Amazon patents could enable worker monitoring via wristband

SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon has received patents for electronic systems that could enable warehouse monitoring through with electronic pulses that guide employees by location.

The patent filings, first reported this week by the news site Geekwire, come amid concerns over workplace conditions for the company, which has seen rapid growth in its warehouses or "fulfillment centers" key to its logistics.

The publicly available patent documents show how wrist-worn devices could deliver ultrasonic pulses that could direct employees to the location of bins for packages being sought.

"Ultrasonic tracking of a worker's hands may be used to monitor performance of assigned tasks," according to one of the documents.

"The ultrasonic unit is configured to be worn by a user in proximity to the user's hand and to periodically emit ultrasonic sound pulses... The management module monitors performance of an assigned task based on the identified inventory bin."

Amazon has not commented on the patents, and it was not immediately clear if or how the company would deploy this technology. The company did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

But any deployment of such systems would likely trigger a backlash over labor conditions and heighten fears over workplace surveillance.

In the patent document, Amazon said the system is designed to help with "time-consuming acts" to locate items in warehouses.

Amazon's growth has been fueled by technologies that help it speed shipments to enable deliveries in one or two days. It has invested heavily in automated technology and robotics.

On Thursday, Amazon reported its quarterly profit doubled to $1.9 billion, compared with $749 million a year earlier.

In 2015, a New York Times article described Amazon's workplace culture as a "hurtful," Darwinian setting in which employees were pitted against one another to the point of tears to improve productivity.

At the time, Amazon chief executive and founder Jeff Bezos said he did not recognize what he called the depiction of "a soulless, dystopian workplace."