At last December’s mHealth Summit in Washington D.C., we met Ford Motor Company‘s Global Manager of Health, Wellness, Interiors and Infotainment – Gary Strumolo – who told us about Ford’s efforts to improve the health of its drivers.
They just announced this past week a step in this direction by enabling their voice-activated technology, Ford SYNC, to interface with IMS’ free Allergy Alert smartphone app. The press release describes what added functionality can be expected by Ford drivers:
SYNC AppLink integration enables drivers to use simple voice commands to access the health and wellness features of the Allergy Alert app while keeping their hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. The voice commands and features include:
- “Current location” updates the driver’s location using the car’s built-in GPS receiver to report the most accurate and up-to-date information
- “Allergy” provides a verbal pollen index to users that rates the severity of pollen levels in the surrounding environment on a scale from 0 to 12
- “Pollen” specifies that pollens are predominantly in the air
- “Asthma” uses a 0 to 12 scale to address potential and upcoming concerns for asthmatics
- “Flu” addresses the current and upcoming flu index and report
- “UV” tells drivers of the current and upcoming risks of UV rays
- “ZIP 1,” “ZIP 2” and “ZIP 3” stores up to three ZIP codes in the settings menu of users’ device. The first ZIP code is the default location when not using the GPS position. The second and third ZIP enable users to store ZIP codes outside of their current area, such as a mother storing the ZIP code of her child’s school
The Knight Rider-esque capability can also be seen in Ford’s video below:
Ford announcement: Ford Enables SYNC Voice Control of Allergy Alert App by IMS Health Giving Drivers On-Demand Access to Allergy Forecasts
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