Smartphone-connected devices and the future of medicine

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Smartphones have become ubiquitous in today’s society with most people relying on their mobile devices to always stay connected and online. What if, however, these devices could be used for so much more? What if they became part of the tools that doctors have in order to monitor their patients and provide treatments for some conditions?

Advancements in medicine and technology may soon make this thought a reality. Already there are many applications being developed to turn smartphones into devices that can help monitor a person’s vital signs.

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In envisioning the future of medicine, some experts argue that decentralization is the way into the future. People may soon have gadgets at their disposal to check and monitor their health and send the data to their doctors easily. This setup will require less patient visits to medical centers for routine checkups while vastly improving the delivery of care. 

Meanwhile, many apps are now being developed for diagnosis and treatment of certain health conditions. For example, there are apps that monitor the subtle hints in the user’s voice during everyday phone conversations to detect for early signs of mood changes. This type of program has applications in monitoring the conditions of patients with bipolar disorder.

Another app that is currently being developed is a smartphone-connected device that will deliver electrical stimulation to the nerves in a person’s head to help improve mood. A possible application for such a device would be to help a person calm down and relax.

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Riyesh R. Menon is a research and development engineer for a medical device company in New York. For more articles on biomedical engineering applications, visit this Google+ page.

The future of biometrics: 3D-printed fingerprints

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Biometric technologies have purposes beyond security infrastructure support. They make way for next-generation identification and verification solutions and prevention of identity theft and fraud, among others. Thus, biometrics is one of the critical components of a successful operation of an organization, establishment, and government agency. The most commonly implemented or studied biometrics are the following: face, iris, voice, signature, hand geometry, and fingerprint. Employee identification, electronic banking, law enforcement, and healthcare services are a few of the fields that have upgraded their operations through the integration of biometric technologies.

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However, just like any technology, biometric systems have vulnerabilities. There are cases when their accuracy is compromised. It is then critical to have a reasonable evaluation of the performance of any biometric system in an operational setting before its deployment. A research partnership between Michigan State University and National Institute of Standards and Technology tested the accuracy of a fingerprint matching system by coming up with the first 3D-printed fingerprint. The researchers projected 2D images on a generic 3D finger surface, which then fabricates the 3D fingerprint in a commercial 3D printer.

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This system avoids the laborious task of running millions of fingerprint images through the biometric system's matching software, which can be inaccurate. 3D fingerprinting is helpful to both sensor manufacturers and algorithm developers to boost hardware and software fingerprint matching systems. Moreover, 3D fingerprinting will also contribute to the potential touchless fingerprint sensing solutions being developed.

 To read more news on biomedical studies, visit this Riyesh R. Menon blog.