from Singularity Hub:
AirStrip Technologies is setting your doctor free. The Texas based company is developing a suite of hardware/software solutions that allow physicians and nurses to monitor important vital signs from their smart phone.
Now, your doctor can use her iPhone to keep track of heartbeats, nurse’s notes, exams results, and drug doses even when she is out of the hospital.
You can check out a free demo of AirStrip OB at the App Store, or watch a local news segment …
from The Economist:
Wireless health is “becoming omnipresent” in hospitals, according to Kalorama Information, a market-research firm; it estimates that the market for such devices and services in America alone will grow from $2.7 billion in 2007 to $9.6 billion in 2012.
A forthcoming report by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), a think tank, estimates that two-thirds of American physicians already have smart-phones. Over one-third of American doctors use Epocrates, a program for mobiles and laptops which offers instant information on drug-to-drug interactions, treatment recommendations and so on.
The software will soon be able to access electronic health records (EHRs) via mobiles—which the author of the CHCF’s report thinks could be “the killer application” of wireless health.
from NewScientist:
Researchers at Korea University in Seoul have transmitted data at a rate of 10 megabits per second through a person’s arm, between two electrodes placed on their skin 30 centimetres apart.
The thin, flexible electrodes use significantly less energy than a wireless link like Bluetooth. That’s because low-frequency electromagnetic waves pass through skin with little attenuation, a route that also shelters them from outside interference.
from PHYSORG:
An optical fiber backbone (red) provides broadband connections between the central offices and antenna base stations.
Then, the base stations wirelessly transmit 5-mm-wave (60 GHz) signals to customers. Within buildings and homes, the short-range wireless signals can provide high-speed connectivity (faster than 1 Gb/s) for a variety of wireless, high-bandwidth communication devices.
from Perdue Newsroom:
Purdue University researchers have developed a miniature device capable of converting ultrafast laser pulses into bursts of radio-frequency signals, a step toward making wires obsolete for communications in the homes and offices of the future.
Such an advance could enable all communications, from high-definition television broadcasts to secure computer connections, to be transmitted from a single base station.
Tagged communications, microrings, networks, RF signals, tv, wireless
from MIT’s Technology Review:
A wireless network that uses reflected infrared light instead of radio waves has transmitted data through the air at a speed of one gigabit per second–six to 14 times faster than the fastest Wi-Fi network.
Such optical networks could provide faster, more secure communications and would be especially suitable for use in hospitals, aircraft, and factories, where radio-frequency transmission can interfere with navigation equipment, medical devices, or control systems.
from The FUTURIST:
A wireless digital “bandage” that would continuously monitor patients’ vital signs and transmit the data in real time to health-care professionals is currently being tested in the United Kingdom.
The Sensium disposable adhesive bandage is non-intrusive and affixes easily and painlessly to a patient’s chest. Doctors and nurses would be notified instantly of any changes in a patient’s body temperature, heart rate, and respiration on any digital device, from desktop computers to cell phones.
from New Scientist:
The last few years have seen promising demonstrations of cellphones, laptops and TVs being powered wirelessly. Are we on our way to waving goodbye to wires once and for all?
[...] Enter Karalis and his colleagues. It has long been known that such mechanical energy transfer is improved enormously if two objects resonate at the same frequency – it’s how an opera singer can smash a glass if she hits the right pitch. Karalis wondered whether the same idea could improve the efficiency of magnetic induction at greater distances.
