14 DAY TRIAL // Researchers at MIT have developed a new method for analyzing health indicators such as blood pressure, pulse and respiration, which only needs a low-cost video camera to operate.
At this point, checking for vital signs is cumbersome, in the sense that a lot of manual work or sensor devices are needed to draw out useful information.
But, thanks to the efforts of a students in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program, people can now learn about these parameters by using nothing more than a video camera such as the one on laptops.
The revolutionary system that graduate student Ming-Zher Poh invented is perfectly capable of drawing out the necessary information even from this low-quality image feed.
In fact, it is so efficient that he is considering extending its functions to such an extent that the system will become able to measure blood oxygen levels and respiration as well.
Details of how the new system functions were published in the esteemed scientific journal Optics Express, earlier this year. The graduate student was aided in his work by Media Lab student Daniel McDuff and professor of media arts and sciences Rosalind Picard.
“There are many pitfalls in the road from idea to approved medical device, and even more once a device is used in practice,” says Fokko Wieringa, a senior scientist at TNO Science & Industry in the Netherlands.
“However, the results achieved now look quite encouraging. To be honest, my hands are itching to exchange ideas and cooperate with these young researchers; it's exciting stuff,” adds the scientist, who was not involved in the current work.
If the low-cost camera used by the system is outfitted with an independent light source, then additional applications could become available. Already, mobile phone apps let you take your pulse by placing your finger on a touchscreen.
In the future, cell phone- and laptop-based medicine will play an increasingly larger role in society, especially in countries that are very poor, and where access to basic medicine is minimal.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are at the forefront of such investigations, having already developed a smartphone applications that allows for remote diagnostics to be placed on patients.