Saturday, March 15, 2008

Future visions for wearable physiological monitoring systems and biofeedback devices

Physiological monitoring via wearable devices and personal feedback through mobile computers
with a view to improving health and well-being is soon to become big business.

In the Economist it is argued that heart rate variability derived from the interbeat interval of the hear provides a view into the impact of stress on the body which is predictive of risk of cardiovascular outcomes. Several companies have mass marketed products tailored to assess individual's levels of HRV and provide feedback so as to assist the person in manipulating their own physiological reactivity. The possibilities this programming opens up have attracted a quarter of a million customers to invest in HeartMath's emWave PC linked biofeedback device. Other companies are leaping in on the stress-battle field with Nokia, Motorola, and medical device maker Omron all investing heavily in such devices.

Some links:
Heartmath device: http://www.heartmathstore.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?item=6005&type=store
The research base: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9737736?dopt=AbstractPlus
Their patent:http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT7163512&id=abN-AAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=heartmath+patent

This is quite similar to the physiological monitoring in our ongoing Day Reconstruction study:
http://www.fitsense.com/SystemDevice.aspx :ActiHealth Monitoring System from Fitsense:

No comments: