JOIN USNow, check your vitals even while you doze
With the discovery of a wireless device built by Bengaluru-based Turtle Shell Technologies, monitoring your vitals will no longer involve any poking or prodding.
All you need to do is just go to bed! The venture of the ‘invisible caretaker’ is a brainchild of co-founders, Mudit Dandwate, an IIT-Bombay alumnus and Gaurav Parchani of IIT-Indore who met at their workplace in startup city, brainstormed and deviced ‘Dozee’ and ‘Vitals.’
The battery-powered device, consisting of a thin vibration sensing sheet, is placed under the mattress of the patient or user. It tracks your pulse, respiration and sleep cycles through the mattress irrespective of, whether it is made of foam, spring or coir and up to a thickness of 12 inches. The information recorded can be accessed through an application on one’s smartphone.
They built Dozee and Vitals on this principle with slightly different uses. Dozee is meant for the general user giving information on stages of sleep and instances of snoring.
It can even wake one up when the sleep cycle is completed besides providing personalised tips to improve lifestyle based on the data obtained.
Vitals, on the other hand, is meant to be used to provide medical care in hospitals.
“Vitals of patients, other than those in the ICU, are not constantly monitored. A nurse or doctor usually checks on them every few hours. The device, Vitals, will be useful because it will track continuosly and if anything abnormal is detected, alerts will be sent out immediately to the doctors and caretakers,” Dandwate explained. According to a study, 84 per cent patients show deterioration in vitals 6 to 8 hours before cardiac arrest. Constant tracking will reduce the time taken to respond and could thus prove lifesaving for patients.
The devices also make it possible to track sleep cycles which can be an important indicator of one’s health.
Giving an example, Dandwate said. “The REM stage of the sleep cycle is important for consolidation and retention of memory. If a person misses this stage repeatedly, it could be an early sign of memory problems or mental disorders. The device will alert the user to get it checked,” he added.
The devices have been benchmarked against medical grade sensors at the sleep research facility in Nimhans. Currently, Vitals is being tested on a pilot basis in hospitals in Mumbai and Bengaluru while Dozee will be rolled out for consumers in a few months.