medical News - Page 18 of 20 - CNX Software

August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Project OWL Open Source Hardware Ophthalmoscope is 25 Times Cheaper than Commercial Products

Medical grade equipments are usually very expensive, partly because of their complexity, but also because of certifications, legal reasons, and low manufacturing volumes. That’s where open source hardware can make a big difference, and there has been several open source hardware prosthetic hands or arms such as Openbionics hand, but Ebin Philip and his team has tackled another issue with Project OWL, an open indirect ophthalmoscope (OIO) designed for screening retinal diseases, which normally costs between $10,000 to $25,000, but their open source hardware design can be put together for about $400. The design features a Raspberry Pi 2 board connected to a WaveShare 5″ Touchscreen LCD, a Raspberry Pi Pi IR Camera (M12 lens mount) with 16mm FL M12 lens, a 3 Watt Luxeon LED, two 50x50mm mirrors, a linear polarizer sheet, a 20 Dioptre disposable lens, and various passive components. While the Raspberry Pi board is not open […]

August 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

TW68 Smart Bracelet Measures Blood Pressure and Heart Rate for $22 and Up

Some people may need to frequently measure their blood pressure because of their health condition, but it’s often a cumbersome experience, so they may get lazy, and not do it as often as needed. TW68 smart bracelet should make this easy, as it’s your typical fitness tracker with an heart rate monitor, but adding the capability to also measure blood pressure. It’s also very cheap, and I first found it on DealExtreme where it sells for just $24. TW68 specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi NRF51822 ARM Cortex M0 micro-controller with 2.4 GHz radio Data Storage – 7 days detailed data, 23 days total data Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 LE Display – 0.49″ OLED display Sensors – PixArt-PAH8001EI blood pressure sensor; 6-axis Invensense-MPU6500 accelerometer and gyroscope Function Health tracker: Blood pressure measurement, Heart rate monitor, Pedometer, Sleep tracker Other functions: Call/Message notification, Fall reminder, Social sharing, Time, Alarm clock Misc – […]

January 29, 2016January 29, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Intrinsyc Open-Q 600 Single Board Computer is Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 Processor

Intrinsyc has released several Qualcomm Snapdragon development kits and system-on-modules over the last few years, and the company has now unveiled their first single board computer with Open-Q 600 SBC powered by Snapdragon 600 quad core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC flash. Open-Q 600 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064) quad core Krait 300 processor @ 1.7GHz with 2MB L2 cache, Adreno 320 GPU, and Hexagon QDSP6V4 DSP System Memory – 2GB PCDDR3 RAM @ 533MHz; dual channel 32-bit Storage – 16GB eMMC 4.5 flash, micro SD card slot Video Output / Display I/F – HDMI 1.4a port for up to 1080p @ 60Hz, 2-lane MIPI-DSI connector Audio – HDMI, 3.5mm stereo headset output with mono input, 3.5mm Mic line in; Qualcomm WCD9311 audio codec Camera – 2-lane MIPI-CSI connector supporting 8 MP camera up to WXGA resolution @ 60 fps Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) via Qualcomm […]

January 6, 2016January 6, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

Omron Project Zero BP6000 is Both a Blood Pressure Monitor and a Smartwatch

Many smartwaches or fitness trackers include an heart rate monitor, but instead many people need to monitor their blood pressure to make sure it’s not too high (hypertension) or low (hypotension). Usually this involves either going to the doctor, or doing measurements at home with a blood pressure monitor by placing a cuff on the upper arm, and in this should take a short time, but many people may still not want to bother with the procedure. So Omron has designed a new blood pressure monitor that looks like a large smartwatch, and includes the same function as fitness monitors, in order to simply the process further, and have more people regularly measure their blood pressure. Technical details about Project Zero wrist blood pressure monitor (BPM) are not fully available yet, but we do now the company is going through FDA approval, so contrary to gadgets with heat rate monitors […]

