Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Wednesday July 08 2015, @12:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the would-McCoy-approve? dept.

Rypinski is the leader of Aezon, one of the teams participating in the Qualcomm Tricorder XPrize. The competition launched in 2012, when the XPrize Foundation and U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm challenged innovators from around the world to develop a portable, consumer-friendly device capable of diagnosing a comprehensive set of medical conditions. More than 300 teams registered, and after a series of reviews, the organizers selected 10 finalists, announced last August.

This month, the final phase of the competition starts. Each finalist team was expected to deliver 30 working prototypes, which will now undergo a battery of tests with real patients. Prizes totaling US $10 million will go to the winner and two runners-up, to be announced early next year, when "Star Trek" will be celebrating its 50th anniversary.
...
Their tricorders won't be all-powerful portable scanners like those in "Star Trek," but they still must demonstrate some impressive capabilities. They'll have to diagnose 13 medical conditions, including anemia, diabetes, hepatitis A, leukocytosis, pneumonia, stroke, tuberculosis, and urinary tract infections. In addition, teams choose three additional conditions from a list that includes food-borne illness, melanoma, osteoporosis, whooping cough, shingles, mononucleosis, strep throat, and HIV. And their systems must be able to monitor vital signs like temperature, blood pressure and oxygen saturation, heart rate, and respiratory rate—not only in real time but for periods of several days as well.

Smartphones already seem pretty close to tricorders.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Absolutely.Geek on Wednesday July 08 2015, @04:02AM

    by Absolutely.Geek (5328) on Wednesday July 08 2015, @04:02AM (#206336)

    That is a very valid point; but as a general rule having the data is always preferable to not having the data.

    I work on plants with many 1000's of data inputs and outputs; operators cannot handle that kind of data volume; so we automate most functions and alarm on "out of normal" conditions. I would expect that the eventual health monitoring systems in the future wil also have this kind of alarming.

    Generally people wouldn't need to bother with checking their data; as automated alerts will be generated either informing you that you should consult a doctor as various warning signs have passed some threshold; or your medical info will generate an alarm that informs either a hospital / doctor that you need imediate attention.

    Obviously there would be poeple that obsess over the data and that would have to be dealt with. But we shouldn't restrict such a huge advantage to prevent a minor problem.

    --
    Don't trust the police or the government - Shihad: My mind's sedate.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Wednesday July 08 2015, @07:56AM

    by AnonTechie (2275) on Wednesday July 08 2015, @07:56AM (#206379) Journal

    Reminds me of something I read ...

    The Personal Analytics of My Life [stephenwolfram.com] from Stephen Wolfram's Blog

    --
    Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Wednesday July 08 2015, @05:55PM

    by Freeman (732) on Wednesday July 08 2015, @05:55PM (#206537) Journal

    You'll always have Hypochondriacs. Doesn't mean we shouldn't work on something like this that could be extremely useful for the vast majority of people. Sure, there are Privacy issues, etc, but why wouldn't I have control over my own device? I should be able to choose whether it just notified me and/or notified my specific Physician, or was able to call 911 for me.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"