If you’re going to choose a place on the body to measure physical signals, Steven LeBoeuf says two places are far and away the best: the ear or the rear.
LeBoeuf knows it sounds like a joke, but he’s not kidding. He’s the president and cofounder of Valencell, a company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, that developed and licenses technology it says can accurately track vital signs like heart rate, temperature, and respiration rate from the same earbuds you’d use to listen to music. It does this with photoplethysmography, or PPG, which measures changes in blood flow by shining a light on the skin and measuring how it scatters off blood vessels (this is often done in hospitals with a device that fits over your fingertip).
Learn more about Using Your Ear to Track Your Heart by reading the article by Rachel Metz on MIT Technology Review.
Latest from Today's Medical Developments
- Exchangeable-head solid carbide cutting tools
- NextDent 300 MultiJet printer delivers a “Coming of Age for Digital Dentistry” at Evolution Dental Solutions
- Get recognized for bringing manufacturing back to North America
- Adaptive Coolant Flow improves energy efficiency
- VOLTAS opens coworking space for medical device manufacturers
- MEMS accelerometer for medical implants, wearables
- The compact, complex capabilities of photochemical etching
- Moticont introduces compact, linear voice coil motor
