Tech companies are increasing their focus on health-oriented devices and services, and Comcast is no different. According to a report from CNBC, the ISP is working on an "in-home" device that could be used to monitor your health.
This device, which does not have a name as of writing, will use an array of sensors to measure "basic health metrics," which include (but are not necessarily limited to) oversleeping or otherwise spending "more time than usual" in bed, more frequent bathroom trips, and – perhaps most importantly – whether or not you've fallen and can't get up.
Naturally, with any sort of monitoring device like this, privacy concerns arise. Given that the future product will reportedly feature audio recording functionality in the case of an emergency, those concerns are perhaps even more understandable.
However, Comcast assured Engadget that the product's primary feature is its motion sensing capabilities; it isn't a smart speaker and thus probably won't be gathering audio data from its users (beyond the basics needed for it to function). With that said, we haven't actually seen or tested the device for ourselves, so we can't verify Comcast's claims yet.
At any rate, CNBC reports that Comcast plans to offer this device – and other health-related tools – to "at-risk" individuals, such as the elderly or those with crippling disabilities (we do not know if the device will be available to the general public) sometime in 2020, though early testing could occur this year.