The machine you ’re appear at is called theScanaduSCOUT and , basically , it ’s a medical tricorder that will give you accurate life-sustaining information about any human being within seconds , just on contact .
It ’s very existent and it make for now . I tried it myself , and knew I was looking at the origin of a personal wellness rotation . Star Trek - stratum stuff . Except it ’s total at the goal of 2013 .
And it ’s not only watch — the company has two other machine — ScanaFlo and ScanaFlu — which are like having your own medical labs to go . Best of all , those two are so brassy that they are disposable .
SCOUT will not be disposable , though . The social unit is a tiny hardware gimmick that reads your vital health entropy on contact . You only place it on the left temple and , in less than ten s , it will read your pulse theodolite meter , heart rate , electric warmheartedness activity , temperature , heart pace variableness and blood oxygenation . Then it sends this data to an app on your iPhone or Android phone , which displays it for you . you could even store your vital organ for trailing , which could prove fundamental to many wellness place at home .
look on SCOUT at work was something almost wizard , like take one of those gargantuan health monitoring unit reduced to a slice of charge plate that fits on the palm of your hand . Which , really , is on the button how it became to be .
How SCOUT was invented
I talk withWalter de Brouwer , the Belgian virtuoso who institute Scanadu after working at MIT and on several high profile tech project , including One laptop computer Per Child . A few years ago , Walter ’s own nestling end up in the intensive care unit of a infirmary . thwarted with the complicated machine that monitored his child ’s health , he started to think about how could all of this information be turn into something that normal people could infer . He tinkered around at the ICU and became so well-read that he finally was assisting some of the nurses there , who often would get confuse themselves .
Walter thought that there was a motive for something that would be able to supervise anyone ’s wellness , anywhere , with comfort and at depressed cost . He intend about instant full of life readings , molecular diagnostics , visualization , and storage of personal health data all twine in an easy - to - use gadget that would connect to your smartphone or tablet to show you all the information you could require in a simple way . Not only for yourself , but for remote assistance too .
Most probably , Walter had watch over too much Star Trek in his college year . He require to make a tricorder . So he did .
How does it work
At first , he thought it was potential . In fact , there are other squad who are working in similar projects to win Qualcomm ’s Tricorder X - Prize Competition , or the Nokia Sensing Challenge . So what if all had failed so far ?
So Walter start to work on what would become SCOUT , ScanaFlo and ScanaFlu . He assembled four teams of specialists at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field , California . Each team — locomotive engineer , chemists , physician , mathematicians and computer software engineers — worked together to come up with newfangled , smart ways not only to monitor vitals , but to detect factual infections within seconds . According to Walter , they apply all the john in the Scripture : imaging and heavy analysis , molecular diagnostics and datum analytics , all combed by “ a suite of algorithm to create machine that offer a comprehensive , genuine - time picture of your wellness data . ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSwMauCno6o
SCOUT is their first product . This personal wellness tricorder is so unproblematic that it will cost around $ 150 when it come along at the death of 2013 , after it gets US government favorable reception . It may very well become as ubiquitous as nursing home thermometer , which were present in the 19th century . In fact , say Walter , that ’s the whole point :
consumer do n’t have the tools they need to monitor their health and make informed decisions about when they ’re in reality sick and need to see a doctor . We need to empower consumers to take command of their health and give them direct access to their personal healthfeed .
Judging from what I saw , SCOUT may be on the nose that .
Detecting infections
Along with SCOUT , I saw two other Cartesian product that were even more telling : ScanaFlu and ScanaFlo . I could n’t get photos of these — they are still in a rough prototype stage — but they are easy enough to project .
For ScanaFlo , imagine a disposable down in the mouth plastic rectangle with a QR code and a window that give away composition swatch and a colour standardisation fair game ( alike to this ) . To get a indication , you need to pee on the rectangle as one would on a pregnancy test . Depending on the substance of your pee , the swatch will exchange colour .
https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-most-expensive-penny-in-the-universe-5941114
But what do these color intend ? You do n’t have to guess or think of . Point your smartphone at the QR fair game and it will take a photo , telling you if it detects anything out of the average based on the chromaticity of the paper swatch , which react differently depending on your health position . fit in its Godhead , ScanaFlo tests for “ gestation complications , preeclampsia , gestational diabetes , kidney failure and urinary tract infections . ”
ScanaFlu works in a similar manner . Instead of a rectangle , it ’s a lame with a small gibbousness on which you have to spit . Your spittle will be distributed to unlike test unit using tiny nano - vessels . fantastically enough , this “ disposable pickup will provide early detection for Strep A , Influenza A , Influenza B , Adenovirus and RSV . ” Like ScanaFlo , you will use your phone ’s camera to have a final result sent to your app .
These disposable systems will be sell in pack , also at the remainder of 2013 .
Why this is the future, and why it is so important
I ’m not a hypochondriac , but it ’s not arduous to see the importance of these gimmick . While being able to monitor your own health would never carry off the pauperization for doctors , it could do wonders for everyone ’s well - being . These cheap machine will keep cut of your own wellness but , as I discussed with Scanadu ’s founder , they can also be easy used to detect infection outbreaks at a home or planetal level , with citizenry anonymously upload data point to a cloud . The Center for Disease Control or the World Health Organization can literally keep their fingers on the pulse of the intact planet . The theory are truly eternal . No wonder Stephen Wolfram is one of their advisors . If they are successful , I ca n’t wait to see what people can do with all this anon. information .
If these contrivance can really provide you with instant feedback about your health position for such a scummy price , this will be the beginning of something much bountiful . The monetary savings in prevention alone — and not depending on expensive laboratories for many trial — make it all desirable .
But even more exciting is the potential increase accuracy of diagnostics , based on the tracking of data over time . As Dr. Alan Greene , Chief Medical Officer at Scanadu , says :
When it comes to wellness , norm do n’t cut it . Vitals vary throughout the day and depart from person to person , so it makes no sense to take we are all the same . wellness decision should n’t be based on average , they should be based on a real , accurate and individualized healthfeed of information , which we now have the baron to give to the consumer in the palm of their hand .
Indeed . The future look skilful . I ’m quick for this , Dr. Bones .
MedicineScience
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