Swimband is a personal water safety system that is designed to prevent accidental drowning for toddlers. iSwimband is a Bluetooth device that connects to a smart phone or tablet to alert parents if a swimmer has been underwater for a long period, or a non-swimmer has entered the water. Swimband is the world's first wearable wireless sensor designed to notify you immediately with audible/visual alerts on your smartphone, tablet and linked speakers if a swimmer has been submerged dan...

Blood glucose monitoring technology has evolved since the test strip. Now there are electrochemical sensors being developed that employ a two or three electrode system and are convenient to use. (Vashist, Zheng, Al-Rubeaan, Luong, & Sheu, 2011). The Abbott company has been a pioneer in diabetes monitoring systems. They are starting to roll out a new glucose monitoring system in select markets and should be worldwide in the near future. The FreeStyle® Libre Pro Flash Glucose Monitoring...

By leveraging technological advances in wireless monitoring, artificial intelligence, and affordable point-of-care biomedical processes, new opportunities in consumer-driven, in-home, medical diagnostic tools are not only possible, but they are the future of health care. Many of us have spent hours navigating through a disjointed, complicated health care system, the failures of which are frustrating to both patients and providers. What if, instead of waiting several weeks to get an appointmen...

CardioMEMS HF System measures and monitors the pulmonary artery (PA) pressure and heart rate in certain heart failure patients. The System consists of an implantable PA sensor, delivery system, and Patient Electronics System. The implantable sensor is permanently placed in the pulmonary artery, the blood vessel that moves blood from the heart to the lungs. The sensor is implanted during a right heart catheterization procedure. The PA sensor is about the size of small paper clip and has a thin, c...

You’ve injured your knee. A doctor straps a listening device to it, and the noises you hear coming out of it are cringe-worthy. “Crackle! Krglkrglkrgl! Snap!” Your knee isn’t breaking; it’s only bending, and in the future, those sounds could help doctors determine whether the convalescing joint is healthy yet, or if it needs more therapy. Research engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are developing a knee band with microphones and vibration sensors to listen to and measure the ...

Flu vaccine delivered through painless microneedles in patches applied to the skin could soon be an alternative to delivery through hypodermic needles, according to researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Using new grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling approximately $11.5 million over five years, researchers from the two institutions plan to develop a new vaccine product using the microscopic needles. "A vaccine administered through a sk...

Thimble Bioelectronics, a California-based company that focuses on developing digital pain management products, announced on this week that it is working on a wearable pain relief patch. Similar in look, size and shape to an ordinary band-aid; the product is based on Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), a type of therapy that uses low-voltage electrical current for pain relief. Just place it where it hurts. The optimal waveform, amplitude, and modulation pattern settings are au...

Engineers at Michigan State University working with folks at Bell Labs have developed WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY that could help detect health risk, depresion. It may be small, so small it’s hardly noticeable, but it could someday save lives. “It” is wearable technology that can monitor a person’s eating, drinking, coughing and even social habits, and that’s information a health care provider could find useful when treating someone dealing with obesity, diabetes, asthma or even depression. Thi...

Researchers have developed an integrated, wearable system that monitors a user’s environment, heart rate and other physical attributes with the goal of predicting and preventing asthma attacks. The researchers plan to begin testing the system on a larger subject population this summer. The system, called the Health and Environmental Tracker (HET), is composed of a suite of new sensor devices and was developed by researchers from the National Science Foundation’s Nanosystems Engineering Resear...

Bowden and Gennifer Smith, a PhD student in electrical engineering at Stanford, detail their new low-cost, portable device that would allow patients to get consistently accurate urine test results at home, easing the workload on primary care physicians. Other do-it-yourself systems are emerging, but the Stanford engineers think their approach is inexpensive and reliable, in part because they base their system on the same tried and trusted dipstick used in medical offices. https://youtu.be/...

The CordCruncher Headphone features elastic sleeve that allows you to customize the length of the cord anywhere from 16 inches to 3.5 feet.   Lovethink Pillow: This smart pillow is fully adjustable in both softness and height; it monitors your sleep and knows the best time to wake you up. It combines with ThinkSleep to create a perfect sleep system and gives suggestions to improve your sleep.   The Creek Wi-Fi clock features home automation and security, smartala...

Researchers at the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Ala, found that obese women get just one hour of vigorous exercise each year, while obese men exercise fewer than four hours, Foxny HealthDay reports. “They’re living their lives from one chair to another,” Edward Archer, a research fellow with the Nutrition Obesity Research Center, said. “We didn’t realize we were that sedentary. There are some people who are vigorously active, but it’s offset by...

Although it's known that flowers communicate with pollinators by sending out electric signals, just how bees detects these fields has been a mystery – until now. Using a laser to measure vibrations, researchers found that both the bees' antenna and hairs deflect in response to an electric field, but the hairs move more rapidly and with overall greater displacements. Researchers then looked at the bees' nervous system, finding that only the hairs alerted the bee's nervous system to this sig...

Nocturnal geckos are among the very few living creatures able to see colors at night, and scientists' discovery of series of distinct concentric zones may lead to insight into better cameras and contact lenses. The key to the exceptional night vision of the nocturnal helmet gecko is a series of distinct concentric zones of different refractive powers, according to a study published in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's peer-reviewed, online Journal of Vision("The pupil...

