Comments on: Pervasive Health Monitor (Got Granny?)

By: james

james — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:32:24 +0000

Way cool! How do you get any of these motes to experiment with?

By: m.c.cookie

m.c.cookie — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:09:40 +0000

Super nice. Please write it up.

By: Carlos Zager

Carlos Zager — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:50:07 +0000

Hi, this project is awesome. I was wondering if you could send me the details to replicate the project. I wanted to do this same project but instead of using a pocket pc, using it with a gp2x.

Thanks

By: jwebber

jwebber — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:25:47 +0000

Just saw the 3rd revision details, a pulseox added to this thing would make it gold for combat medics! If you develop a rugged version of this to meet mil standards then I can’t see why your kids won’t be going to private school.

By: Gandido

Gandido — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 22:27:18 +0000

Someone needs to give this guy funding. This would definitely be something worth investing into.

By: DJMoran

DJMoran — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:36:14 +0000

Very nice work!

One question though: does the software work with smaller screens like that of the ubiquio 501?

P.s. I`m on holiday in Tunisia at the moment so i can,t read the ppt and the azerty keyboard is a pain in the as… i mean neck.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:02:33 +0000

Simply Great.

Makes me want to go for my EE degree, I opted for a IT degree.

Very well done.

By: bouv

bouv — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:38:36 +0000

I’m wondering what, if any, safety features you incorporated into this? All FDA approved medical devices have to be proven to have little to no risk to the patient (or in the case of more extreme devices, the rewards outweighing the risks.) Is there anything that protects the patient being monitored from the device should something go wrong? I know it’s just a 450mah battery, but if this device is intended to be marketed then it is something that needs to be addressed.

By: mikey

mikey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:35:24 +0000

You can tune very easily for the switching noise. You could switch at a freq far away from what your monitoring, and what your monitoring is a very slow signal compared to any switcher. If you’re thinking it would interfere with the ADCs, you could filter right at the input. I’ve found that I can acheive very low noise with switcher’s with very little real-estate. I’ve designed XM radio reciever’s with bluetooth and audio circuit’s all on the same [very small] PCB with very good results using switchers. Linear’s are easy, switcher’s are scary, But, I truly think if you’re going to achieve a very long battery life, you will eventually have to go this route. In the manufacturing world, every penny counts. And if you can save $2 with a smaller battery, You’ve just made the company $50 million dollars.
Also, if those two mounting holes are plated, go ahead and have them non-plated as it will interfere with the transmission pattern of the antenna. In addition, to save cost, you could implement a PCB trace antenna. If memory serves, I beleive it’s a .8 inch long trace at 60 mil wide. Google for “Microstrip antenna”.
Also, most importantly, always put on your PCB’s “Patent Pending” even though it may not be.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:52:39 +0000

I don’t think using this as an emergency warning device is such a good idea. What happens if the old lady forgets to turn it off when she removes the electrodes to take a shower? A whole brigade of EMS personnel just shows up anyway? I think this has much better use in the military field, especially if outfitted with a longer range RF transmitter. (or perhaps GPRS or cell net connection)

By: Emanuel

Emanuel — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 18:06:53 +0000

this indeed is a great idea and project. as stated before this would be an incredible product that should be produced on mass. I mean added programming and you would have a warning system for elderly that could be located via gps and call EMTs in for service. how much more are we looking for? INCREDIBLE! post up a tutorial and I am def going to build me one.

By: lee

lee — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:38:33 +0000

this is pretty crazy. good job rez! sell this to the government! I can imagine soldiers wearing monitors like these and field medics (like the person that commented above) just whipping out their phone, connecting to the soldiers ID, and immediately seeing their vitals before they administer care. if you could implement a standby mode, which cut power consumption, until the bluetooth picked up a pairing it could prolong the battery life. I don’t know if that’s plausible, but just a few ideas! good job, and I mean really good job!

By: random

random — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 06:12:54 +0000

A linear regulator isn’t bad if your battery pack is very close in voltage to what your circuitry needs. although you still have the linear’s drop. People have done neat things using a switching regulator followed by a linear, to get close to the efficiency of a switcher with the regulation quality of a linear.

I’ve been trying to build something somewhat like this for a long time, although all I want is the EKG/wireless function. This is a lovely project and I hope funding comes through.

By: reza naima

reza naima — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:36:03 +0000

You are reading it wrong. The 100 Ohm resistor is part of a Low-Pass filter to clean the noise on the small signal supply side. As I said in the video, the voltage regulator is on the battery and will be on the device in the next version. It’s a linear regulator; a switching regulator would introduce way too much noise into the system. I’m also aware of sleep states of the MCU and it does turn off when not being used, but thanks for the suggestion. The next version will also have an LED, it’s not micropower, but it’s connected to a PWM output so I can set the duty cycle really low on it, as well as blink it. It’s more there for development purposes, either way. The pulse oximeter does have two LEDs in it, but they will not be on most of the time.

By: mikey

mikey — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:03:16 +0000

First… Perhaps I’m reading it wrong, but your 100 ohm resistor as a regulator is a huge power loss and just plain wrong. Look into switching regulation. Linear tech has a lot of easy ones. that’ll be your first and biggest power saving feature add. Also, look into power and sleep modes for the IC’s your using. If your using a SPI Rom to load code, turn it off [or sleep] when your done. RF tranmission is very power hungry. Consider limiting data flow, or packetize the data, rather than ’stream’ it… and even then, perhaps put your BT asic too sleep between packets… this might sound funny to put it to sleep for only 20 or so mS, but it’ll save power. Don’t use any LEDs. If you absolutely have to, use the micro-power LEDs ~4mA, and only ‘blink’ them once a second or so.