On Smart Sneakers
Schneier inspired:
Basically, the kit contains a transmitter that you stick in your sneakers and a receiver you attach to your iPod. This allows you to track things like time, distance, pace, and calories burned. Pretty clever.
However, it turns out that the transmitter in your sneaker can be read up to 60 feet away. And because it broadcasts a unique ID, you can be tracked by it. In the demonstration, the researchers built a surveillance device (at a cost of about $250) and interfaced their surveillance system with Google Maps. Details are in the paper. Very scary.
Nike should embrace this ability and sell a product to tier two teams (read college athletes/ROTC’s) that geographically tracks team members, keeps tracks of time/distance data for the entire team and routes all of this data to individual health records. It could even apply some thinking and project future performance and track actual performance along that curve. Build a package of products based on this idea.
The first step, of course, is to secure it. But the opportunity to diffuse an advantage usually reserved for tier one athletes is one that shouldn’t be missed.
-Shlok
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