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Better Solutions for a Healthier World
Aurametrix team
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- November 26, 2012
- 10:45 PM
- 184 views
Close your eyes and tap your heels
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
GPS shoes can point to where you're going, but how will they 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: 23151461Marschollek, 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... Read more »
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), 48. DOI: 10.1186/1472-6947-11-48
- September 26, 2012
- 01:38 AM
- 278 views
Mirror, Mirror on the wall, Am I healthy after all?
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Health gadgets continue to evolve in many forms and shapes - from something that fits in your pocket to something that is wearable or walkable. Everyday objects are turning into "Smart objects", building the foundation for the next version of the Internet. And it's not all smoke and mirrors. So let's talk about mirrors. Fairy tales and science fiction stories often pave the way to real world technology. Magic mirrors have been used in Snow White and Harry Potter's world. Now you can get one, too - manufactured by a Hong Kong company James Law Cybertecture International. Cybertecture mirror can tell you about the weather or your last weight readings reported by the scales. It can show you a TV channel, let you browse Facebook or twitter and help you to exercise. Impressive, yet so much more is yet to come.Could a mirror tell us how healthy we are? For example, could it measure our heart rate at a distance? Sure, it could. And it has already been demonstrated as a concept prototype (Cardiocam, MIT media labs, Poh et al. 2010), although the designer is now focusing on mobile devices (check his company Cardiio).What other health metrics could be performed by the mirror during your regular morning hygiene routine? If a camera can measure minute changes in the color of your face to determine your heart rate, it could also measure your facial expressions and emotions or perform observational analysis - the first of four methods of diagnosis performed by traditional Chinese medicine. Prototypes for computerized facial diagnostic systems already have been developed. One recent study, for example, (Li et al 2012) analyzes lips. The software segments lips from the rest of the face and extracts color, texture and shape features. Special supervised learning algorithms are then able to classify lips as deep-red, purple, red or pale and make inferences related to energy levels and circulation. Health management applications will not be limited to smartphones or smart homes. All objects in our lives will gradually become "smarter." Mobile phones can already manage vacuum cleaners and thermostats. Refrigerators can tweet, check Google calendars, download recipes, play tunes and alert us about food spoilage. Mirrors can monitor our weight and exercise. There is still more emphasis these days on technological wizardry than on actual benefits, but systems like Aurametrix are bringing it all together and generating valuable insights. And perhaps, one day, we won't regard the mirror on the wall nagging us about losing weight or commenting on the bags under eyes is an invasion of privacy. Let's build the future piece by piece - and they will come.REFERENCESPoh MZ, McDuff DJ, & Picard RW (2010). Non-contact, automated cardiac pulse measurements using video imaging and blind source separation. Optics express, 18 (10), 10762-74 PMID: 20588929Li F, Zhao C, Xia Z, Wang Y, Zhou X, & Li GZ (2012). Computer-assisted lip diagnosis on traditional Chinese medicine using multi-class support vector machines. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 12 (1) PMID: 22898352Littlewort, G., Whitehill, J., Wu, T., Fasel, I.R., Frank, M., Movellan, J.R., Bartlett, M.S. (2011) The Computer Expression Recognition Toolbox (CERT). Proceedings of the 9th IEEE Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition. ... Read more »
Poh MZ, McDuff DJ, & Picard RW. (2010) Non-contact, automated cardiac pulse measurements using video imaging and blind source separation. Optics express, 18(10), 10762-74. PMID: 20588929
Li F, Zhao C, Xia Z, Wang Y, Zhou X, & Li GZ. (2012) Computer-assisted lip diagnosis on traditional Chinese medicine using multi-class support vector machines. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 12(1), 127. PMID: 22898352
