Health Technologies: fitness

Showing posts with label fitness. Show all posts

Monday, November 26, 2012

Close your eyes and tap your heels

How can you tell an extroverted engineer? When he talks to you, he looks at your shoes instead of his own. And now there is a good reason to do it - as new "No place like home" GPS shoes will be pointing to where the person is going. And displaying the progress bar - marking the beginning of the journey with one red light and indicating successful arrival to the place of destination with a green light on the top of the right toes. A red light on the other shoe will display the correct direction to walk, illuminating on the circle of LEDs like an arrow of the compass. How will the shoes know where to go? By consulting the map uploaded via USB and its own GPS receivers, wirelessly communicating with each other. For future models, you could probably set up WiFi to let your shoes download more information, talk with other people's shoes and modify your route on the go.

So your footware might need its own network access, like agent Maxwell Smart's left shoe with a mobile subscription plan.

The "No place like home" shoes are built around two microcontrollers called Arduinos: A magnet in the right shoe and sensor in the left shoe communicate with each other and with the GPS antenna in the red tag at the back. Clicking the heels starts the GPS. So all you need to do is to close your eyes and tap your heels together. And there will be no need to follow the yellow brick road or say the magic words.

The smart shoes - designed by artist Dominic Wilcox and custom-made by Stamp Shoes might be a bit costly: £1,100 (about $1,750). A bit less sophisticated Aetrex Navistar GPS shoes developed for sufferers of Altzheimer's disease and dementia cost $299.99, and come with two monthly subscription plans - a basic 30 minute tracking plan, which reports every 30 minutes ($34.99) and for an additional $5 per month a premier 10 minute tracking plan. Nike was offering their own GPS footware too, for fitness enthusiasts, but decided that it's cheaper to use iPhone's location sensor to figure distance and serve as a pedometer.

Yet, sensors in high-tech shoes could be helpful. For example, they could detect if their owner is tired or exhausted. Fatigue Monitoring System (FAMOS, recently developed and tested in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and healthy individuals) continuously measures motions of feet, in addition to electrocardiogram, body-skin temperature and electromyogram. And the system can reliably distinguish the symptoms of fatigue. The shoe sensors could provide a wealth of information about motion and assess such things as the risk of falling. And this information can be combined with data collected through other channels. Aurametrix, for example, can determine how food, air quality, the weather and various activities affect energy levels and generate suggestions on what to do - at the right time and right place. Systems like Aurametrix could eventually integrate our observations with data coming from smart objects such as shoes and heart monitors, to speed up not only walking but also the understanding of the human body, for a healthier world.

PUBLICATIONS

Yu F, Bilberg A, Stenager E, Rabotti C, Zhang B, & Mischi M (2012). A wireless body measurement system to study fatigue in multiple sclerosis. Physiological measurement, 33 (12), 2033-2048 PMID: 23151461

Marschollek, M., Rehwald, A., Wolf, K., Gietzelt, M., Nemitz, G., zu Schwabedissen, H., & Schulze, M. (2011). Sensors vs. experts - A performance comparison of sensor-based fall risk assessment vs. conventional assessment in a sample of geriatric patients BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 11 (1) DOI: 10.1186/1472-6947-11-48

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Devices To Keep you Healthy

An armband device that can be worn all day - during workouts, at the office and at home - will calculate all calories you burn. You can connect it to a computer to tabulate your calorie intake versus what you're burning

off. The Exerspy interactive system will pump up your workouts, and could make you healthy - but only if you make healthy choices by yourself.

Another gadget from Philips, DirectLife, will track calories you burn and display your daily progress by green lights - each one makes you 15% closer to your daily 100% activity target. Your overall progress can be monitored on your PC, daily or hourly - after you upload data from Activity Monitor to your PC. Exercise could be fun. Ubisoft's Just Dance game for Wii teaches you dance moves, lets you to compete with up to four players and have a dance party. It monitors your arm

movements increasing your heart rate. The miCoach not only measures your hou eart rate, but gives you real time audio coaching and asks to speed up when you start slacking off. Using a small foot pod you tie into your sneaker, it tracks your speed and distance too, letting to manage the numbers on the Adidas website. You could also keep track of your mileage with the a solar powered odometere, if you like. Another device - Sensewear, an arm band from Bodymedia, enables automated monitoring of calories burned, dietary intake, duration of physical activity and sleep. A USB port allows the patient to periodically upload data from the armband to a website loaded with charts, graphs, and other data that allows both patient and physician to make informed decisions. Device by Toumaz, called Sensium, provides ultra low power monitoring of ECG, temperature, blood glucose and oxygen levels. It can also interface to 3 axis accelerometers, pressure sensors and includes a temp

erature sensor on chip. Sensium Life Pebble streams the data using a wireless datalink over a short range ( ~5m) to a Sensium USB adapter or data logger. Mio Watch (left) measures your heart rate, while other "smart" watches such as Garmin can wirelessly communicate with your scales and body composition monitor. Withing Wifi Scale will even automatically update your weight on Twitter, sending your stats to your computer and your iPhone. A personal calorie management device called Bodybugg measures calorie expenditure. Another pocket-sized piece of technology - Fitbit (also called a pedometer on steroids) - promises to tell you the number of calories burned, steps taken, miles walked, and quality of sleep in addition to the intensity of exercise you’ve had all day.
It also records and stores detailed daily dat

a for a week and summarized daily data for a month. Using the same 3D motion sensing technology as the Nintendo Wii, the creators of the Fitbit hope to turn everyday activities into a fitness game. The gadget uploads your activity stats, including calories burned, wirelessly to the web. You can wear it in your pocket, clipped to your pants, bra or your wrist.

