New wireless sensing technology would allow homes to keep tabs on their inhabitants' breathing and heartbeats

Apr 27, 2015 08:40 GMT  ·  By

In a recent paper, researchers with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US describe a novel wireless sensing technology that they say could be used to engineer smart homes designed to keep tabs on their residents' vitals, breathing and heartbeats included. 

So far, the MIT scientists behind this ambitious project have only built a prototype of their proposed Vital-Radio wireless sensing technology and tested its capabilities in a series of experiments carried out in laboratory conditions.

In the report detailing their work, the specialists say that the Vital-Radio system performed well in these preliminary tests. Thus, it measured both the breathing and the heartbeats of the 14 volunteers involved in this study with an accuracy rate of 99.4% and 99%, respectively.

Still, the MIT team says that they wish to continue working on perfecting it. They hope to eventually make their Vital-Radio wireless technology sensitive enough to register a baby's heartbeats while still inside its mother's womb.

Apart from paving the way for the development of a new generation of smart homes that help keep their residents healthy by monitoring their vitals at all times, the MIT Vital-Radio remote sensing technology would certainly prove useful in hospital settings.

As explained by the scientists who developed it, this technology would make it possible for doctors to closely monitor their patients' breathing patterns and heartbeats without having to hook them to all sorts of machines and strap bands across their chest.

How the MIT Vital-Radio technology works

Being a wireless sensing technology, Vital-Radio can track an individual's vitals without their having to stand in front of a device of sorts. Instead, the MIT team explains that people can go about their daily business and have their vitals monitored in the meantime.

By the looks of it, the system is so advanced that it can monitor several people at the same time. Besides, the researchers who developed it made sure that motion in the environment surrounding Vital-Radio's targets would not interfere with the system's performances.

“Vital-Radio first localizes each user in the environment, then zooms in on the signal reflected from each user and analyzes variations in his reflection to extract his breathing and heart rate,” the scientists wrote in the paper describing the technology, as cited by Phys Org.

“By isolating a user's reflection, Vital-Radio also eliminates other sources of interference including noise or extraneous motion in the environment, which may otherwise mask the minute variations due to the user's vital signs,” they further detailed.

It all sounds very promising, but at least for now, the MIT team is a tad fuzzy about a possible release date for their innovative remote sensing technology. As mentioned, they only have a prototype and the system needs more fine-tuning before it can be deemed 100% reliable.

Recording chest movements can inform on breathing
Recording chest movements can inform on breathing

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Homes of the future could monitor people's vitals
Recording chest movements can inform on breathing
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