The iBOT is a powered wheelchair developed by Dean Kamen in a partnership between DEKA and Johnson and Johnson's Independence Technology division. iBOT has a number of features distinguishing it from most powered wheelchairs: By rotating its two sets of powered wheels about each other, the iBOT can "walk" up and down stairs, much like a cog railway or a rack and pinion with the two wheels as the "teeth" of the gear. The wheels can roll slightly at each step to compensate for a wide range ...

iBeat is a new company in San Francisco that hopes to address this problem. They are designing a new smartwatch that will monitor the wearer’s heart activity around the clock, and analyze the results. If it detects a dangerous condition, it can alert the wearer, as well as family members and emergency responders. It will include 3G cellular wireless communication, as well as a medical-grade heart rate sensor. The company has indicated that it will pursue a “Wearable-as-a-Service” business model ...

PASADENA, Calif. – A wave of new NASA research on tsunamis has yielded an innovative method to improve existing tsunami warning systems, and a potentially groundbreaking new theory on the source of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In one study, published last fall in Geophysical Research Letters, researcher Y. Tony Song of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., demonstrated that real-time data from NASA's network of global positioning system (GPS) stations can detect groun...

Little livers Transplanted hepatic progenitor cells can self-renew (yellow) and differentiate into hepatocytes (green) to repair the damaged liver (Image: Wei-Yu Lu, MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, The University of Edinburgh’) The MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine researchers used liver stem cells, called hepatic progenitor cells, to regrow damaged livers in mice. After extracting the stem cells from healthy adult mice and maturing them in the lab, the researchers transplante...

Treehotel, Harads, Sweden - http://treehotel.se/en/   Dog Bark Park Inn, Idaho, USA - http://www.dogbarkparkinn.com/ Icehotel, Jukkasjärvi, Sweden - http://www.icehotel.com/   Das Park Hotel, Linz, Austria - http://www.dasparkhotel.net/   Crane Hotel, Harlingen, The Netherlands - http://www.havenkraan.nl/en/information/  

Driven by Dow’s strong heritage of innovation in the building & construction industry, DOW introduced POWERHOUSE™ Solar System 2.0 (PH 2.0). Dow developed a higher energy density system that improves industry leading integrated aesthetics and delivers the same high quality you have come to expect in a Dow solution. PH 2.0 has been developed with the professional roofer in mind, featuring robust waterproofing integration with common roofing materials and fewer roof penetrations than panels...

Kubota, Japan's largest maker of agricultural machinery, has already developed its first prototype autonomous tractor for use in rice paddies. Equipped with a global positioning system, the vehicle cultivates fields and fertilises after checking soil conditions. Iseki & Co and Yanmar are also developing autonomous tractors and harvesters with Hitachi developing systems for farm machinery. Kubota is also developing and marketing a suit-like device to help farmers harvest and carry fruit an...

The United Arab Emirates National Innovation Committee has unveiled plans to build the world's first 3D printed structure with a massive, 20-foot-tall 3D printer. Though many structures have utilized 3D printing, none have been entirely built by using the technology. Everything - the building's structure, interior finishes, and furniture - will be 3D printed in sections and then assembled on site, according to a report by 3DPrint. The 2,000-square-foot building will then be used to house the Mus...

  Neutrinos are similar to the more familiar electron, with one crucial difference: neutrinos do not carry electric charge. Because neutrinos are electrically neutral, they are not affected by the electromagnetic forces which act on electrons. Neutrinos are affected only by a "weak" sub-atomic force of much shorter range than electromagnetism, and are therefore able to pass through great distances in matter without being affected by it. If neutrinos have mass, they also interact gravitat...

Atmospheric water solutions manufacture machines that produce purified water from air. These Innovative machines extract humidity from the air which is filtered, condensed, and then processed through an additional multi-step filtration system; producing “purified great tasting water™”, with no chlorine, fluoride, or heavy metals present. Their AquaBoy® Pro II machine makes hot and cold water from air , filters it and stores up to 2 to 5 gallons every day. It’s easy to operate, environm...

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) comprise a complex set of related developmental disorders that are characterized by impairments in communication, social interaction, and repetitive behaviors. Impairments in sensory processing are also extremely common. The prevalence of ASDs is increasing and is currently estimated to affect 1 in 150 children. ASDs are considered to be a major health and educational problem, affecting many areas of daily living, including eating. Children with ASDs are often de...

Ever rise quickly from the couch to get something from the kitchen and suddenly feel dizzy? With a low heart rate and relaxed muscles, the cardiovascular system does not immediately provide the resistance necessary to keep enough blood going to your head. Gravity wins, at least for a short time, before your heart and blood vessels can respond to the sudden change in position and correct the situation. Images above: These figures show feed arteries and first-order arterioles from control...

Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have tested a temporary tattoo that both extracts and measures the level of glucose in the fluid in between skin cells. This first-ever example of the flexible, easy-to-wear device could be a promising step forward in noninvasive glucose testing for patients with diabetes. The sensor was developed and tested by graduate student Amay Bandodkar and colleagues in Professor Joseph Wang’s laboratory at the NanoEngineering Department and the ...

Scientists at Northwestern University and University of Illinois have collaborated on creating a wearable device that can be used to monitor patient conditions around the clock. The thin, flexible patch moves with the person’s skin, and so should be unobtrusive to wear. The patch requires no electricity; a matrix of 60 by 60 liquid crystals provides 3,600 points of measurement. A new wearable medical device can quickly alert a person if they are having cardiovascular trouble or if it’s simply...

West Pharmaceutical Services is developing a solution to this problem: the SmartDose. According to the company, this is the first wearable patch injector that has been tested on human subjects. The device includes a concealed needle that is activated once the patch is applied to the patient’s skin. Visual and audible feedback provides indicators about the device’s status, whether it is operating correctly, or when it needs to be removed or refilled. The device works with a disposable plastic car...