Alexa: Jim, you slept like crap. Need a crate of Monster?

It is like Amazon is becoming a guardian angel, silently, invisibly, biometrically watching over its flock.

The Federal Communications Commission last week granted Amazon’s three-week-old wish to use radar to monitor its customers’ sleep. According to a Gizmodo article, the company wants to create an “unlicensed radar device.”

High-frequency radar, to be specific, that is capable of knowing every toss, scratch and leg cramp. This knowledge, Amazon says, can be used to deliver “significant health benefits.” Also, in the form of an Echo assistant, it reportedly will respond to gestures.

As Gizmodo points out, Amazon does not take a corporate breath unless it can monetize it. In this case, Amazon would have the same kind of under-covers data that successful makers of biometric wearables get from recording sleep movements. That information can be sold back to Amazon customers in the form of product come-ons and, in aggregate, to any number of vendors.

No word on if there is a preferred sign for “Howard’s getting frisky. Please go away.”

Article Topics

Amazon  |  biometric data  |  biometrics  |  data collection  |  gesture recognition  |  marketing  |  monitoring  |  research and development