This week’s Smart Health roundup features a gas-sensing capsule to monitor stomach health, a necklace that monitors food and liquid intake, and a wearable temperature monitor.

High-tech gas sensing capsule to monitor stomach health

A team of researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and Monash University, led by RMIT professor Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, is developing a capsule that features biocompatible cladding, a gas-permeable membrane, and a gas sensor, microprocessor, and wireless transmitter powered by a battery, meant to be swallowed by a patient or test subject. The capsule will be able to transmit data gathered from the digestive system directly to a smartphone for analysis.

The capsule measures the concentration of select intestinal gases, by-products of gut organisms’ metabolism. This could help analyze how microorganisms and the gases they produce affect a person’s health, as well as determine how certain food can affect it.

“Being able to accurately measure intestinal gases could accelerate our knowledge about how specific gut microorganisms contribute to gastrointestinal disorders and food intake efficiency, enabling the development of new diagnostic techniques and treatments,” Kalantar-zadeh stated.

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Smart necklace that monitors nutrition

Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is developing WearSens, a high-tech necklace that is able to monitor food and drink intake to help battle obesity, heart disease, diabetes and other health problems related to nutrition.

The researchers stated that WearSens can distinguish whether a person is taking in solids or liquids with 87 percent accuracy, differentiate between hot and room-temperature drinks with 90 percent accuracy, and between food items with different textures with 80 percent accuracy. The numbers are expected to improve as the user calibrates the necklace based on their eating habits.

“Today, many people try to track their food intake with journals, but this is often not effective or convenient,” Majid Sarrafzadeh, a distinguished professor of computer science and co-director of UCLA’s Wireless Health Institute, said. “This technology allows individuals and health care professionals to monitor intake with greater accuracy and more immediacy.”

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STEMP – Smart Temperature Patch

Temperature monitoring can be used for a lot of things, like watching for fever spikes or tracking ovulation cycles in women. But manually tracking one’s temperature can be annoying and time consuming. A project on Indiegogo called STEMP aims to make temperature monitoring as easy as putting on an adhesive bandage. STEMP or Smart Temperature Patch is able to continuously monitor the wearer’s temperature throughout the day and have the data available on their smartphone.

The STEMP sensor connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth and easily attaches to a person with the use of medical-grade, disposable adhesive. The adhesive ensures that the sensor stays in place so users can wear it and forget it, but still get accurate temperature reading throughout the day.

photo credit: Digestive Organ Chart 3 via photopin (license)