- June 24, 2012
- 12:35 AM
- 346 views
Cars That Care
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Health technology of the future promises an easy life with no interruption in your daily activities. For example, information about your health could be collected while you're driving. A car is already viewed as a health platform and wellness coach by leading manufacturers. How would this work?To begin with, by measuring our heart rate. The electrocardiographic (ECG) seat built by Ford is based on studies of sensors in beds for intensive care units. Unlike traditional monitoring systems, it does not require attaching electrodes to the skin and can measure signals through relatively thin cloth. Toyota's response to Ford's seat is an ECG-sensing steering wheel.Regardless of what type of system incorporates the sensors, clever algorithmic science is needed to account for artifacts caused by lateral movements. Wartzek and colleagues showed that unobtrusive and reliable measurements of heart rate are indeed possible during driving by identifying useful intervals in heavily distorted ECG signals (which is easier on the highway than in city traffic). Moreover, data from ECG, GPS and optical devices could be combined with other measurements though, as Doherty and colleagues showed, significant data processing issues still remain. Companies like Aurametrix are addressing the problem of noisy environments with innovative approaches. So in a few years cars will start to take care of us. We need to polish up the sensor and data processing technologies and also manage the chemicals added to the interior of the car--including those contributing to the "new car" smell. Unhealthy particles in some automobile interiors already exceed US EPA standards, especially in heavy traffic situations (although bicyclists and pedestrians have their own problems). The latest report by HealthyStuff.org ranks over 200 of the most popular models based on chemical-emitting steering wheels, dashboards, armrests and seats. As the table shows, stylish and sporty models are at the bottom of the list. There are many reasons to believe these problems will be addressed. If so, we can look forward to a future with safely built in to the systems we use in our every day lives.U5E6VJ93R3ZPREFERENCESWartzek T, Eilebrecht B, Lem J, Lindner HJ, Leonhardt S, & Walter M (2011). ECG on the road: robust and unobtrusive estimation of heart rate. IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, 58 (11), 3112-20 PMID: 21824839Doherty ST, & Oh P (2012). A multi-sensor monitoring system of human physiology and daily activities. Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association, 18 (3), 185-92 PMID: 22480300... Read more »
Wartzek T, Eilebrecht B, Lem J, Lindner HJ, Leonhardt S, & Walter M. (2011) ECG on the road: robust and unobtrusive estimation of heart rate. IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, 58(11), 3112-20. PMID: 21824839
Doherty ST, & Oh P. (2012) A multi-sensor monitoring system of human physiology and daily activities. Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association, 18(3), 185-92. PMID: 22480300
- December 9, 2011
- 11:25 AM
- 485 views
Can Software help Health care?
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Apps, apps and more apps. Software is everything and everything runs on software. Almost every industry in the U.S. has been disrupted by software. The health care field is not one of them. Easily accessible consumer information makes everyone a little bit doctor. Emerging portable diagnostic devices will strengthen the transition. Are we up to it? Not yet. ... Read more »
Archer N, Fevrier-Thomas U, Lokker C, McKibbon KA, & Straus SE. (2011) Personal health records: a scoping review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA, 18(4), 515-22. PMID: 21672914
- December 17, 2010
- 07:55 PM
- 727 views
Danger, Will Robinson!!! or injury prevention with sensors and algorithms