Can it be any easier? Sure, it can. PhiloMetron is creating a bandage-sized smart patch that will also do the usual counting of calories. Besides, at the end of the day it could tell you what to do to make the next day even more successful. It also suggests taking a quick walk when it’s needed, to help things on their way. The patch sends all information collected during the day to your cell phone, by a Bluetooth connection.
Of course, not everyone can make the best food choices. It’d be far easier for most people if you ha d a diet itian to follow you around and tell you what to do. It's such a hassle to have to manually en ter every food... One of possibl e solution is is to use FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.

Device by Toumaz, called Sensium, provides ultra low power monitoring of ECG, temperature, blood glucose and oxygen levels. It can also interface to 3 axis accelerometers, pressure sensors and includes a temperature sensor on chip. Sensium Life Pebble streams the data using a wireless datalink over a short range ( ~5m) to a Sensium USB adapter or data logger. Cardionet system monitors every heartbeat during normal daily activities, for up to 21 days, and detects, records, and transmits event data automatically to the prescribing physician via wireless phone. In a not so far away future, many other bodily functions and environmental influences will be monitored 24x7 - examples are the daily fluctuations in hormone levels and medications taken - proteus_intestible_sensors Proteus ingestible event markers (IEMs, shown on the right) could send ultra-low-power digital signals through the body to a microelectronic receiver that may look like a small bandage style skin patch. The receiver date- and time-stamps, decodes, and records information such as the type of drug, the dose, and the place of manufacturing.

Of course, it's not just food, medications and calories. There is more to health than

measurements of outcomes. Device shown on the right uses ultrasonic sensors to detect how close you are to the screen and remind you to sit up straight - by showing flashing LED lights or chime once when you’re leaning too close to your monitor. To keep it running just plug it into your USB port. You can purchase it for $21.99 from Sourcing Map. (See also PC Gadgets, USB Gadgets, iPosture, UberGizmo; USB Posture Alert Reminder).
You can wear another gudget (shown on the top left) around your neck, and when you start to slouch, it’ll correct you with an audible alarm. Designed in Japan, it sells for $8.43 by DealExtreme.

But what about viruses, bacteria, fungi infections and nasty little mosquitos? Some startups are working on that too. We will only mention the simplest device already on the market - a $5 USB Ultrasonic Mosquito Pest Repeller.
This little device could eliminate the use of pesticides and other harmful bug sprays, although it is still unclear if it actually works.
And what about accidents? What if you can't keep you hands off your cell phone while driving? Driving while distracted (DWD) due to texting would make accidents 23 times more likely, while talking on a cell phone while driving, even hands-free, makes drivers as likely to cause a crash as someone considered legally drunk. A new blocking device can help you to avoid accidents. CellControl plugs into the car computer terminals, links to cell phones via Bluetooth and a downloadable application. When the vehicle is in motion (more than 1mph), the device blocks all incoming and outgoing calls, plus texts and e-mails. You can still call emergency numbers though. Passenger cell phones are not affected.

Aurametrix is developing decision support systems and noninvasive personal monitoring devices to help you evaluate health risks, decide on preventative measures, estimate cost/benefits of performing diagnostic tests. Better tools for a healthier world.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Health & Sports Gadgets for Summer

by Aurametrix

It's the last month of summer, you can still enjoy tons of sun, water and other activities and make the most out of it without compromising your health.

Even if you generously applied SPF 50+ sunscreen, you still might need a backup to prevent overexposure to the sun. Personal UV Monitor with Exposure Timer by Oregon Scientific (UV888A) monitors the current UV index and temperature, and calculates your recommended exposure time based on UV, SPF and your personal skin type. The Minox Suntimer also monitors UV rays and sounds an alarm when it thinks you’ve had enough. It may be used as a calculator of the amount of ultraviolet radiation in the sunlight, watch, stop watch and alarm. New Zealand's Scienterra is manufacturing a similar device based on the idea by Dr Martin Allen. Their badge-sized UV "dosimeter" can measure level of the sun's burning rays every few seconds. Data can be transferred to a PC via standard USB ports, but the transmission will eventually be wireless. Data analysis will let measur vitamin D production.

Whether you're boating, scuba diving or hiking, GPS navigators may be handy. Many of vailable products (such as Garmin Geko) record barometric pressure too so you can get up to date weather conditions. You can monitor weather with your iPhone and use other outdoor, health and fitness applications, such as iMapMyRide, iTrailMap, GearCalculator, iPhodometer

or iPhit Fitness Tracking.
A fully automatic lap and stroke counter for swimmers, Pool-Mate by S wimovate will display Lap count, Time, Average Strokes per lap, Speed, Distance, Calories and Efficiency, all completely automatically and store details in a large memory for recall at your leisure. It will record up to 99 individual sets per session so you can see how your data changes through a swim. Containing accurate motion sensors and Swimovate software algorithms, it will work with all

major strokes, all abilities of swimmer and all sizes of pool.

Another gadget, SportsCount ring keeps track of your time and how many laps you have completed. And if you prefer walking to swimming, just put this 3mm-thin device by Sportline into your wallet and let it count the distance and calories burnt as you walk so that you can keep track of your work outs.

Skullcandy has a hydration pack that has more than just hydration in mi

nd. The Hydration Backpack has the capability to keep you hydrated and refreshed - but it also syncs with your MP3 player or cell phone, control the on/off, track forward/back, and volume functions of any iPod.
If you are a biker, try the Racebak is a 72 ounce hydration pack that is sewn into a wearable jersey.
And for those who is not into sports, ride this Cruzin Cooler to keep hydrated.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Favorite Exercise Polls & Discussions

Most people exercise by walking or running or use gym machines, bodybuilders favor deads & squats, the rest of us try to do a little while on vacation.