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Ears, the next battlefield for wearable devices
2014-08-05
来源：亚科官网
When almost all people believed that smart watches are wearable main battlefield, Steven LeBoeuf founder of Valencell has a negative attitude, he felt the ear and back are the best place to get the body information. The reason is mainly because the ear provides a less noise, relatively stable body signs collection sites, and the blood flow rate of ear is different from other parts, where the blood is fresh, while near from the heart so that the measurement data is more accurate. The ear canal region contains the internal carotid artery system, tragus, ear lobe is rich in capillaries, more conducive to monitoring arterial pulse.
Steven LeBoeuf is well aware that people are not optimistic about this, but Valencell has developed a physiological monitoring module and provided authorization to manufacturers, authorized manufacturers can embedded it in ear earplugs, allowing users to collect vital signs such as heart rate, temperature and respiration rate while listening to music. Its main working principle is the use of photoelectric sensors to detect the difference of reflected light intensity after the absorption by blood and tissue, tracing the vascular volume changes in the cardiac cycle, and then remove such as skin vibration and external light and other interference factors through a digital signal (DSP) to convert these data into above information. The collected information will be sent to the user's mobile phone.
Kevin Bowyer, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Nottingham, who specializes in iris and ear biometrics, agrees that this technology will be able to collect many more accurate human information.
The technology has been used in LG's heart rate monitor and iRiver's iRiverON, Intel is also developing related products. Steven LeBoeuf said that in the future its function will not only be limited to the health field, it may be used to monitor the physical condition of soldiers and firefighters, and even with the game, so that players in the game feel the combination of game scene and personal mood, increase the game realism.
Now the biggest problem that hinders the popularity of headphones with this technology is how to make it a lightweight and independent power supply like a Bluetooth headset and a noise-canceling headset. The solution at LG's heart rate monitor is now connected with a bluetooth device, and iRiver's iRiverON is connected to a battery-filled collar, and the common problem is that it is cumbersome.
In addition to the power problem, there is another aspect that impact the user experience, that is how to allow users to wear headphones in the case of both comfort and not easy to fall off for a long time, after all, the general performance in this regard is not good. It is not obvious in the case of short-term use of headphones to listen to music, but it becomes critical for long-term wearable equipment.
While it is not possible to say that Valencell redefines the wearable device, it does provide a new way for wearable equipment to allow us to re-understand the ears.
TAG: Chemical Reagents, Biomedicine