December 30, 2015June 9, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Samsung S3FBP5A Bio-Processor Targets Fitness Tracking Wearables

We now have many wearables capable of monitoring your activities, be it smartwatches or fitness tracker, and usually they are comprised of several small sensor chips, a low power micro-controller, a Bluetooth radio, and possibly some other ICs . Samsung has been designing and just launched a bio-processor to regroup most of those features into a single chip which should only require a fourth of the area required by current multi-chip solutions. While the press release did not mention the part number, the included picture – shown above – sort of gave a clue, and Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor has the following specifications: MCU – ARM Cortex-M4 Memory – 256 KB RAM Storage – 512 KB flash DSP Sensors – 5 Analog frontends (AFEs) measuring: PPG (photoplethysmography) ECG (electrocardiography) Skin temperature BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis) Galvanic skin response (GSR) I/Os – SPI, I2C PMIC Security units The sensors will enable measurements […]

December 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Forget Wearables, Ingestibles are Coming! Meet BodyCap e-Celsius Performance Pill

In recent years, wearables such as fitness tracker have become popular to monitor the number of steps walked, calories burnt, and distance covered during your daily activities. These products are not always accurate however, and it get better data instead of having your wear a monitoring device, companies such as BodyCap are working on ingestibles, pills that some electronics, that the user swallows, and tranmit accurate data at a short range. One of the first product from the company is e-Celsius Performance that aims to measure body temperature of athletes, in order to optimize their performance. The pill has the following technical specifications: Data Storage – Up to one year, and up to 2000 samples Sampling – 30 seconds Accuracy – 0.2°C Connectivity – Wireless transmission (433 MHz); up to 1 meter range Battery – Not sure, but it can last 20 days Weight: 1.7g Dimensions – 17.7mm x 8.9 […]

October 5, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

AMS AS7000 Biosensor is Designed for Strapless Optical Heart Rate Monitors

Heart rate monitors (HRM) with chest straps are now being replaced by more comfortable strapless HRM, such as UWatch UX. These products are enabled by photoelectric sensors that sample light modulated by blood vessels, which expand and contract as blood pulses through them. One of such solutions is the recently introduced AMS AS7000 including a Cortex M0 core, and a DSP implementing algorithm to process raw photoplethysmography (PPG) readings from the sensors to convert them into digital HRM and HRV (Heart Rate Variability) values. Highlights of AS7000 Biosensor: MCU – ARM Cortex M0 with 4KB RAM, 32 KB EEPROM I/Os – 9 GPIOs, UART, SPI, I2C Analog electrical and optical Frontends Hardware sequencer Synchronous detector Integrated LEd driver with current control Optical filters Supply Voltage – 2.6 – 3.6V Temperature Range –30 to 70°C Package – 18 pins AS7000 can deliver greater accuracy when it is paired with an external […]

October 3, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Axiomtek PICO842 Fanless Bay Trail Pico-ITX Motherboard Includes a SO-DIMM Socket and SATA Ports

Axiomtek PICO842 is a fanless Pico-ITX motherboard that features Intel Celeron J1900 quad core processor or Celeron N2807 dual core processor with up to 8GB DDR3L, and aimed at IoT & medical applications, automation, and embedded systems with wide temperature range requirements. Axiomtek PICO842 specifications: SoC Intel Celeron J1900 quad core processor up to 2.42 GHz OR Intel Celeron N2807 dual core processor up to 2.16 GHz System Memory – 1x DDR3L-1066/1333 SO-DIMM up to 8GB for J1900, and 4GB for N2807 Storage – 1x SATA-300, 1x mSATA Video Output – 1x 18/24-bit single/dual channel LVDS, and 1x HDMI or 1x VGA Audio – HD Codec audio (Realtek ALC662); MIC-in/Line-out Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (Intel i211AT) USB – 4x USB 2.0 host port Serial – 2x COM ports supporting RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485. Expansion – mini PCI Express (shared with mSATA support) Power Supply – 12V DC power jack. Battery […]