TECH

New medical sensor developed by MIT can monitor patients through walls

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed the prototype of a technological device that can monitor the health of a patient without the help of any wires. The most innovative feature, however, is not in its wireless capabilities, but in the fact that it can "see" through walls, thanks to a mixture of radio signals and machine learning.The gadget, created by a team of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) led by Dina Katabi, was designed to be placed in the patient's home, so as not to directly impact the life of the patient. While it remains quietly placed on top of any piece of furniture, the device monitors breathing, heart rate, sleep and other biometric measurements to keep the user under control. The prototype is already being tested in 200 homes in the US, along with patients with Parkinson's, depression and lung disease, and people without any apparent medical complication.
The "engine" of the device is the emission of radio signals, which stand out on the human bodies they find along the way, back to the device. The neural network installed in it analyzes the signals received to estimate the person's posture and movements, without having to resort to cameras. In this way, the gadget does not recognize obstacles, as would be the case with a wall. Medical data are also extracted from these signals.According to Rachel Metz, this "box" takes advantage of "the fact that every time we move - even if only a little, as it happens when we breathe - we change the electromagnetic field that surrounds us."On the basis of these measurements, and as the research done during the initial tests on the apparatus proved, this invention manages to monitor sounds with an accuracy that is able to identify different phases, as it happens in the complex and time consuming tests done in sleep labs.As the person in charge points out, before it works, the device asks the patient to make a specific set of movements, so that data is never collected from another person present in the house. During this phase, the consent of the user is also requested.In the consumer electronics market, more specifically in the health segment, it is the wearables that meet the public's preference. It is recalled that this week, Apple presented a smartwatch with ability to perform electrocardiograms. This box still has a high cost to get directly to the end consumer, but in the future, having a home appliance that can measure and analyze biometric data in a non-intrusive way, could revolutionize the way healthcare deals with its patients.Katabi now wants to start marketing this product, which is already available to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.



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