Are brain-scanning helmets a dream for security or a nightmare for privacy?
Empresas de construção e mineração estão implementando dispositivos que monitoram a fadiga dos trabalhadores. Críticos afirmam que a tecnologia pode ser usada indevidamente pelas autoridades.
At first glance, there is nothing unusual about the uniforms worn by construction workers. They wear fluorescent orange gear, sturdy footwear, and yellow hard hats. But hidden inside these hard hats—manufactured by Huanao Security (Beijing) Technology—are various sensors that monitor the workers. Some record their movements; others track their blood oxygen levels; and still others collect the employees' most private and sensitive information: their brain data.
Based on these recordings, Huanao Security’s algorithm generates metrics that help determine everything from a worker’s level of fatigue or stress to whether their body temperature is abnormal. The device is used at every stage of the job, including for screening workers before their shifts begin and for monitoring them while they are on the clock.
The hard hats, branded as "NeuroHua," have been used at dozens of high-risk construction sites across China—including subway projects in Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Beijing—as well as in mines, steel mills, and petrochemical plants throughout the country. Nearly all workers on these projects wear them. With 2,000 hard hats currently in use, the company and its clients have amassed a total of more than 300,000 hours of electroencephalography (EEG) data—a figure that is "constantly growing," according to Tang Zaixi, the company’s founder.