The WakeMate, a sensor-laden wristband packaged with sleep analysis software, determines the optimal wake-up point in your REM cycle and adjusts your alarm for that moment. It also lets you say you really use your iPhone 24/7.

From the product page:
Problem: Traditional alarm clocks wake you at a random point in your sleep cycle, leaving you feeling groggy.
Solution: The WakeMate will analyze your sleep to find the optimal time for you to wake up. You will feel refreshed and energized every time you wake, even from naps!
Problem: After sleeping, you may still feel tired – you’re getting poor quality sleep without realizing why.
Solution: View a full analysis of your sleep on our Analytics Platform. You will receive personalized instructions on how to improve your sleep so you can have your best night’s sleep, every night.

Company: The WakeMate

Source: link

The Droid’s Sensors Blogclick to enter

New patent applications revealed this week show that Apple has investigated technology with advanced physiological sensors for measuring workout activity from inside the user’s ear canal.

Apple currently has a number of fitness-oriented features available in its iPod line, but the Cupertino, Calif., company’s latest patent describes an extremely advanced system using unique technology. Among a number of described methods for measuring exertion during physical exercise include sensing light that travels through the user’s earlobe to determine blood oxygen levels.

In one of the examples provided in, an earbud could include infrared photodetectors that would measure the user’s body temperature, heat flux and heart rate.

Read more: link

Clinical trials have begun of a smart plaster – a sensor-studded band aid that wirelessly monitors vital signs.

Once stuck to a patient’s chest, the band aid monitors heart rate, blood pressure and other health indicators.
Its creators hope it will eventually take over from the wired devices that limit a patient’s movement.
As well as monitoring standard vital signs, the gadget can be tuned to capture far more subtle indicators of a patient’s condition.
The trials will see how the disposable device performs in several different scenarios, said Dr Nick Oliver, a clinical research fellow at Imperial College’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, who is overseeing the trial.
Initial trials will test the integrity of the data being gathered and transmitted by the plaster to ensure it gives accurate readings of a patient’s condition. The basic device monitors temperature, heart rate and respiration.
The second series of trials will see it placed on patients who are recovering from minor illnesses and assess how it fares when the patient has a shower or an x-ray.

Dr Oliver said the wireless plaster could also allow patients to be monitored from afar as data could be piped beyond a bedside readout to a central location for immediate analysis.

In addition, Keith Errey, co-founder of Toumaz Technology which is developing Prof Toumazou’s idea, said the smart plaster could monitor far more than just basic vital signs.
He described the plaster as a “platform” that can be loaded with all kinds of sensors that can keep an eye on other bodily indicators, such as glucose levels, blood pressure in different parts of the body and other fleeting signs that show a patient is recovering or getting worse.
It could also be used as a location monitor so staff can keep an eye on the whereabouts of patients or those at risk of falls.
Professional sports stars were also interested in using the device, said Mr Errey, so they can fine tune their training regime.

Direct link: link

(sensors for mobile phones, not ordinary Health 2.0  web portals )

As the editor of two medical software blogs for iPhone and Android, I can notice that there are the low share of apps and the low profit in medical and healthcare categories because of poor quality of majority of the apps . Therefore at the present time there is almost nothing innovative there from the user’s or technological points of view, isn’t it?

As an analyst I can conclude that the electronic medical records sphere could not reach the end-consumer still . Now it is just creating the solutions for the b2b market which is for sure potentially less than the mass-market.

By the way it’s clear to all industry leaders that no one normal consumer will enter somewhere the big database of his illnesses on his own, write down all his steps (what he eats, what drugs he has taken, what and how long something hurts) daily, take on trust the information from the ordinary medical web-portal without confirmation of his personal doctor etc.

What will save all these billions of investments and elevate the Health 2.0 sphere on the fundamentally new level?

It’s simple – Only new products which are really necessary for usual consumer.

