MIT researchers working on an ingestible sensor that can measure vital signs

MIT Vital Signs capsule

A team of researchers at MIT have developed an ingestible sensor that could measure vital signs from the inside, specifically from the gastrointestinal tract. The sensor, packaged inside an almond-sized silicone capsule, is expected to make both short and long term assessments easier on patients. Also, it could help monitor soldiers and assist athletic training programs.

Other technologies for taking user’s vitals require a skin contact, and can be incredibly uncomfortable especially for trauma patients like burn victims. Through their ingestible device, researchers claim, they intend to eliminate the need for any external contact with the body.

The built-in technology uses a signal processing algorithm to sort through the clutter of sounds.“What we did with our technology is identify components that were compatible with ingestion,” Giovanni Traverso, a research affiliate at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and co-author of the paper that introduces the tech, said in the video. “These are very small microphones similar to the ones that are used in common cellphones and actually listen from within the body and [can] extract the heart rate and respiratory rate.”

Said device uses microphones to pick up sound waves from both the heart and the lungs, along with other noise that comes from the digestive tract. The built-in technology uses a signal processing algorithm to sort through the clutter of sounds and differentiates between the heart and breathing rates. The signal can then be transmitted to a receiver as far as three meters away.

Once inside, the sensor could stay in the tract for a day or two. But anyone who might need a long term analysis would have to pop these sensors on a regular basis.


[Via: Engadget]