I have written before about how the mobile phone will soon become a powerful healthcare diagnostic tool (here and here), and I have also written about Google’s impressive foray’s into making the mobile phone a powerful platform which will augment human intelligence. Today’s news brings to light both of these points in spades.
There is now a new $1 iPhone application that will allow healthcare professionals to diagnose more than 1000 diseases from their cellphone. As impressive as the technology is, if you “jump the curve,” I think you can easily imagine a day in the near future when you will be able to do the exact same thing—but without the assistance of a professional. The potential for healthcare savings is enormous.
The second item that caught my attention was this video from Google which shows how a new application they are developing will help users monitor their home energy use from the comfort of their phone. If you watch the video, you’ll hear one Google employee explain how the application has saved him $3000 in reduced energy costs.
