Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Total Health Surveillance Near
Remember those days when doctors only had access to your body's information when you walked into their offices? Well, those days are over thanks to a new generation of body monitors that will broadcast your vital signs via every conceivable communication medium twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week.
Consider Exmocare's BT2, the world's first Bluetooth vital signs wristwatch.
The BT2 is the only wristwatch that can simultaneously, non-invasively, continuously and accurately detect with infrared and tiny metallic sensors from a fully moving wrist: heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, skin conductance and relative movement.
(BT2 wristwatch)
Take a look at the feature list:
- All-in-one design to monitor all critical vital signs 24/7 from the wrist with absolutely no cables, straps or electrodes.
- First ever Bluetooth biosensor wristwatch to send alerts via cell phone or internet.
- First ever wristwatch device to detect anxiety, depression and other emotional side effects of drugs.
- Online care giver account with up to 350 kinds of configuration for alerts by SMS, email or IM to guarantee no false alarms.
Another system that is still in the clinical development stage is Raisin, a platform for body monitoring by Proteus Biomedical. Proteus has created ingestible event markers (IEMs) - tiny sensors that you can swallow that are activated by stomach fluids. Each IEM taken with medication sends a digital signal to a wearable device that in turn relays information to your doctor.
(Proteus ingestible sensor)
Proteus states on their website that the Raisin System is "improve the management of chronic diseases like heart failure, infectious disease and psychiatric disorders."
As far as science-fictional precursors for these systems are concerned, I was thinking of Rudy Rucker's heartshirt from Wetware and the implanted microprocessor monitor from William Gibson's Neuromancer.
[Mitsubishi-Genentech] employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors that monitored mutagen levels in the bloodstream.
Is this the ultimate healthcare resource, or a way for insurance companies to enforce compliance? Before you decide that doctors can never make mistakes, or that all healthcare is good healthcare, you need to carefully read Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker And Poorer, an excellent book.
Read more at the Proteus and bt2 Exmocare websites; see also Body 2.0 - Continuous Monitoring Of The Human Body for more info on similar technologies. Thanks to Moira for pointing me to the Body 2.0 article; any editorializing in this post is mine. I also wish my friends at frolix_8 would tell me the phildickian take on this, since I'm sure he must have had one.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/27/2009)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 2 )
Related News Stories - (" Medical ")
Heart Patches Grown In The Lab Repair Hearts
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
Pixel Watch 'Loss of Pulse Detection' And Philip K. Dick
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965.
ErythroMer Artificial Blood
'My chemists are all working on the preparation of the artificial blood.' - Dr. David H. Keller, M.D.
MouthPad Supports Head And Tongue Tracking
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'- Alfred Bester, 1956.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Robotic Barber Programmed With a Number of Styles
'He found a barber shop which, he thought, would be good for an idle hour.'
Humanoid Boxing Robot KO's Opponent - It's A Knockout!
'Thirty rounds of fighting is tough work. Even for machines.'
Caterpillar Electric Mining Loader Not Yet Ready For Moon
'...the excavations were already in progress, for he saw gray slopes of rubble.'
Centipede Robots Down On The Farm
'...the walking mills of Puffy Products began to tread delicately on their centipede legs across the wheat fields of Kansas.'
Anthropic's Claude AI Creates Legal Citation From Whole Cloth
'Here is a Clerk that would work incessantly, and neither eat, sleep, want payment, or grumble.'
Students Vie For Lunar Regolith Mining Robot Prize
'About time you got here,' the astronaut said.
'They Erased My Memory' Says Ariana Grande
'...using a neutralizing electronic impulse.'
Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space
'...the Hole is something like a vortex or a whirlpool?'
Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic
'ZARNAK, YOU'RE TO COMMAND A SCOUTING EXPEDITION --- FIND OUT WHAT THIS IS ALL ABOUT!'
DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures'
'These are your rudimentary seed packages... Some will combine in place to form more complicated structures.'
Robot Hand Creeps Along, Separate From It's Owner
'The crawling... object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
'Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses...'
Korean Exoskeleton Suit F1 Helps You Put It On
'Better late than never.'
Have AI Researchers Given Up On 'Bio-Babies'?
'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
Bunker Busters and Bore-Pellets
'The first revelation of the new Soviet bore-pellets.'
'Spikeless' Brand Swizzle Stick Detects Spiked Drinks
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