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Injuries are most likely to be perceived as “acts of fate”, but they depend on the same determinants as other health factors: individual behavior, social and physical environment. The likelihood of injuries - unintentional ones and those caused by acts of violence - can be computed from physical location, gene-environment interactions, prior medical history, and physical traits. There are many ways to prevent injuries - just say "no" to risky behaviors, wear preventative gear while playing sports or fall-optimized shoes for elderly, watch out for others engaged in similar activities... Yet, sometimes we forget to watch, don't have access to histories of others or get diverted. Would a body sensor or a gadget with smart software be able to warn us about potential accidents ahead to help prevent accidents? What would it need to measure? Software and devices automatically detecting and reporting accidents already exist: Halo Monitoring's fall detection system, for example, consists of a chest strap and belt clip with motion sensors, heart rate and skin temperature monitors. Although the system detects falls only after they happen, a study showed that just the fact of wearing it increases alertness of seniors and reduces the number of falls. Although fall detection systems are not as advanced as telematics for cars - like OnStar or mbrace that "intelligently integrate the driver, the vehicle and the environment" - capabilities such as this will be provided in the area of next-generation health management systems like Aurametrix.Unprecedented accumulation of data - such as snapshots of driving behavior or 1.2 million person-years of hip fracture observations (Kanis JA) allows development of smarter software able to predict injuries. Logistic regression models (Kononen et al., 2011) predict seriousness of auto accidents, first-principles mathematical models (such as AHAAH for the ear) connect forces with injuries, neural net and other data mining approaches foretell which juvenile offenders are likely to return to crime (source of "intentional injuries"), or allow to calculate risk of fractures based on milk intake, personal history of accidents and body mass index. Self-quantifiers such as René Ghosh are able to figure out how to use their own data to predict future injuries. Using simple math (Riegel equation bringing all running logs on to a comparable level) and trend analysis, he tied his accidents to wanes following waxes in running performance. Researchers keep refining the variables predicting injuries. Swanenburg et al., for example, predicted multiple falls for those with a history of multiple falls (odds ratio, 5.6) and use of multiple medications (odds ratio, 2.3). And there is another simple measurement of standing position helpful in prediction. Frequent fallers, indeed, have a narrower stance width than non-fallers.In the always-connected smart-sensor-equipped future, things such as Intel's magic carpet - picking up the weight, angle and pressure of steps - will be a commodity. Gene tests predicting injuries will be integrated with data coming from our carpets, clothing, footwear and location information. And this may be sooner than you think. References 1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS); 2010 Mar 4 Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html 2. Husted JA, Ahmed R, Chow EW, Brzustowicz LM, Bassett AS. Childhood trauma and genetic factors in familial schizophrenia associated with the NOS1AP gene. Schizophr Res. 2010 Aug;121(1-3):187-92. PMID: 205413713. Swanenburg J, de Bruin ED, Uebelhart D, & Mulder T (2010). Falls prediction in elderly people: a 1-year prospective study. Gait & posture, 31 (3), 317-21 PMID: 200478334. Kononen DW, Flannagan CA, Wang SC. Identification and validation of a logistic regression model for predicting serious injuries associated with motor vehicle crashes. Accid Anal Prev. 2011 Jan;43(1):112-22. PMID: 21094305. Price GR. Predicting mechanical damage to the organ of Corti. Hear Res. 2007 Apr;226(1-2):5-13. Epub 2006 Sep 15.PMID: 16978813 ... Read more »
Swanenburg J, de Bruin ED, Uebelhart D, & Mulder T. (2010) Falls prediction in elderly people: a 1-year prospective study. Gait , 31(3), 317-21. PMID: 20047833
- October 12, 2010
- 10:45 PM
- 594 views
You are the Chosen One, at least by your bacteria
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Host genomics is not the main decision-making factor for bacteria immigrating into human body, but it is an important factor. Two papers recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences help to understand why you are chosen and how the choosers make their decisions. ... Read more »
Ben-Jacob E, & Schultz D. (2010) Bacteria determine fate by playing dice with controlled odds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(30), 13197-8. PMID: 20660309
