Open source health gadgets

Sports Watch
How would you like to have a 3-axis accelerometer, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, RF wireless, and an LCD screen in a development package? You can actually have it - as a wristwatch offered by Texas Instruments. for just $49.
The package includes a USB programming and emulation dongle so that you can develop your own firmware. It uses Texas Instrument’s SimpliciTI and BM Innovations’ Blue Robin RF protocols that enable developers to establish wireless links right out of the box. The firmware transforms it into a sports watch with heart rate monitor, it is written for Windows but could be adopted for other platforms too.
First hackers that got hold of the package used it to wirelessly unlock doors with the buttons and accelerometer. You could utilize other functionalities as well, and jog around while configuring your Linux.

Peripheral nerve stimulator

The jfish peripheral nerve stimulator is a device used in anesthesia or intensive care to assess the degree of neuromuscular blockade (normal communication between motor nerves and skeletal muscle can be blocked by a drug). The device can detect both the magnitude and type of neuromuscular blockade. Itis developed by Daniel Jolley, a doctor and anaesthetic registrar, at The Austin Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. His device uses Texas Instruments' MSP430 line of microcontrollers - ultra-low power 16-bit RISC mixed-signal computers-on-a-chip. Check the document ‘The science and use of the peripheral nerve stimulator‘ for how to use the stimulator.

OpenECG
Open source hardware and software solution for electrocardiography was presented at the
34th Annual Conference of the International Society for Computerized Electrocardiology
The device is battery powered, it can also use an isolation transformer plus defib protection in front of the op-amps on the front-end.

OpenEEGMany EEG-based gadgets - like Zeo personal sleep coach - are in the market. OpenEEGproject can assist your brain-computer interface, bi-directional serial communication or neurofeedback experiments. The modularEEG is currently the most popular of all the designs Check online documentation for more. Then, go to the SourceForge page and download the ModularEEG project zip-file. You will find schematics, board layouts and parts lists that can be ordered from various distributors.

What a paradise for Hackers - they can design gadgets and let other people manufacture them. The open source hardware companies are predicted to be making over one billion in revenues by 2015. Most of them are offering educational electronics, but some of the packages could be utilized for health gadget development. See this talk presented at O'Reilly's foo camp east 2010.

Open source hardware $1m and beyond - foo camp east 2010 from adafruit industries on Vimeo.

Aurametrix is working on low-cost personal diagnostic devices to improve individual health

Telemedicine 2.0, part 1

by Aurametrix

The term telemedicine was coined in the 1970s by Thomas Bird. The origins of this technology date back to smoke signals in ancient times. Earliest electroni devices included STARPAHC - a van staffed by two paramedics with a variety of medical instruments including electrocardiograph and x-ray. ATS-1, the first Applied Technology Satellite was in use in 1971-1975 to provide rural health care in Alaska. Minimal television system for remote diagnosis was developed in early 70s. Applications of telemedicine in early 2000s included remote consultation and diagnosis, specialty clinical care (anesthesia, dermatology, dentistry, cardiology, psychiatry, radiology, critical care, oncology, etc), patient education, home monitoring, and continuing education.
The health care cost is rising each year, it's already 16%-17% of the GDP. Wide utilization of wireless communications can reduce the health care cost by billions of dollars on an annual basis. Here are some examples of new developments.
Cisco HealthPresence combines state-of-the-art video, audio, and medical information to create an environment similar to what most people experience when they visit their doctor or health specialist. First Cisco HealthPresence booth was installed in January 2008.

Another California company, CardioNet provides the next-generation ambulatory cardiac monitoring service with beat-to-beat, real time analysis, automatic arrhythmia detection and wireless ECG transmission.

A startup in Redwood city, CA, works on
ingestible technology: microchip-enabled medications that provide patients with valuable information to customize their therapy. Proteus’s implantable ChipSkin™ technology adds tiny active electronics to devices that use electrical energy to deliver therapy inside the body. Similar technologies are being proposed (like a medication reminder watch by a UCLA student and the MedTracker device) or developed.

If you experience unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, anemia or GERD, you may be tested by capsule endoscopy with PillCam® family of products from Given Imaging. Vitamin-sized capsules with miniature video cameras inside will send pictures of your GI tract to a computer for your doctor to review. For GERD diagnosis, BRAVO pH monitoring system could be most useful.
Swallowable devices such Radio pill tocan monitor players temperature . Researchers are planning larger volunteer testing events this year.

This gadget is displaying your identification card, if you need it, , but is also a Bluetooth headset device and has the features of other wireless headsets. With up to 40 hours of talk time on a full charge, the Smart Badge by Iqua is easy to carry and use, is stylish and smart. Its standby time is up to 600 hours, it vibrates to alert incoming calls silently during meetings and allows 3-way conference calls.
It also has LED lights displaying Bluetooth connection, call status, and low battery indication. With supporting cell phones, this badge also allows for voice activated dialing. For full features and specification, you may find the Pdf of the product brochure here.

To be continued.

Aurametrix is working on tools to help you evaluate your personal health risks and benefits and make the right choices.