Name: BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Business & Work 2' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!
Uploaded: 2022-06-16T16:50:23.000Z
Duration: 30 min 28 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. 

I’m Neil. And I’m Sam - still working from home, 

new thermal cameras are being installed in some workplaces. 

They measure body temperature to screen for coronavirus.

After weeks of working at home the return to the office is slowly 

getting underway in a number of countries.

But workplaces are having to change in this coronavirus era. 

Lots of companies are rushing to install technology to 

make offices and workplaces safer. Sensors that monitor our movements, 

smartphone apps that alert us if we get too close to workmates 

and even devices that take our temperature could all 

become the new normal – that's a phrase we hear 

a lot these days, meaning a previously unfamiliar 

situation that has become usual and expected.

In this programme, we’ll take a look at how this 

technology works and ask if it really is the answer 

But first, today’s quiz question. The thermal cameras I mentioned 

screen for coronavirus by recording skin temperature 

in the area of the body which most closely resembles 

the internal body temperature - but which area is that? Is it:

OK, Sam. We’ll find out later if you were right. 

Now, as employees slowly return to work, tech companies are busy finding ways for 

them to do so safely. One such company, ‘Microshare’, 

is managed by Charles Paumelle. He spoke to BBC World Service programme 

Tech Tent to explain a possible solution.

The technology that we are offering is using Bluetooth wristbands or 

tags that people are wearing within the workplace which detect 

proximity events. When the proximity event has been recorded, it's been 

saved by the company in case they need to, further down the line, 

retrace the steps of a certain person who has been declared as 

infected and inform anyone else they may have been in contact with.

One important way to control coronavirus involves contact tracing. 

This means that someone who tests positive for the disease informs everyone else 

they’ve been in contact with. Microshare’s system for 

this uses Bluetooth - technology that allows computers, 

mobile phones and other devices to communicate with each other without 

Employees wear Bluetooth wristbands which register when workers 

come into close proximity – how near a person is to another person.

Anyone who has been close to a workmate will then know they have to take action 

coronavirus later down the line – in the future.

Wearing wristbands, monitoring data on smartphones 

and being recorded by cameras – it all feels like quite a big 

It certainly does, and although some argue 

that such measures are necessary in these unprecedented times, 

others are worried about the possible consequences. 

Here’s human rights lawyer, Ravi Naik, with a warning:

From a human rights perspective, you have to try to ask, 

are you trying to use tech for tech’s sake is this actually going to facilitate 

an understanding of who is safe to go back to work or not? 

of this because it’s such a significant interference with basic human rights. 

There has to be a high level of evidential justification to deploy 

this type of technology and I just don't think it's there.

Ravi questions whether these devices will actually help identify who can 

return to work, or whether the technology 

is being used for its own sake – an expression meaning doing something 

because it is interesting and enjoyable, not because you need to.

Ravi’s work as a lawyer involves finding proof that 

something is right or wrong. If people’s human rights are being 

interfered with, he thinks there has to be evidential justification – 

explanation of the reasons why something is the right thing to do, 

based on evidence. Like the evidence from screening body temperature…

…which bring us back to today’s quiz 

question. Remember I asked you which part of the body is scanned 

by thermal cameras to measure body temperature.

And you were absolutely right! There’s a small area of the eye 

close to the tear ducts which is the most accurate part of the 

We’ve been discussing how thermal cameras 

and other workplace devices being used to prevent coronavirus are becoming 

the new normal – a previously unfamiliar situation that is becoming normalised.

Some of these devices are wristbands with Bluetooth – technology allowing 

computers and smartphones to communicate remotely without wires. They can 

identify work colleagues who have been in close proximity – in other words, 

That will be helpful if one of them tests positive 

for coronavirus further down the line – at some point in the future.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused massive changes 

but some critics are concerned that contact tracing technology 

is being used for its own sake - because it is interesting and 

enjoyable to do, rather than being absolutely necessary.

And since much of the new tech invades personal privacy 

it should only be introduced with evidential justification – 

explanation of why it is the right thing to do, based on evidence.

Unfortunately, that’s all we’ve got time for, 

but remember to join us again. Bye for now!

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BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Business & Work 2' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!

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