Smart Wristband with Wireless Link to Smartphones Could Monitor Health, Environmental Exposures
August 7, 2018 | Rutgers UniversityEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Rutgers University–New Brunswick engineers have created a smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones that will enable a new wave of personal health and environmental monitoring devices.
“It's like a Fitbit but has a biosensor that can count particles, so that includes blood cells, bacteria and organic or inorganic particles in the air,” said Mehdi Javanmard, senior author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering.
“Current wearables can measure only a handful of physical parameters such as heart rate and exercise activity,” said Abbas Furniturewalla, study lead author and former undergraduate researcher in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The ability for a wearable device to monitor the counts of different cells in our bloodstream would take personal health monitoring to the next level.”
The plastic wristband includes a flexible circuit board and a biosensor with a channel, or pipe, thinner than the diameter of a human hair with gold electrodes embedded inside. It has a circuit to process electrical signals, a micro-controller for digitizing data and a Bluetooth module to transmit data wirelessly. Blood samples are obtained through pinpricks, with the blood fed through the channel and blood cells counted. The data are sent wirelessly to an Android smartphone with an app that processes and displays data, and the technology can also work in iPhones or any other smartphone.
In the field, offices and hospitals, health professionals could get rapid blood test results from patients, without the need for expensive, bulky lab-based equipment. Blood cell counts can be used to diagnose illness; low red blood cell counts, for instance, can be indicative of internal bleeding and other conditions.
“There’s a whole range of diseases where blood cell counts are very important,” Javanmard said. “Abnormally high or low white blood cell counts are indicators of certain cancers like leukemia, for example.”
Next-generation wristbands could be used in a variety of biomedical and environmental applications, he said. Patients would be able to continuously monitor their health and send results to physicians remotely.
“This would be really important for settings with lots of air pollutants and people want to measure the amount of tiny particles or dust they’re exposed to day in and day out,” Javanmard said. “Miners, for example, could sample the environment they’re in.”
Suggested Items
Inmarsat Launches NexusWave: A Game-Changing ‘Bonded’ Network Service For Maritime Communications
05/20/2024 | InmarsatInmarsat Maritime, a Viasat company, has launched NexusWave, a fully managed connectivity service underpinned by a ‘bonded’ multi-dimensional network, offering high-speed connectivity, unlimited data, global coverage, and ‘secure by design’ infrastructure.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Automation in North American PCB Shops
05/17/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOBenmayor Group has entered the North American market's automation landscape with their Technosystem division. In this interview, Eduardo Benmayor highlights this underinvestment and current efforts to catch up and address challenges related to strategic planning. Eduardo shares Technosystem's automation journey, from simple equipment to robotic arms, stressing the importance of machine communication and data analysis. He also offers advice on implementing automation in older facilities.
Using AI to Redefine Productivity
05/15/2024 | Nolan Johnson, SMT007 MagazinePlato Systems, a machine perception company spun out of Stanford University, employs AI and video data to analyze and optimize the human component in manufacturing. Initially focused on semiconductors, Plato Systems has expanded into EMS manufacturing. Co-founder and CEO Amin Arbabian, along with product advisor Anders Holden and head of growth Luis Vidal, discuss their approach to changeover optimization and its impact on productivity in the industry. They’ve also included customer Raj Vora in the conversation.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Manufacturing Intelligence from the Factory Floor
05/15/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPONolan Johnson and Ranjan Chatterjee, Vice President of Smart Factory Business Units at PDF Solutions, discuss the background of Cimetrix and PDF Solutions. They explore the analytics tools provided by PDF Solutions, the merging of semiconductor and electronics manufacturing, and data handling in these industries. They also discuss different product lines, standards, packaging technologies, data usage, and integration with ERP systems
Nolan’s Notes: Coming to Terms With AI
05/07/2024 | Nolan Johnson -- Column: Nolan's NotesHow fast do things move in the world of data analytics? Here’s an example. We’ve been planning this issue on artificial intelligence for the past few months, and, in fact, I had already written this column about a month ago. Then I went to IPC APEX EXPO and upended it all. I originally had compared AI to drag racing in that (CPU) horsepower and new (data) vehicles have steadily delivered higher performance competition. That seemed pretty accurate given how generative AI models dominated the popular media with amazing results—and sometimes spectacular crashes.