Andrew K. Benson,, Scott A. Kelly,, Ryan Legge,, Fangrui Ma,, Soo Jen Low,, Jaehyoung Kim,, Min Zhang,, Phaik Lyn Oh,, Derrick Nehrenberg,, Kunjie Hu,.... (2010) Individuality in gut microbiota composition is a complex polygenic trait shaped by multiple environmental and host genetic factors . PNAS. info:/
- August 15, 2010
- 04:25 PM
- 634 views
Predicting catastrophic health events - noninvasively and short term
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
"I've just picked up a fault in the AE35 unit. It's going to go 100% failure in 72 hours". These were famous words of the almighty computer HAL in "2001: A Space Odyssey". Few of us believe too much in software forecasts - be it weather, earthquakes or computer hard disk failures. Yet, we all know that sometimes it works. And such systems are very valuable, assuming they continuously improve. ... Read more »
Hsia, J., Larson, J., Ockene, J., Sarto, G., Allison, M., Hendrix, S., Robinson, J., LaCroix, A., Manson, J., & , . (2009) Resting heart rate as a low tech predictor of coronary events in women: prospective cohort study. BMJ, 338(feb03 2). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.b219
Mayo Clinic. (2009) High resting heart rate could predict heart attack in women. Mayo Clinic women's healthsource, 13(7), 3. PMID: 19498326
Froelicher VF, Duarte GM, Oakes DF, Klein J, Dubach PA, & Janosi A. (1988) The prognostic value of the exercise test. Disease-a-month : DM, 34(11), 677-735. PMID: 3056676
Sheward WJ, Naylor E, Knowles-Barley S, Armstrong JD, Brooker GA, Seckl JR, Turek FW, Holmes MC, Zee PC, & Harmar AJ. (2010) Circadian control of mouse heart rate and blood pressure by the suprachiasmatic nuclei: behavioral effects are more significant than direct outputs. PloS one, 5(3). PMID: 20339544
- July 17, 2010
- 10:30 PM
- 660 views
Collaboration 2.0
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Information technology is letting people around the world come together in unprecedented ways. Wikis, blogs and microblogs like twitter, crowdsourcing and crowd-task-solving sites continue to flatten the planet. Scientific innovation used to be a private endeavor, with very narrowly specialized scientists. The Internet changed some of this but there is plenty of room for improvement.... Read more »
Johnston SC, & Hauser SL. (2009) Crowdsourcing scientific innovation. Annals of neurology, 65(6). PMID: 19562693
Wright MT, Roche B, von Unger H, Block M, & Gardner B. (2010) A call for an international collaboration on participatory research for health. Health promotion international, 25(1), 115-22. PMID: 19854843
Marsh A, Carroll D, & Foggie R. (2010) Using collective intelligence to fine-tune public health policy. Studies in health technology and informatics, 13-8. PMID: 20543334
Huss JW 3rd, Lindenbaum P, Martone M, Roberts D, Pizarro A, Valafar F, Hogenesch JB, & Su AI. (2010) The Gene Wiki: community intelligence applied to human gene annotation. Nucleic acids research, 38(Database issue). PMID: 19755503
Butler, D. (2010) Open-source science takes on neglected disease. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/news.2010.50
- July 14, 2010
- 08:00 PM
- 518 views
Sit less, Move more
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
I am typing this standing in front of my computer. My tall chair is aside. About a year ago I discovered that life is better if I stand while working some of the time. Then I found out that other people discovered it too, and more keep discovering. We hear it often: eat less and exercise. But this may not be enough. As shown in a recent study, exercise does not counteract the ill effects of sedentary lives, we should keep moving throughout the day too. New York Times article about the study (The men who stare at screens) immediately got up-votes from over 100 hackers - the men who stare at screens to write software, along with 100 comments from those staring at screens to read the news. Stand up while you read this, asked NYT earlier this year. Prolonged sedentarity affects not only cardiovascular and metabolic health, blood clotting, diabetes and cancer. Countless hours of sitting could cause many other ailments reducing the quality of life such as skewed microbial ecology accompanied by strong body odor. Health promotion efforts targeting physical inactivity should emphasize both reducing sedentary activity and increasing regular physical activity for optimal health. The lead author of the 2010 study says: "Stand up. Pace around your office. Get off the couch and grab a mop or change a light bulb the next time you watch ‘‘Dancing With the Stars.’’Stand-up desks and treadmill desk were available years ago, a web site just stand was created for office workers who sit long hours each day, but either the desks are not very usable yet, lobbying your boss for a stand-up workstation is still tricky or most people just like sitting too much. Let's hope this will change. ReferencesWarren TY, Barry V, Hooker SP, Sui X, Church TS, & Blair SN (2010). Sedentary behaviors increase risk of cardiovascular disease mortality in men. