[nivla]

>rest assured that the embedded system and controller board will be equipped with software that defaults to an always-upload mode, dumping all data to microsoft.com ... Is Microsoft trying to convince women to submit to continuous lie detector monitoring, under the auspices of weight control?

What? I get it, its in fashion to hate on MS but come on these are just ridiculous assumptions. Let's look at it from a technical point of view. If you want an always-upload device, at the current state it would require a substantially battery which needs to be recharged atleast every 12hours. Now who will buy a heavy bra that fails in half a day?

Lie detector.. really? because its in the evil interest of a corporation to know when only women are lying.

[downer95]

It needs a battery no matter what. It assuredly has a battery. How would it function at all without a battery small enough to power a wrist watch?

How much battery power do you need, in order to pipe readings from a sensor into a tiny 2GB cache of flash memory?

Then, the data syncs with your laptop, because how else will you find out what the readings are, without some kind of GUI interface showing you some charts and graphs that interpret the raw sensor data?

The sync software will come bundled with a "share your data, oh goody!" feature that defaults to constant sharing mode (dark pattern). You charge the battery whenever you sync. In the presence of an internet connection, it uplinks to MsSmartBra.com, where data is monitored and tracked so everyone knows your high score! Yay!

[nivla]

Wait so you changed your course of comment from "always-upload" and "lie-detector" to "syncs to a central server" when plugged in? Then how is this different than existing products such as Nike fuel band or fit bit?

My initial response was to your paranoic bit on being always on. Without the help of a median device, for data to be always uploaded or for constant lie detection, a wifi/4g module has to used. Which in itself is a battery sucker and not to mention, adds to weight of the bra making it uncomfortable.

[downer95]

Okay, my mistake in using the term "always-on." That term is generally reserved for broadband network connections.

But consider the standard use case for undergarments. It will continuously collect data any time it's worn. That could turn out to be a lot of data, even in a store-and-forward data collection strategy. And really, bras are most commonly worn in social situations, so most data will be collected while the subject engages in social interactions.

I point this out as a possible "lie detector" because that's my immediate association with respect to electrodermal and EKG sensors used in combination. Add in respiration (a small leap since this will be strapped to your rib cage) and you would have the complete recipe for a lie detector. That part doesn't seem to be included, although my free association still stands.

I'm hypothesizing that Microsoft might be taking aim at a strategy to crowdsource ambient lie detector data, because that sounds like a really interesting data set, with lots of opportunities for exploitation.

What motivation could there possibly be, beyond "pure evil", as a drive to study this sort of thing? Perhaps a sense of adventure and bold curiosity for the future that lies ahead? I dunno, but it's already well established that Microsoft is a known collaborator with the DoD and most alphabet agencies. Maybe it's a sureptitious fishing expedition?

Why women only? Because a complete lie detector session involves respiration. So, if it's a sureptitious data collection program, you start with the question: how do we convince people to adorn themselves with cumbersome blood pressure cuff, EKG, electrodermal and respiration sensors that we usually wrap around their chest? Who would ever wear anything tightly strapped around their chest? Wait! Women do that all the time, whenever they wear a bra!

Good work, Johnson! Here's a two million dollar budget! In six months, be ready to show me something that will convince people to willingly share respiration, heart rate, and skin conductivity via the web. Then we'll restrospectivly analyze the raw data set, blindly without context, and try to pick out the liars, and develop a common statistical model of deceptive behavior, ironically collected using deceptive tactics.