Category: Wearables

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BCI Brain Monitoring Seniors Sensors Wearables

Facial expression controlled ear computer/health monitor

AFP | Japan Times

Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Hiroshima City University has developed a 17 gram “Earclip-type Wearable PC”  equipped with a GPS, compass, gyrosensor, battery, barometer, speaker and microphone.  A microchip and data storage enable users to load software.   The device is being tested now, with promising applications for the elderly and disabled.

The system can be connected to a smartphone and allow the user to navigate through software programs using facial expressions, such as a raised eyebrow, a stuck-out tongue, a wiggle of the nose or by clenching teeth.

The device uses infrared sensors that monitor tiny movements in the ear, which differ depending on how the eyes and mouth move. Because the user does not have to move either hand, its developers say it can serve as “a third hand” caregivers, rock-climbers, motorcyclists, astronauts, and people with disabilities.

The earpiece could also function as a hearing aid,  and could monitor the wearer’s health, including pulse and body temperature, while logging how often they eat and sneeze.  An accelerometer could tell when the user falls and instruct the smartphone to notify relatives, or call an ambulance based on GPS data.

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BCI Eyes Wearables

Lumus/EyeSight partnership to rival Google Glass

In an effort to compete with Google Glass, gesture control company EyeSight Mobile has partnered with smart glass company Lumus. The combination allows one to browse Facebook, play games, or control navigation instructions shown in a head-up display by holding out a finger to tap on icons or swipe away notifications.  EyeSight plans to add the ability to drag items around the display.

The Lumus glasses mount a transparent 640×480 display onto the lens of the battery-powered, head-tracking glasses.  The wearer can see information overlaid on top, and the glasses change what’s shown according to the wearer’s orientation.  The glasses have a camera, an OMAP 4 processor, and Android 4.1.2, to run EyeSight’s gesture recognition software, which recognizes fingers and hands even against a cluttered or moving backdrop.

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Eyes Sensors Wearables

Smart contact lens with potential to monitor intraocular pressure

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140107/ncomms3982/full/ncomms3982.html

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology scientists have developed a light, flexible, ultra-thin membrane with the potential to detect intraocular pressure in glaucoma.  Researchers claim that the technology “could offer significant advantages over existing solutions in terms of thickness, lightness, and transparency and, hence, comfort for the patient.”

The device consists of layered polymer films, one of which is a semiconductor. Gauge sensors monitor intraocular pressure in response to strain, which detects the high eye pressure typical of glaucoma.  In trials, the scientists transferred the material onto plastic contact lenses on an artificial eye.

The researchers must overcome technical obstacles before their solution is commercially viable. The method of attaching electronics to the contact lens must be optimized to include effects of the aqueous ocular environment.  Additionally, in the lab, the required energy is provided from an external source.  A different solution would be needed for a unit attached to a human eye.

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Wearables

Smart glasses see veins beneath skin

http://evenamed.com/products/glasses

Eyes-On smart glasses allow healthcare providers to see the vasculature beneath a patients skin, simplifying intravenous placement.  Veins are seen by the the device’s capture of multi-spectral lighting through two stereoscopic cameras which highlight deoxygenated hemoglobin.  The cameras can transmit the images wirelessly, store photo and video documentation of a procedure, and connect to a hospital electronic medical record system.  Built-in speakers allow video conferencing during procedures.

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Assistive Technologies BCI Sensors Wearables

Tongue based magnetic field controls wheelchair

http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/213/213ra166

Maysam Ghovanloo of Georgia Tech and Anne Laumann of Northwestern have developed a tongue piercing based magnet to operate a wheelchair.

The device is a small magnetic barbell which creates a magnetic field in the mouth. When users flick their tongues, it alters that field. The change is picked up by four small sensors on a headset with twin extensions curving around the cheeks, and relayed wirelessly to a smartphone, computer or iPod. The software translates the signals and sends them to a powered wheelchair or computer.

The system was tested on 11 tetraplegia patients from rehabilitation centers in Chicago and Atlanta and 23 able volunteers who already wore tongue jewelry.

After 30 minutes of training, everyone was able to move a computer cursor, clicking on targets on a laptop screen, playing video games and dialing phone numbers. Accuracy and speed improved with practice, even though subjects used the system only one day a week. After six weeks the tetraplegics were, on average, three times faster with the tongue system than with sip-and-puff, which six of the 11 had been using. It was equally accurate.

Using only tongue movements, the volunteers also navigated a powered wheelchair through a 50-meter-long course with 13 turns, 24 obstacles and occasional alarms signaling “Stop! Emergency!” Here, too, on average the 11 tetraplegics drove the course three times faster with the tongue system than with sip-and-puff, and just as accurately.

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mHealth Monitoring Sensors Wearables

Sony’s “SmartWig” can monitor and transmit health data

US Patent Office

Sony has submitted a patent application for a health monitoring “SmartWig.”  It can include a GPS and camera placed near the forehead. Users can receive vibrating feedback on specific parts of their head.  A laser pointer and remote can be controlled by the head’s movement. An ultrasound transducer could transmit or receive ultrasound waves to detect surrounding objects, warning users if there are obstacles behind or above their heads.  A circuit board in the hair can talk to a second device wirelessly — such as a phone or pair of smartglasses.

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Assistive Technologies Eyes Heart Stroke Wearables

NIH funds robots for the vision impaired, stroke patients, doctors performing catheter ablation

http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/nibib-23.htm

Three projects have been awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health.  All involve robots that cooperate with people and adapt to changing environments to improve human capabilities and enhance medical procedures.

