Author: lisaweiner

Categories
Brain

Motion sensor – potential for autism diagnosis and treatment?

http://www.frontiersin.org/Integrative_Neuroscience/researchtopics/Attism_The_Movement_Perspectiv/801

Rutgers and Indiana University researchers have developed a motion sensor that they claim can help diagnose and treat autism.

A movement tracker is attached to the individual, which senses “systemic signatures,” measuring each person’s movement as they respond to various screen images from a computer program showing 240 images a second.  This analyzes the importance of changes in movement and movement sensing, enabling the identification of stable capabilities in each individual, and highlights the impairments of a person’s movement system.  The screening tool can measure tiny fluctuations, determining exactly how an individual’s movement differs to that of a more typically developing child or adult.

The researchers claim that their work could potentially be used as an early therapeutic tool, helping autistic children learn and communicate more effectively.

Categories
Machine Learning mHealth Monitoring Sensors

Tooth sensor monitors health

http://mll.csie.ntu.edu.tw/papers/TeethProbeISWC.pdf

National Taiwan University researchers have created a tooth-based sensor, accelerometer, and associated machine learning software to detect and distinguish between chewing, smoking, coughing, or speaking.  The capability to monitor mouth motions may help physicians keep track of patient progress or allow a patient to better understand his/her health habits.  Working prototypes of the tooth sensor used wires to connect to a power source and a data-logging device.  Inventor Hao-hua Chu and colleagues envision the tooth sensor eventually being powered by a micro-battery and transmitting data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a smartphone. They also hope to embed the device inside artificial teeth that can be easily removed and customized for each individual.

It likely that the same technology could be used to monitor infection level in wound healing in the form of an adhesive sensor.

Categories
AI BCI Brain

Neuromorphic chip mimics human brain in real time

http://www.mediadesk.uzh.ch/articles/2013/chips-die-das-gehirn-imitieren_en.html

University of Zurich and ETH Zurich scientists have created a two by two millimeter microchip with 11,011 electrodes that mimics the brain’s processing power.   The brain-like microchips are not sentient beings, but can carry out complex sensorimoter tasks in real time.  Previous brain-like computer systems have been slower and larger.  This system, developed by Professor Giacomo Indiveri, is comparable to an actual brain in both speed and size.

Categories
Apps Crowdfunding mHealth Monitoring Sensors

uChek crowdfunds smartphone urine analysis system

http://uchek.in

Biosense’s uChek is crowdfunding its urine analysis system.  It is a free app for iPhone users that can interpret color changes on urine analysis test strips with a smartphone camera. uChek can be used for semi-quantitative and qualitative detection of leukocytes, ketone, nitrite, urobilinogen, bilirubin, protein, specific gravity and pH. Test results may provide information regarding the status of carbohydrate metabolism, kidney and liver function, acidbase balance and bacteriuria.

Categories
Sensors

Non-invasive muscle oxygen saturation and pH monitor

http://www.reflectancemedical.com/Products.html

Reflectance Medical has received FDA clearance a non-invasive device that provides real-time measurement of hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SmO2) and pH (pHm) within muscle below the sensor.  Currently, acidosis is assessed with repeated blood sampling and laboratory analysis to determine pH. Mobile CareGuide 3100 is expected to reduce serial blood sampling and provide clinicians with real-time pHm measurements, to help promptly reverse acidosis

Categories
Sensors Wearables

Berkeley researchers develop touch responsive “e-skin”

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013/07/21/first-interactive-e-skin-built-on-plastic/

Berkeley professor Ali Javey has developed a user-interactive sensor network on flexible plastic. The “e-skin” lights in response to touch, emitting a brighter light as pressure intensifies.  Javey’s lab is now engineering the sensor to also respond to temperature and light.

Categories
Wearables

Apple developing health focused iWatch

http://9to5mac.com/2013/07/18/apple-stacks-iwatch-team-with-sensor-fitness-experts/

As they prepare to enter the Wearable Technology market, Apple is hiring hardware and software engineers and medical sensor and fitness experts to build a “fitness-oriented, sensor-laden wearable computer.”

**Above photo based on rumors only

Categories
Wearables

Crowdfunded Google Glass competitor promises “cheaper, sexier” wearable computing

http://www.glassup.net

As the explosive growth of Wearable Technology continues, GlassUp of Italy is crowdfunding their “cheaper, sexier” competitor to Google Glass.

Francesco Giartosio, GlassUps’ chief executive, highlights differences between how Google Glass and GlassUp will display data.  Instead of projecting information onto the edge of the glass from an offset projector, GlassUp will use a dedicated lens embedded in the glass itself.  That will allows GlassUp to overlay monochromatic text directly “ahead” of the user’s eye, which Giartosio said was more ergonomic. GlassUp’s display has a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels.

Categories
fitness Monitoring Sensors

Biosensor tattoo monitors physical exertion

http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1353

Temporary tattoos are emerging as a preferred way to monitor health.  Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a sensor that monitors chemicals in the wearer’s sweat to gauge physical exertion. The temporary electrochemical tattoo relies on a carbon fiber backbone so that it bends with the skin during normal activity without loss of functionality, and a conductive polymer that is sensitive to pH-levels in sweat. The sensor is screen-printed onto the flexible adhesive. The tattoo is noninvasive and the results are immediate.

Categories
Brain EEG Monitoring

FDA approves EEG-based device to diagnose ADHD

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm360811.htm

US regulators have approved a device that analyzes brain activity to help confirm a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children ages 6-17.  It records different kinds of electrical impulses given off by neurons in the brain and the frequency the impulses are given off each second.

The EEG based, Neuropsychiatric EEG-Based Assessment Aid test is noninvasive, takes 20 minutes, and is designed to measure theta and beta brain waves via sensors attached to the child’s head.  Both brain frequencies are at higher levels in children and teens with ADHD

Categories
BCI Brain

Computer model of the brain simulates daydreams

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/33/27/11239.abstract?sid=f2eef2ee-cad7-4d63-b90a-ac6566847078

Washington University researchers have created a computer model to help scientists learn how the brain’s anatomical structure contributes to the creation and maintenance of resting state networks.   They hope that the model will help them understand why certain portions of the brain work together when a person daydreams or is mentally idle, helping doctors better diagnose and treat brain injuries.

“We can give our model lesions like those we see in stroke or brain cancer, disabling groups of virtual cells to see how brain function is affected,” said Professor Maurizio Corbetta.  “We can also test ways to push the patterns of activity back to normal.”

Based on data from brain scans, researchers assembled 66 cognitive units in each hemisphere, and interconnected them in anatomical patterns similar to the connections present in the brain.  Individual units went through the signaling process at random low frequencies that had previously been observed in brain cells in culture and in recordings of resting brain activity.  The researchers let the model run, slowly changing the coupling, or the strength of the connections between units.   At a specific coupling value, the interconnections between units sending impulses soon began to create coordinated patterns of activity.

“Even though we started the cognitive units with random low activity levels, the connections allowed the units to synchronize,” said Professor Gustavo Deco of Universitat Pompeu Fabra. “The spatial pattern of synchronization that we eventually observed approximates very well—about 70 percent—to the patterns we see in scans of resting human brains.”

Categories
Apps Heart mHealth Sensors

Stethoscope add-on improves patient assessment and diagnosis

http://rijuven.com/cardiosleeve.html

CardioSleeve, when attached to a stethoscope, records, displays and analyzes electrical and acoustical footprints of the heart in real time via any wirelessly connected portable device.    The data can be stored in the cloud or uploaded into an EHR.