…and a Droid ain’t one…

Day Three of CES was, like days one and two, no disappointment, insofar as finding neat things that could be useful to public
safety.  I usually say that CES has 15,000 exhibitors and 14,999 of them have some rendition of an iPhone case (okay, it’s an exaggeration… there were only 3,100 exhibitors).  I did pick up a couple of phone cases, and unfortunately, they are all for the iPhone.

If you have an iPhone, drop me a comment to this post (make sure you fill in the e-mail field) and I will contact you and you can have one.  I should have 3 to choose from.  I can also print you up a custom iPhone skin, courtesy of some iaPeel skins provided to me (I even have a couple for the iPod Touch, and for the iPhone 3G and 4).

I encountered so many headphones/earbuds vendors that it became a great big blur.  I mostly “tuned them out” (yuck, yuck, yuck!), except for one demo.  A young woman who represented an audio company accosted me and convinced me to try out
her Brand A vs. Brand B experiment.  In return, I simply had to tweet my opinion and I would get a free set of earbuds.  I expected to find that the Brand A was a cheap end of the competitor’s brand.  I was pleasantly surprised at the result.  It turns out that Brand A was Skullcandy, and Brand B, which won the comparison, was Wicked Audio (www.wickedheadphones.com).  Now, I own a nice set of Skullcandy earbuds and I do not intend to give them up.  Even the Wicked Audio staff agreed that Skullcandy makes a good product, but frankly, at least in this comparison, Wicked Audio wiped the floor with Skullcandy.  Since I have many good quality personal auricular broadcasting devices (a.k.a. headphones and earbuds), expect this set to be one of the upcoming subscriber prizes.

Another big trend is the advent of “ballistic” type phone cases.  Due to the overwhelming success of the OtterBox, a few vendors have hopped on the proverbial bandwagon.  I think the only company that stands a chance here was Bodyguardz  (www.bodyguardz.com).  I’ll have more in-depth review of their cases separately.  I even found one vendor that had a bottle opener built-in to the backside (www.beaheadcase.com), which should go great with your flip flops that have a bottle opener built-in.  They say that your cell phone is disgusting and loaded with all kinds of nasty crusty bugs. Honestly, I might want to resort to using the flip flops before the cell phone.

How do you feel about having to approach a patient or their family for a non-covered, prearranged transport to ask for their payment in advance?  I have encountered a few times when I have been required to collect large sums of cash or checks and it made me feel awkward, and uncomfortable, especially when a field supervisor was available to make the payment transaction and wouldn’t come out, even by request.  As if a medic doesn’t have enough responsibility with their crew, safe transport, patient care, and safekeeping of equipment and narcotics…

Well, now it is becoming easier to do POS transactions via iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad thanks to USA ePay (a retail certified credit card processing gateway at (www.usaepay.com)) and the PaySaber encrypted card swiper.  A very small terminal attaches to the base of the iOS device for the lighter version of the hardware, which is compatible with all the iOS devices.  There is another version that will not fit the iPad and it cradles the iPhone or iPod, but offers a thermal printer.  Now there isn’t any need for the field personnel to handle or be accountable for cash or checks.  That’s good tech!

Etymotic Research (www.etymotic.com) was in attendance and offered some advice on their devices to protect hearing.  I talked with a rep for a little while and she demo’ed an audio dosimeter that displays the amount of the wearer’s personal daily exposure in percentages, and an upgrade model that also allows logging.  They aren’t even THAT expensive at $149 for the ER-200 and $249 for the ER-200D (model with data logging).

This is a personal matter to me because I have conversational level hearing deficits due to sitting in diesel ambulances for 12-16 (+) hours/day for years and my efforts to be a local catalyst for change have thus far been fruitless.  If you work in a System Status Management region, the chances are that your agency should be providing hearing protection for you all the time (the kind that automatically comes with every single fire truck sold in America).  OSHA regulation 29CFR1910.95 defines that exposure to 90dB for eight (8) or more hours is toxic and mandates that hearing protection must be provided.  In my own studies, I discovered that in the cab of the Ford E350 Type III ambulances I worked in (which were all new or at least less than one year old in 2007), the
noise exposure at the factory high idle was an average of 92dB (our policies required high idle at all times when parked).  When the A/C compressor kicked into what we affectionately called “Millennium Falcon Mode”, the noise level in the cab would often sustain 104dB and peak at 110dB!  At those levels of noise, OSHA rates 100% exposure complete in only 30 minutes!  I also performed the test outside the truck and found it was an average of 112dB within 3 feet of the hood and radiator!  The siren would add only about 2dB inside the cab when we were driving down the highway.  Yet despite this evidence and being provided the OSHA regulation they were obliged to comply with (and which they seemed to treat with the same wanton disregard as our internal agency policies), my (then) agency absolutely would not provide any hearing protection.  They cited budget issues and pawned it off as personal employee responsibility.  By the time I undertook this study on my own initiative, the damage to my hearing was done.  I never got to study the noise levels in the 5+ year/old trucks which had all been recently replaced before I started the tests, but those old wagons were noticeably noisier.

The exposure chart stops at 115dB and anything above that is considered instantly toxic.  Incidentally, regardless of whether you crack an M6 or a C, D, E, or M sized oxygen cylinder, it is an instant 120dB, which is considered to be instantly and permanently damaging (and equivalent to a jet engine or standing right in front of the classic Federal “Q” siren).  Well, Etymotic has some new hearing protection to help you protect yourself.  On their site, you can look up the HD-15 or the Gun Sport Pro GSP-15 models and you can find additional references to justify why you really should have employer-provided hearing protection.

Stay tuned to this blog to hear more details about all the things I found useful to EMS and Fire at CES 2012.  I’ll also have some upcoming videos with a couple of the vendors and their showcases.

Thanks for reading.  Be safe!