  • A co-robotic navigation device for the blind: Cang Ye at University of Arkansas is incorporating 3D imaging sensor technology into the white cane. This enables it to detect and relay to the user critical information about the environment, like when there’s a potential obstacle in the way.  In related research, Professor Amnon Shashua at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, through his company OrCam, uses Artificial Vision to compensate for lost visual abilities, and Professor Amir Amedi at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is also developing cutting edge technology to help the vision impaired. His projects include reading in the blind, sensory substitution devices, multisensory perception, topographic brain, and seeing with music and sound.
  • MRI-guided co-robotic catheter: During traditional catheter ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation, one of the most common arrhythmias, a catheter with an electrode on its tip is threaded through a vein in a patient’s groin up to the heart. Doctors destroy tissue at certain points on the heart in order to prevent the occurrence of irregular heart activity. The constant movement of the heart and blood can make that process difficult. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University are developing a catheter that uses robotic planning strategies to compensate for those movements to increase accuracy of procedures in conjunction with MRI.
  • Platform for exploration of robotic ankle exoskeleton control: Researchers at North Carolina State and Carnegie Mellon are developing a method to compare different wearable devices to assist people recovering from stroke.
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fitness mHealth Monitoring Sensors Wearables

Printable, multi-touch sensors consumers can cut with scissors

http://embodied.mpi-inf.mpg.de/files/2012/11/ACuttableMultiTouchSensor.pdf

Max Planck Institute researchers and the MIT Media Lab have developed printable, multi-touch sensors that are printed with e-ink and can be cut with scissors.  A new circuit layout makes it robust against cuts, damage, and removed areas.  By customizing and pasting such a sensor, one can make every surface interactive, including the wristband of a watch, a fabric or an object.  This implies many digital health and fitness applications.

The scientists use “printed electronics” – electrical components and devices which are printed. The approach is similar to that of inkjet printers. Instead of printing with normal ink, electrically-functional electronic ink is printed on flexible, thin films called substrates.

In the circuit layout, the wires run horizontally, vertically, and parallel to each other. At the intersection of one parallel and one horizontal layer are the touch-sensitive electrodes. Via the wires they are connected to a controller. This type of layout requires only a minimal number of wires, but is not robust. Since each wire addresses several electrodes, a small cut has a huge effect: many electrodes become unusable and possibly large sensor areas do not work anymore. “It was not easy to find an alternative layout, robust enough for our approach” said lead developer Simon Olberding. They took their inspiration from nature, looking at the human nerve system and fungal root networks, and thus came up with two basic layouts. The “star topology” has the controller in the center. It is connected to every electrode separately. The “tree topology” also has the controller in its center connected to each electrode separately. But the wires are bundled similarly to a tree structure. They all run through a vertical line in the middle and then branch off to reach their electrodes.

The scientists found out that the star topology supports  basic forms like triangles, rectangles, or ovals best. It is suited for shapes commonly used for crafts, like stars, clouds, or hearts. In contrast, with the tree topology it is possible to cut out whole areas. The researchers were also able to combine both layouts in a space-saving way, so that the sensor supports all basic forms.
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Eyes Wearables

Transparent artificial muscle plays music, demonstrating capabilities of ionic conductors

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6149/984.full

Harvard researchers have demonstrated that electrical charges carried by ions, rather than electrons, can be put to meaningful use in fast-moving, high-voltage devices.

These ionic conductors can be stretched to many times their normal area without an increase in resistivity—a problem common in stretchable electronic devices. They can be transparent, making them well suited for optical applications. The gels used as electrolytes are biocompatible, therefore easy to incorporate ionic devices—such as artificial muscles or skin—into biological systems.

Signals carried by charged ions are the electricity of the human body, allowing neurons to share knowledge and spurring the heart to beat. It is the goal of bioengineers to mesh artificial organs and limbs with that system.  Harvard is trying to commercialize the technology for use in tablets, smartphones, wearable electronics, consumer audio devices, and adaptive optics.

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Assistive Technologies BCI Brain Conference Seniors Wearables

Data glasses controlled by eye movement — an alternative to brain machine interface

http://www.domain-b.com/technology/20130912_movements.html

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed bidirectional OLED microdisplay eye-controlled data glasses.  Users can view the real world while browsing a large amount of virtual information and turn pages with their eyes.

Integrated camera sensors register the direction of the wearer’s eye movements and an image processing program calculates the exact position of their pupils in real time.  An infrared light source in the glass frame produces accurate positioning results even in low light.

The glasses can enable elderly and disabled people to attract attention in emergencies using nothing but their eyes – or simply provide a way to change the TV channel using specific eye movements.

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Heart Sensors Wearables

ECG wristband sensors use your heartbeat as your password

http://www.getnymi.com

The Nymi wristband confirms a user’s identity via electrocardiogram sensors that monitor the heartbeat and can authenticate a range of devices, from iPads to cars. Developers at Bionym, the Toronto-based company that makes the device, say the peeks and valleys of an individual’s heartbeat are harder to imitate than the external features of biometric systems, like fingerprints or facial recognition.  Bionym describes the process:

“When you clasp the Nymi around your wrist it powers on. By placing a finger on the topside sensor while your wrist is in contact with the bottom sensor, you complete an electrical circuit. After you feel a vibration and see the LEDs illuminate, your Nymi knows you are you and your devices will too. You will stay authenticated until your Nymi is taken off.”

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fitness Heart mHealth Monitoring Wearables

Mayo Clinic studies step tracking data as a post-surgery monitoring tool

http://www.annalsthoracicsurgery.org/article/S0003-4975(13)01253-8/fulltext

Mayo Clinic has published a study using step recording from a  Fitbit activity tracker to monitor recovery in cardiac surgery patients and help hospitals determine the appropriate length of stay.  Those who had the shortest hospital stay walked the most on all days in the study, by a statistically significant margin. Likewise, patients bound for home walked more than those headed for a nursing facility.