Superhuman Senses

Tracking Grandma

Here's a growing business based entirely on a new use for sensors. The firm behind it, Living Independently, just raised an additional $10 million in venture capital, bringing the total raised to $22 million.

QuietCare places wireless sensors throughout a senior's home or apartment. According to the firm, QuietCare "functions as a 24 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week early detection and early warning system that lets caregivers and family members know that a loved one is safe."

In practice, the system learns the "normal" behavior of each senior. Using just sensors - no video images whatsoever - it monitors when the person eats, sleeps, takes medicine, and even uses the restroom.

Then, when the senior varies from his or her normal pattern, the system can issue an alert.

Information and alerts are passed to caregivers through a trained call center, through email, text messages, beepers, and through a password-protected web site. The reports are quite comprehensive and it's not hard to imagine how valuable they could be.

Many years ago, my mother was very ill and lived alone over a hundred miles away from me. I wish QuietCare was available then; it would have given us both peace of mind.

Headquartered in New York, Living Independently developed QuietCare following 12 years of research and development that was funded in part by grants from the National Institute of Health and Aging.

Take Two Sensors and Call Me in the Morning

Not to be too personal, but I'm one of those people who squirm at the very thought of a physician inserting just about anything into my body, especially if its length is measured in feet.

That's why I'm delighted to tell you about the SmartPill GI Monitoring System, which is a medical sensor that you swallow.

Here's how Genetic Engineering News describes what happens next:

When ingested, the SmartPill pH.p Capsule captures biomedical data from within a patient's entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract and wirelessly transmits that data to a small receiver worn on a belt clip. The SmartPill pH.p Capsule senses pH (acidity) and pressure from within the patient's GI tract, enabling gastroenterologists and researchers to more accurately diagnose and understand GI motility disorders such as gastroparesis.

The article makes no mention of how the device leaves your body, but I can guess and am fairly certain it's not reuseable.

GEN goes on to quote Dr. Braden Kuo, Director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston who said, "The SmartPill is non-invasive, easy to administer, well-tolerated diagnostic that will make a significant impact on the ability to get the information that a doctor and a patient need to improve their overall treatment outcomes."

Pending FDA release, the SmartPill will be available for sale in the US in late Spring 2006.

Now that's more like it.