Monitor Your Health 24x7 With the WIN Human Recorder 66
kkleiner writes "Japanese venture firm WIN Human Recorder Ltd is set to bring a health monitor patch to market that is capable of keeping tabs on all your vitals. The HRS-I is a small (30mm x 30mm x 5mm) lightweight (7g) device that adheres to your chest and relays the data it collects to a computer or mobile phone via wireless connection. While the HRS-I only directly monitors electrocardiograph information, body surface temperature, and movement (via accelerometers), it can connect to sensors for heart rate, brain waves, respiration and many other important health indicators. WIN is selling the HRS-I for around ¥30,000 (~$330) and providing monitoring software for around ¥10,000 (~$110)."
Of course it's Japanese (Score:5, Interesting)
The Japanese are probably the single most proactive nation in the world when it comes to the aging of population and proper care of the elderly, and this invention has some very obvious uses in this field. Coupled with a caretaker robot which would remind about medicines, schedule appointments with a doctor and call emergency services as appropriate, this device might actually improve the quality of life of some people considerably. Interestingly, such robots are already being tested in Japan, and they are also designed to relay local news, play logic- and memory-based games and engage in everyday chitchat with the people under their care to delay the onset of dementia and effects of boredom.
Re:Cheap Polysomnograph? (Score:3, Interesting)
There might be all sorts of interesting bio-feedback applications. I was involved with a similar project about ten years ago, and one of our more interesting sessions involved connecting a number of sensors (primarily muscle tension sensors tracking electrical differentials across the skin) to the face of a trombone player who had some nerve damage on one side of his face. He couldn't really feel the "bad" side of his face, but kept adjusting until the readings looked the same as the "good" side, enabling him to play his instrument with somewhat closer to the technique he'd had before his injury/illness.
Been there done that (Score:1, Interesting)
This was done 11 years ago but, due to the technology of the time, we used a device a little larger than a modern smart phone that recorded information. It plugged into a base station to transfer data over POTS. Once the base station connected to a medical facility over the telephone, information could be sent in real time from the device. It could do ECG, blood oximetry, heart rate, core body temperature and respiration. The base station could take blood pressure, oral temperature and weight. It all worked well.
Lawyers got involved and the system, along with the company, disappeared. Glad to see it back in a smaller wireless package -- even if it did take 11 years!
This is not the only project I've been involved with that was a decade or more ahead of it's time. I can't help but wonder how many wonderful things have been buried by litigation over the years.
Re:Of course it's Japanese (Score:1, Interesting)
I imagine an old stock trader with robots that take him to the bathroom, make his food, dials his calls, etc.
The trading software basically runs itself after 80 years of him training his AI.
One day he dies, but the robots don't know that he's dead so they keep shoveling food in his mouth and dumping him in the bathroom, while his software trades stocks and his robots take care of all of his calls.
Eventually they need more help cause his software does so well, and they create a corporation to make robots just like themselves.