Communications of the ACM
New Devices, Wearable System Aim to Predict, Prevent Asthma Attacks
Researchers at the North Carolinia State University ASSIST Center have developed a wearable system of sensors that could help people with asthma.
Credit: James Dieffenderfer
A wearable system of sensors developed by researchers from North Carolina State University's (NCSU) ASSIST Center could help people with asthma predict and prevent asthma attacks by tracking environmental and physiological data.
The Health and Environmental Tracker (HET) uses a variety of sensors connected to a wristband and a patch.
"Our goal was to design a wearable system that could track the wellness of the subjects and in particular provide the infrastructure to predict asthma attacks, so that the users could take steps to prevent them by changing their activities or environment," says NCSU professor Alper Bozkurt.
He says the patch binds to the user's chest and tracks movement, heart and respiratory rates, blood oxygen levels, skin impedance, and wheezing.
Environmental conditions such as ozone levels, humidity, and temperature are monitored by the wristband, and a spirometer measures lung function similar to a peak flow meter, but is self-powered and collects more accurate measurements. Bozkurt says all collected data is then transferred to a computer to be recorded and analyzed.
HET incorporates nano-enabled sensors with extremely low power consumption levels, which gives the devices long battery lives.
The team plans to begin testing HET on a larger subject population this summer, and will develop software to alert users to potential asthma attacks.
From NCSU News
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