This came into my feed on another website posted by someone called Joseph Devlin, a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience:

"The US Patent and Trademark Office lists application 2023/0225659 as a “biosensing device” built into Apple’s earbuds to measure “biological signal parameters from a user.”




Which biological signals, you ask?

👉 Electroencephalography (EEG). In other words, the aim is to directly record the user’s brain waves from tiny sensors positioned within the ear canal.

👉 Electromyography (EMG). This records muscle movements and the information can be used to help understand facial expressions and jaw movements related to emotion.

👉 Electrooculography (EOG) tracks eye movements, particularly side-to-side.

👉 Electrocardiogram (ECG) typically measures the electrical activity of the heart.

👉 Galvanic skin response (GSR), which provides an indirect measure of emotional arousal – that is, the strength of an emotional response.

👉 Blood volume pulse (BVP). This is measured using photoplethysmography and provides information about heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV)."

The Professor raised possible concerns about such data collection but there seemed to be a lot of "Apple is ok" and, "this data can be useful" sort of responses.

Without going into detail the Professor identified the following:

There are five essential principles for ethical use of neurotechnology:

1. Voluntary;
2. Limited;
3. Transparent;
4. Autonomy, and
5. Valid.

Interesting discussions in our times.

 

[Tubetec]

I read a story sometime back about biometric sensors in fitness watches ,
apparently the Apple watch was able to sense health problems and that data was then passed onto health insurance companies , so people ended up seeing a hike in their health insurance payments because the device passed on info about a previously undiagnosed condition .

Why anyone would want a bluetooth transmitter inside their ear I dont know .
Obviously if they have a biometric stat readout and a means to input a stimulus via the phone your pretty much part of a gain of function experiment , without your knowledge or consent .

The whole thing reads a bit like a remote controlled wireless version of Ron Hubbards lie detector ,

 

[cyrano]

Some of that tech is really simple. Too simple for conspiracy thinkers...

For instance, you don't need any special sensors to detect a heart attack. In the minutes before an attack, the heart goes into a very stable default rythm. Easy enough to detect with a smart wristwatch that already contains a hearth-rate pulse detector.

It's possible Apple is measuring the inner ear transfer function. A nephew to the HRTF used in ambisonics. Apple needs that to precisely position sound outside your head. That's a relatively simple thing to do with a DSP. Only, it's far more precise if you know the user's ears.

Apple also often patents stuff they can't really make yet. Such a thing should stop the competition from developing the idea. And it will give Apple preferential treatment if they later need to negotiate a license.

Apple has invested strategically in bio-science. They own a minority stake in a Singapore business that developed a special database software for DNA, fi. It doesn't mean Apple has any plans with bio-science, but they are interested in whatever might make their cloud experience faster. A DNA database offers the same advantage if you're checking biometric database items. Your name, address, SSN etc. only make up hundreds of bytes. A fingerprint or iris scan make up several MB of data, just like DNA. The typical database in use today isn't any good at working with fields that contain MB's worth of data. Comparing those fields is very slow, compared to "regular" data.

 

[PermO]

You are opting in by buying this stuff, simply don't buy it.

You can make a phonecall with any phone, you don't need the latest model, but maybe some people need technology to tell them how they feel

 

[PermO]

Apple also often patents stuff they can't really make yet. Such a thing should stop the competition from developing the idea. And it will give Apple preferential treatment if they later need to negotiate a license.

I think it was coca cola that patented technology to advertise in your dreams.

 

[cyrano]

I think it was coca cola that patented technology to advertise in your dreams.

Really? Got a link? I seem to remember it was Coors, who really tried it. It worked.

I've heard about a Sony patent to skip ads by speaking the ad's brand's name:



A good recent review is this one:

https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4005&context=wmlr

It's from a legal standpoint, but that's the only thing holding publicity companies back. It's still illegal, because it's seen as "deceptive advertising". How about "Burger King nightmares"?

 

[Ó Draighnáin]

Conditioning is a funny thing. I might be a bit slow but it took me a long time to realise that Achilles wasn't a hero, he was an arrogant, petulant little shit (so was Agamemnon mind you). It was Hector that more truly epitomised the idea of hero, yet he was the enemy.

 

[PermO]

Can't seem to find the actual patent, think I came across this on Reddit quite a while ago.

That's an interesting paper, did not read all of it, but what I got from this, that it's using "triggers" in a persons wake enviroment, that the person will not pick up on conciously... that will later trigger a reaction in the dream state ?

I will not be too worried about this, might work on some people though.

People's dreamstate differs wildly, some float like driftwood while others seem to be in full controll, equiped with jet engines ..
You might catch some floaters, but you will never catch rocketman.

I used to play this game with phone advertisers whenever I got a call about some product.

Me: thanks for the warning !
They: huh what ?
Me: If you are calling people at home, one by one, to get rid of it, it must be a really really bad product !
So thanks for warning me about this, I will make sure to never buy it and tell all my friends.
They: Sir, shall I take you off our list ?
Me: No ! .. I want to receive these warnings, they're very valuable to me !
They: tuut tuut tuut tuut...