LONDON — Britain's communications regulator Ofcom is predicting a huge range of applications for wireless technologies to make life simpler, safer and healthier, but in a far reaching report of the opportunities for the next two decades., also warns that that the impact of some of these applications on personal privacy needs more debate.
In its technology report, Tomorrow's Wireless World , the regulator outlines a myriad of potential and useful applications, for instance in cars to help avoid collisions; wireless devices to remind patients to take medication; and wireless food content scanners to change the way people shop.
Ofcom stresses its role in what it terms the coming wireless revolution is to ensure the most efficient use of the UK's radio frequencies that emerging novel services could use. It adds its own technology research helps it to better understand how spectrum might be used in the future and allows it to plan how we manage the spectrum to meet these demands.
Its report focuses mainly on how wireless innovations could be applied in the healthcare and transportation sectors during the next ten to twenty years, but it also highlights work on a range of other wireless projects.
Peter Ingram, Ofcom's chief technology officer, said: "This report demonstrates the many creative ways that the radio spectrum can be used for the benefit of citizens. But other bodies will have to decide whether the transfer of personal data, which these advances involve in the medical sphere, is appropriate for the benefits."
One project highlighted involves the possibility of implanting sensors into people in danger of a heart attack or diabetic collapse that would allow medical professionals to monitor them remotely.
The in-body network sensors monitor how a patient moves or picks up vital health signs, such as blood sugar levels, and sends this information wirelessly to make an alert via a home hub or portable monitor. A number of U.K. universities, including Imperial College, London, are carrying out research in this area. These networks could use existing spectrum specifically allocated for use by sensor networks.
A variation is "on-body monitors", small devices which people could wear to check vital health indicators such as pulse and blood pressure. These devices could be used to monitor chronic conditions, such as heart conditions, asthma or diabetes, to gauge movement or fitness levels. The device would use Bluetooth or other wireless technologies to send signals from the body to portable monitors, such as a watch, mobile phone or a home hub.
Ofcom notes a trial developing this technology is currently taking place in Portsmouth.
The technology could also be used if a patient failed to take his or her medicines. A pill dispenser would send an automatic reminder and, if the pills were not taken within a certain time, an alarm would sound and a message would be sent to the patient's family or carers.
Ofcom also notes there are projects already under way that are trialing nutritional content scanners that could enable people to scan the content of food wrappers quickly and easily. Using existing RFID tags, they would help identify items suitable for dietary requirements.
EE Times Europe reported late last year on such work in Oulu, Finland that has already developed a mobile phone which incorporates an RFID nutritional scanner and Ofcom suggests this or similar technology could be on the market in the UK within the next five years.
