The Panoptical society: Microsoft plans to monitor groups activities

I am a new subscriber to this list. I work in the field of China studies - I
have recently authored a study on extralegal detention, and now I am looking at
torture and at a form of administrative detention used on drug addicts.

Since a couple of months I have become engrossed in Panopticism. I have just
read some news about Microsoft "plans" to file a patent for a system which
would
monitor the brain activity of its employees, and thought that they may be of
interested to the subscribers of this list. Here are some links about them,

Cheers,

Flora

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3193480.ece

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/microsoft-patent-app-reveals-plans-for-monitoring-group-activiti/

This is the team of researchers who are developing the monitoring software

http://research.microsoft.com/vibe/projects/bci.aspx?0sr=a

This is the patent application filed by Microsoft

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220070185697%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20070185697&RS=DN/20070185697

and this is a piece of news in Italian

http://www.repubblica.it/2006/09/sezioni/scienza_e_tecnologia/microsoft4/big-brother/big-brother.html