HIT – Health Internet of Things

February 14, 2011

Here is a guest post by futurist Walter de Brouwer:

We want our health to become a number. That is one of the reasons why we seem to be
at the beginning of a real Cambrian Explosion of ‘Health Internet Things’ and tracking
gadgets. Everything in our bathroom or pharmacy will soon have a display and a WUSB
or Bluetooth connection because all of these displays will want to connect, thereby
producing a real-time, ever-changing picture of our ambient health.
.
The time seems right to produce a ‘periodic table’ of all the gadgets still to be invented.
Let me suggest the first 20.
1. Teeth. Toothbrushes that will measure fluoride, remember cavities and discoloration, and notify you of bad breath.
2. Eyes. Glasses that will monitor your eyesight and advise correction.
3. Hair. Combs that will screen the follicles, report on dandruff density, scan for fungus or lice, and count the hairs (hair loss).
4. Bottom. Toilets that will test excrements, both liquid and solid. Feces will be graded following the Bristol Stool scale.
5. Chest. Airport scanners that will broadcast their results to your phone.
6. Body. Clothes that will be intelligent because the fibers will compute, and that will visualize your body language.
7. Underbelly. A new field of underwearables that will integrate markers for early detection of cancers or other anomalies.
8. Forearms. Shirts that will screen the microbiome on your forearms (40x more than our own cells).
9. Neck. Collars that will chemically analyse your sweat.
10. Ear. Earphones that will measure your hearing and analyze the emotional level of people you are listening to (sound analysis already allows that!), interesting for total communication (i.e. beyond words and including body language).
11. Heart. Pacemakers and stents that will broadcast data to the cardiologist plus ECG
(CORVENTIS).
12. Nose. Tissues that will examine snot and mucus when you blow your nose.
13. Chin. Razors that will plot the surface of the skin looking for acne.
14. Lips. Balm that will scan for cold sores.
15. Tongue. Tongue scrapers that will screen salivary microbes (the oral microbiome).
16. Back. Chairs that will plot your posture and broadcast data for your spine.
17. Nails. Nail cutters that will determine the quality of your nails and count the ridges.
18. Feet. Step counters (FITBIT).
19. Pulse. Heart rate monitors (GARMIN).
20. Brain. Headsets that will measure electrical activity in the form of alpha, beta, delta and theta waves (Emotiv’s EPOC).
Thanks Walter!

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