Please read the following question and then answer the questions 1,2,3,4.
Microsoft has been on a patent roll. In recent years, it has been one of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's biggest customers.
But it's one particular filing that has been grabbing headlines recently. That is a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression, and blood pressure.
Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters, and NASA astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces.
Microsoft submitted a patent application for a "unique monitoring system" that could link workers to their computers. Wireless sensors could read "heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions, and blood pressure," the application states.
The system could also "automatically detect frustration or stress in the user" and "offer and provide assistance accordingly." Physical changes to an employee would be matched to an individual psychological profile based on a worker's weight, age, and health. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that he or she needed help.
Microsoft, which typically does not comment on individual applications, did offer a bit of comment on this patent. According to Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing, this application could monitor a user heart rate, among other physical states, detect when users need assistance with their activities, and offer assistance by putting them in touch with other users who may be able to help. "It is important to keep in mind that with most organizations in the business of innovation, some of our patent applications reflect inventions that are currently present in our products, and other applications represent innovations being developed for potential future use."
Trolling through filings can offer a glimpse of where a company is headed, but seeing something in a patent application is far from a guarantee of what will eventually ship. The U.S. Patent Office will decide whether to grant the patent in about a year.[i]
1. Do you think Microsoft's patent application should be approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? Why or why not?
2. Do you think monitoring of employees in this way is ethical or unethical? Legal or illegal? Explain.
3. Would you work for a company if you knew a computer system was monitoring your performance and measuring your vital signs? Why or why not?
4. Research and discuss what you think was a tragic business scandal and explain the impact that it had.