Originally published July 15 2005
Florida engineer developing laptop that can read vital signs
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Thanks to a prototype developed by University of Florida engineer Jenshan Lin, soon people will be able to observe their vital signs via their laptop computer, and transmit the results over the internet or a cell phone to waiting doctors, reports UF News.
A University of Florida engineer has built a working prototype for a small, portable system that can monitor a person's breathing and heart rate automatically via wireless signal, with no need for cords or plugs.
The goal is to make it easy for people to check their own vital signs, and then transmit them in real time to medical personnel through a cell phone or Internet connection, all with little more than a press of a button.
"The initial idea is that elderly people who may have difficulty getting around -- they won't need to go to the hospital or the doctor's office every time they need a checkup, they can just send in their data and talk to the doctor," said Jenshan Lin, a UF electrical and computer engineering associate professor who pioneered the technology with colleagues at Stanford University and the University of Hawaii.
The system is a fresh development in a growing trend aimed at tapping the latest technology to improve home health care, widely acknowledged as an important solution to rising health care costs.
Lin and his colleagues first described the system, developed while Lin was at Bell Labs, in two Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers papers last year.
Hardware and software developed by Lin and his students then translate the return signal to breathing and heart rate, creating an EKG-like image on an oscilloscope or laptop.
Outside medicine, it's possible that law enforcement officials could use the system as a surreptitious indicator of a subject's nervousness, noting when his or her heart rate or pulse picks up in response to certain questions, he said.
Rescue officials, meanwhile, could turn it into a "life detector" to determine if someone is buried in rubble following an earthquake or building collapse.
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