IBM發明機器學習設備，可幫助應付漫長會議

冗長的會議最讓人煩躁。

我承認，我就是喜歡看專利文件。因為通過專利文件能了解世界上在發生什么，也能了解下瘋狂的大想法如何演化成為沒那么瘋狂的大想法。在數字醫療領域里，這個規律尤其明顯。

當然了，有些想法看起來很創新，但實際上并不是。最近風傳蘋果可能推出的新品，沒準是戴在手腕上的血壓監測設備。幾乎各家都報道了，還有好幾處列出最近的專利申請當依據。實際上，蘋果工程師想做這種設備已經好幾年了（2014年蘋果就曾為“多功能腕戴裝置監測血壓”申請過專利）。現在專利局里堆滿了與腕帶式血壓計類似創意的申請文件，對，說白了還不就是血壓計，其中有一些幾十年前就有雛形。舉個例子，1993年就有“戴在腕部測量血壓裝置”的專利（美國專利編號No. 5,271,405）。

不過也有些創意非常有獨創性，別出心裁，而且可能沒那么瘋狂。拿上個月公布的IBM專利申請為例，該專利為“通過機器學習促進開會者鍛煉身體。”

Long meetings are the worst.

I confess: I like to read patents. It’s a great way to see what’s around the corner—to get an early gander at those big, crazy ideas that often morph into big, not-so-crazy ideas. And in the area of digital health, that seems to be especially true.

To be sure, some of those ideas look radically new and aren’t. Consider the buzz of late about Apple’s rumored potential-ish introduction-maybe of a wrist-worn blood-pressure-monitoring device—which was covered pretty much everywhere, with many outlets pointing to a recently published patent application as an aha moment. In truth, Apple engineers have been dreamscaping this one for a while (see their 2014 application for “Blood pressure monitoring using a multi-function wrist-worn device”). And the patent office is filled to the proverbial gills with filings for similarly conceived wrist-wearable sphygmomanometers—like I wasn’t going to use that term—some of which date back several decades. Note, for example, this 1993 patent grant for a “wrist mount apparatus for use in blood pressure tonometry” (U.S. Patent No. 5,271,405).

But then, some ideas are genuinely new. And well, fanciful. And well, maybe even not so crazy after all. Take this IBM patent application published last month, entitled: “Machine learned optimizing of health activity for participants during meeting times.”

IBM技術主管保羅·R·巴斯蒂特和同事寫道，該專利初衷是鼓勵參與冗長電話會議的人們加強鍛煉，當然得記得按下靜音鍵。“根據預測的會議參與程度、傳感器數據，以及參與者健康水平，”IBM團隊在2016年11月首次提交的文件中寫道，“可以確定電話會議期間適合參與者的鍛煉方式。到時會向參與者發送提示信號，提醒鍛煉。”

實際上，該發明中確實有不少幾處提到“可能”：“可能會根據接收的數據和位置數據預測電話會議參與者的參與度。可能接收與參與者相關的傳感器數據……可能將用戶的可佩戴裝置與智能手機連接，一起實時監測電話會議中用戶的參與度。可能直接識別會議期間用戶有沒有移動實現，也可間接一些，通過智能手機中安裝的應用分析手機使用情況（例如，用電話音頻傳感器監測用戶參與會議討論的頻率）。”

雖然有很多假設成分，還是得稱贊IBM充滿想象力的工程師們，能發現這樣一個重要的未滿足需求，還想出解決方案。一想到下次要開漫長的會，我的背就犯疼，膝蓋吱吱作響，眼皮也開始下垂犯困。如果在手機里多裝個竊聽器式的應用，開會時經常提醒著站一站，或坐在椅子里抖抖甩甩，少受些久坐之苦，那也值了。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審稿：夏林

The idea, write IBM Technical Leader Paul R. Bastide and colleagues, is to prompt participants in a lengthy conference call to exercise—presumably with the mute button on. “Based on the predicted engagement level, the sensor data and the participant’s fitness goal,” write the IBM team in their initial November 2016 filing, “an exercise for the participant to perform during the conference call may be determined. A notification signal may be transmitted to the participant to perform the exercise.”

There are, indeed, quite a few “may be’s” in this proffered invention: “An engagement level of the participant that is to participate in the conference call may be predicted based on the received data and the location data. Sensor data associated with the participant may be received…A user’s wearable fitness device may be interfaced with the smartphone, and together they detect in real-time the user’s participation in the conference call. This may be achieved explicitly by detecting whether the user is moving or not during the meeting, and/or implicitly via the app in the smartphone that analyzes the phone’s usage pattern (e.g., how often the user is engaged in the meeting using the phone’s audio sensors).”

Such hypotheticals aside, though, one has to admire the instinct of these imaginative IBM’ers to see a critical unmet need and try to fill it. The mere thought of my next endless meeting makes my back ache. My knees creak. My eyelids droop. If it takes another eavesdropping smartphone app to come up with a few standing reps or seat-borne shake-outs to subdue the scourge, so be it.