What does consumer want?
He just wants to receive every day the reliable personal instructions/advices concerning health without any own efforts .
Yes, yes!
Without the tiresome fillings of forms, documents, papers and so on.
Without the searches at “doubtful” forums and sites.
Without the preliminary studying of 100 inconsistent opinions of anonymous users in “chat”.

He just wants the product, which KNOWS him and KNOWS what he does every second, to give out him accurate and simple advices, like «you may do it, you may not do that, it’s better to make/choose that thing, danger threatens you, it’s dangerous to eat that as you are diabetic etc.».

How is that possible?

For the creation of such product it is necessary mass production and integration of various mini – sensors for the mobile phones , which will study environment and generate corresponding recommendations and advices on the basis of global medical knowledge databases and a personal medical card of the consumer without the user’s troubles .

Do you think it’s unreal?Why?
Two leaders, Google and Microsoft, have already useful b2b infrastructure and medical knowledge databases(Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault).

Creation of the sensors, which are comprehensible to the consumer, though and slowly, but begins to develop:
- Recently NASA has created a sensor for iPhone, which allows defining poisonous gases in the air.

- The standard complete set of iPhone includes accelerometer, which allows to define movements of the person (it is already applied for monitoring of old people fettle)

– Recently it was put out the solution, which lets to use iPhone as a stethoscope;

Research and Development of the other, more advanced, sensors are held now. These sensors will become new sense organs for the human are conducted and will allow people to study environment every second more complex and detailed.

So it’s possible that in 3-5 years there will be tiny sensors which are capable to study structure of food , to learn the safety of environment, to analyze the key parameters of person’s health, his psychological fettle etc.

After It will be necessary just to collect all these data from sensors on the Internet servers, to “connect” data with a personal medical card of the person and to analyze them, giving out those or other recommendations on-line.

Do you imagine how perspective and profitable it is?

Author:
Vit Goncharuk,
Editor at iPhoneMedicalApps.com
CEO at VIactivity LCC[Software development, production and SEO for iPhone, Android, Symbian, Web-projects etc]

The Smartscope is a cordless, hand-held digital imaging device that measures and documents skin lesions for use in diagnosing and monitoring skin diseases. A more accurate and user-friendly alternative to standard digital cameras, the Smartscope uses LED illumination to produce consistent, reliable images, which along with measurements and annotations, can be easily transferred to and stored in software that is compatible with electronic medical records. High-resolution images and detailed information captured with the Smartscope can also be printed for the patient or used in case studies submitted to medical journals.

Direct link: link

Dr. Blaine Warkentine MD, a partner at a startup firm RidRx, is telling us that the firm is now selling directly to consumers its patent pending iStetho Adapter that can convert an iPhone/iPod touch and an old stethoscope into an electronic one. Also, the adapter is designed to work in tandem with the powerful iStethoscope Pro software that does many tricks with auscultation sounds, such as displaying sound spectrograms, replaying and emailing recordings, etc.

More about the adapter:
Convert with a scissors your old stethoscope into a digital one that you can use to store audio files of patients and email if needed. Our application amplifies the signal and eliminates audio outside of what is important for diagnosis. Our adapter simply offers a quick release sound proof channel for analog audio to be converted by your mobile devices microphone. Simple and sweet.

Direct link: link

Jing Li, a physical scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., along with other researchers working under the Cell-All program in the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, developed a proof of concept of new technology that would bring compact, low-cost, low-power, high-speed nanosensor-based chemical sensing capabilities to cell phones.

The device Li developed is about the size of a postage stamp and is designed to be plugged in to an iPhone to collect, process and transmit sensor data. The new device is able to detect and identify low concentrations of airborne ammonia, chlorine gas and methane. The device senses chemicals in the air using a “sample jet” and a multiple-channel silicon-based sensing chip, which consists of 16 nanosensors, and sends detection data to another phone or a computer via telephone communication network or Wi-Fi.

Read permanent article: link