Here’s an interesting one. Just years after a researcher in Japan realized that lasers could stimulate nerves, a professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University along with cohorts from Case Western Reserve have found that the same is true with the heart. By using an Infrared laser on an early embryonic heart, tests were able to show that the muscle was “in lockstep with the laser pulse rate.” The crew also found no signs of laser damage after a few hours of experimenting, though obviously more extensive research would be required before any medical agency allowed such a device to be beamed underneath a human chest. The hope here is that this discovery could one day lead to ultra-small, implantable pacemakers, or better still, to “pace an adult heart during surgery.” There’s nary a mention of when this stuff will actually be ready for FDA oversight, but there’s a downright creepy video of it all in the source link. Consider yourself warned.

Infrared laser shown to quicken heart rate, gives hope for ultra-small pacemakers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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One of the new iPod nano features that Apple didn’t bother to illustrate much yesterday is the integrated pedometer, and if an updated Nike+ iPod user guide is to be believed, that ain’t the only fitness-related extra that the 5G nano will be good for. As the image above so clearly shows, a Nike+ compatible heart rate monitor could be on the way, and it’ll function exclusively with Cupertino’s only camera-toting iPod. AppleInsider was told that the product launch was actually scheduled for yesterday, but it was held up for reasons unknown and may not ship until 3058. Too bad — we just know that you were waiting for this very device to start your workout regimen. Ah well, what’s another dozen months of kicking back and ingesting Ho Hos, right?

Filed under: Handhelds, Peripherals

Nike seemingly plans 5G iPod nano-compatible heart rate monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patel Institute of Engineering and Technology’s A.K. Mittra and associates have devised a clever and inexpensive early warning detection system for monitoring the fetal heart rate of that bun months-long in the oven. With two microphones — one placed on the pregnant soon-to-be mother’s abdomen and one inside the bedroom — hooked up to a nearby computer, the two audio feeds are used to estimate and subtract the ambient room noise for a better read on the baby’s vitals just before the woman goes to bed. Converted to a wav file, if anomalies are detected it’s immediately compressed to MP3 and sent to the doctor for further testing. An efficient plan, to be sure, and we can only hope the baby is healthy and hyper-intelligent enough to give normal heartbeats and start recording his or her first LP.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Two-mic system detects fetal heart rate anomalies, prenatal beat sampling originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Aug 2009 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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