Technology innovation reminds us of romantic comedies. Why, you say? Because most romantic comedies are the same plot, recast with different relatively big-name actors in incrementally different situations. It works by picking the 2 remaining stars that haven’t been portrayed falling in love, and it works by joining previously un-combined emerging technologies in an application no one’s thought of. For example, we have a fall sensor developed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (of South Korea). It’s a mash-up of an accelerometer that connects (presumably) via bluetooth to a cell phone equipped with GPS, that alert a local hospital as to the tumbler’s location…
The phone is equipped with GPS (global positioning system) technology, making it possible to check where the accident took place. ETRI transferred the technology to communications companies last month and it expects the system will be available next year.
ETRI’s Bioinformatics Team leader Park Soo-jun said, “When the size of the sensor is reduced, seniors will be able to carry it in the form of a belt buckle or a brooch. They’ll be able to download a program that senses the signal from the sensor to any mobile phone they’re using.”
The system could also work in nursing homes and hospitals equipped with the Internet, where users would have to carry only the sensor and not a mobile phone, Park said.
Now, if they could only incorporate a series of tubes in there, too.
More from Chosun.com, because we can’t find an English language link to ETRI.
image: explodingdog.com