Scientist-led conferences at Harvard, Stanford and MIT
-
Hormone sensor + cloud platform for women
Open Source Health, a cloud based women’s healthcare platform, has unveiled a device for self-measuring hormones using a drop of blood from one’s finger. Each single use bio-sensor chip performs up to 5 tests at home. Estrogens, progestogens and androgens can be measured. Future plans include the ability to measure thyroid hormones (TSH, T3 and T4)…
-
Light tracking wearable to prevent seasonal depression
As the shortest day of the year approaches, we all risk the impact of a lack of sun on our personal wellness. Bright light exposure has myriad mental health benefits, including improved mood, and enhanced digestion, energy and sleep. Studies show that light therapy is as effective as antidepressant medication, with additional benefits and no…
-
Portable, lens free, on chip microscope for 3-D imaging
UCLA professor Aydogan Ozcan has developed a lens-free microscope for high throughput 3-D tissue imaging to detect cancer or other cell level abnormalities. Laser or light-emitting-diodes illuminate a tissue or blood sample on a slide inserted into the device. A sensor array on a microchip captures and records the pattern of shadows created by the sample. The…
-
BCI enabled 10-D prosthetic arm control
Jennifer Collinger and University of Pittsburgh colleagues have enabled a prosthetic arm wearer to reach, grasp, and place a variety of objects with 10-D control for the first time. The trial participant had electrode grids with 96 contact points surgically implanted in her brain in 2012. This allowed 3-D control of her arm. Each electrode point picked up signals…
-
Optic technology to diagnose, monitor brain damage
Coherent hemodynamics spectroscopy (CHS), developed by Tufts professor Sergio Fantini, measures blood flow, blood volume, and oxygen consumption in the brain. The goal is to pinpoint and monitor, real time and non invasively, brain damage from stroke, traumatic injury, or vascular dementia. It can also be used to study how blood flow is regulated in the healthy…
-
Non-invasive, magnetic, deep tissue drug delivery
Current magnetic drug delivery therapies allow particles to be attracted to a magnet, but not concentrated toward points away from the magnet face. Clinical trials have concentrated on treatment to targets at or just below the skin surface. University of Maryland‘s Aleksandar Nacev and Benjamin Shapiro, with Weinberg Medical Physics, have developed a non-invasive dynamic inversion technique…
-
Less obtrusive sleep monitoring
Stevens Institute of Technology and Florida State University researchers have developed a sleep monitoring system using earbuds with an in-line microphone plugged into an iPhone. The microphone monitored study participants’ breathing to within half a breath per minute of what could be recorded with a chest-worn respiration monitor and collar clipped microphone. The novelty of…
-
Flexible, wearable, disposable pulse oximeter
Conventional pulse oximeters use LEDs to send red and infrared light through one’s fingertip or earlobe. Bright, oxygen-rich blood absorbs more infrared light, and darker, oxygen-poor blood absorbs more red light. The ratio of the two wavelengths, determined by sensors, reveals how much oxygen is in the blood. Berkeley professor Ana Clauda Arias has built pulse oximeter…
-
Body’s cold sensor could treat hypothermia, heart failure
A cold “sensor” that triggers the skin’s vascular response could treat frostbite, hypothermia, and vascular diseases, according to a study published by King’s College London. The research focuses on the role TRPA1 plays in the narrowing and widening of blood vessels to retain body heat. It could enable treatments that limit the effects of exposure…
-
Wearable optical sensor controls prosthetic limbs
Ifor Samuel and Ashu Bansal at the University of St. Andrews have developed a wearable optical sensor that can be used to control the movement of artificial limbs. Plastic semiconductor based sensors detect muscle contraction. Light is shined into fibrous muscle, and the scattering of the light is observed. When muscle is contracted, the light scatters…
-
Blood vessel aging sensor detects diabetes, arteriosclerosis early
Sharp‘s prototype “Blood Vessel Aging Degree Sensor” can detect diabetes, arteriosclerosis or other diseases at an early stage. The sensor quantifies the accumulation of advanced glycation end products (protein saccharified in blood vessels known to correlate with blood glucose level). AGEs are thought to cause several diseases including diabetes, dementia, cancers, high blood pressure, and arteriosclerosis.…
-
Smart sports equipment provides real-time feedback
Sports equipment with embedded sensors enable virtual coaching by analyzing performance and providing real-time feedback and training programs. A few examples follow: The Babolat Play Pure Drive tennis raquet calculates power, impact location, and type and number of strokes with a Piezo sensor in its handle. The sensor measures frame vibration and a microprocessor with…
Got any book recommendations?