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 42 (5), 879-85 PMID: 19996993 DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181c3aa7eDunstan DW, Barr EL, Healy GN, Salmon J, Shaw JE, Balkau B, Magliano DJ, Cameron AJ, Zimmet PZ, & Owen N (2010). Television viewing time and mortality: the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Circulation, 121 (3), 384-91 PMID: 20065160 DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.894824Katzmarzyk PT, Church TS, Craig CL, & Bouchard C (2009). Sitting time and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 41 (5), 998-1005 PMID: 19346988 DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181930355Healy GN, Dunstan DW, Salmon J, Shaw JE, Zimmet PZ, Owen N. (2008). Television time and continuous metabolic risk in physically active adults. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 40, 639-645.(PMID: 18317383) Khaw K-T, Wareham N, Bingham S, Welch A, Luben R, et al. (2008) Combined Impact of Health Behaviours and Mortality in Men and Women: The EPIC-Norfolk Prospective Population Study. PLoS Med 5(1): e12. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050012 (PMID: 18184033)Beasley R, Raymond N, Hill S, Nowitz M, Hughes R. (2003) eThrombosis: the 21st century variant of venous thromboembolism associated with immobility. Eur Respir J. 21(2), 374-6. (PMID: 12608454... Read more »
WARREN, T., BARRY, V., HOOKER, S., SUI, X., CHURCH, T., & BLAIR, S. (2010) Sedentary Behaviors Increase Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Men. Medicine , 42(5), 879-885. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181c3aa7e
Dunstan, D., Barr, E., Healy, G., Salmon, J., Shaw, J., Balkau, B., Magliano, D., Cameron, A., Zimmet, P., & Owen, N. (2010) Television Viewing Time and Mortality: The Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study (AusDiab). Circulation, 121(3), 384-391. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.894824
Katzmarzyk PT, Church TS, Craig CL, & Bouchard C. (2009) Sitting time and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 41(5), 998-1005. PMID: 19346988
KATZMARZYK, P., CHURCH, T., CRAIG, C., & BOUCHARD, C. (2009) Sitting Time and Mortality from All Causes, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer. Medicine , 41(5), 998-1005. DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181930355
- July 3, 2010
- 07:03 PM
- 440 views
Microbial sequencing for food applications is gaining momentum, but challenges remain
by Aurametrix team in Health Technologies
Microbes give us the great variety of tasty food, but not all of them are harmless. Genome sequencing of microorganisms started to bring practical benefits to the field of microbial food safety. The technology is still not as readily available and inexpensive as needed for practical applications, but a few pilot projects have showed a promise. ... Read more »
Ward TJ, Evans P, Wiedmann M, Usgaard T, Roof SE, Stroika SG, & Hise K. (2010) Molecular and phenotypic characterization of Listeria monocytogenes from U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service surveillance of ready-to-eat foods and processing facilities. Journal of food protection, 73(5), 861-9. PMID: 20501037
Van Stelten A, Simpson JM, Ward TJ, & Nightingale KK. (2010) Revelation by single-nucleotide polymorphism genotyping that mutations leading to a premature stop codon in inlA are common among Listeria monocytogenes isolates from ready-to-eat foods but not human listeriosis cases. Applied and environmental microbiology, 76(9), 2783-90. PMID: 20208021
St-Gelais D, Lessard J, Champagne CP, & Vuillemard JC. (2009) Production of fresh Cheddar cheese curds with controlled postacidification and enhanced flavor. Journal of dairy science, 92(5), 1856-63. PMID: 19389943
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