Walyou

MOCAheart Brings Smart Cardiovascular Monitoring to the Masses

Posted: 29 Sep 2015 05:31 AM PDT

Since cardiovascular diseases represent the #1 cause of death globally, monitoring parameters like heart rate and blood pressure using gadgets such as MOCAheart is essential, for both preventing and keeping such health problems under control.

The subject of a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter at the end of last year, MOCAheart is commercially available as of today. Seeing as how September 29 is World Heart Day, MOCACARE, the developer of this useful gadget, couldn’t have picked a better occasion to launch their product. Sure, there are plenty of cardiovascular monitoring devices out there, but none match the convenience, portability, and the great number of features of MOCAheart.

“We are excited to introduce MOCAheart and realize our ambition of empowering people to proactively monitor their heart health without interrupting their lifestyle,” explained Naama Stauber, co-founder and COO of MOCACARE. “By combining the latest developments in technology and medical science we have been able to deliver a device that will empower millions to effectively and effortlessly track cardiovascular health in taking action to prevent or minimize the well-known risks associated with heart disease.”

Probably one of the most interesting aspects about this gadget is the fact that it’s connected, thus giving both patients and health care providers instant access to the most recent readings, as well as to a history of the previous ones. The measured parameters include heart rate, blood oxygen levels and the proprietary MOCA index, a “correlation between the pressure exerted by the heart and the speed at which blood travels through the body”. To track these parameters, people need to use the “press and go” technique, so that the optical sensor and electrode get a proper reading. Environmental factors such as weather and location are also taken into account, so that medical personnel can tell what triggered a certain reaction.

As seen in the following images, MOCAheart fits comfortably in your hand, but for an even better experience, users can attach it to their iPhones using a custom built case. According to the manufacturer, Android cases will be available soon, but knowing how many different smartphones are powered by Google’s mobile OS, creating cases for each of them is nearly impossible. In that context, we can expect cases only for a selected few. Measuring 1 3/8" x 2 3/4" x 1/4" (35 x 70 x 6.35 mm) and weighing between 27 and 30 grams, this smart cardiovascular monitor is extremely durable, being made out of medical-grade stainless steel and biocompatible plastic.

Click to view slideshow.

The following slideshow includes screenshots of the MOCAheart companion app for iOS.

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Check out the following video for an unboxing of the product.

MOCAheart will be offered in four different colors, stainless steel, green, yellow, and red, presumably with matching iPhone cases. If you or someone close to you have a history of heart disease, head over to MOCACARE‘s website and order your MOCAheart for $149.99.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Jabra Sport Pulse wireless earphones that also include a heart rate monitor, or Xiaomi’s $32 Android-compatible blood pressure monitor.

CableRobot Takes VR Immersion to a Whole New Level

Posted: 28 Sep 2015 12:09 PM PDT

The brainchild of Heinrich
Bülthoff’s research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and another team from Fraunhofer IPA, the CableRobot Simulator makes complete immersion a reality.

Being composed of a central cockpit frame, a chair, harness, heavily-modified Oculus Rift DK2 and a computer for running the software, the CableRobot Simulator is a motion platform that gives users a full six degrees of freedom for movement. In other words, CableRobot features a much larger degree of movement forward/backward and left/right, than its fixed-base counterparts. The platform is attached with several heavy-duty strings to the corners of the room, and depending on which of the strings are tensioned, the frame moves in one direction or another.

“We’re currently using a DK2 as the initial visualization solution but might also use projection or other large-screen solutions in the future.
Better HMDs of course as well,” explained Joachim Tesch, a developer on the project. “Since the Oculus DK2 tracking system was not designed to work on a motion simulator we are using an external optical tracking system. This is still work-in-progress and needs further improvement to match the quality of the Oculus tracking solution.”

The two teams of researchers have developed simulators that work specifically with this motion platform: “Graphics for flight and driving visuals are done in Unreal Engine 4. We modified it to work with the optical tracking system and also to connect it to our simulation environment.” Speaking of the optical tracking system, CableRobot makes use of a proprietary one that detects the position of a user’s head using an HMD mounted three-point system.

I wonder how the developers of this project are going to handle virtual reality sickness, as there’s much more motion involved in the CableRobot than in other similar platforms. Should their motion platform go mainstream (preferably in amusement parks, rather than at individuals’ homes), I really think that people should give this contraption a “test drive” before investing in it. Regardless of its destination, the developers of the motion platform should test its safety properly before launching a commercial version, as dying while using such a machine is not entirely impossible. It remains to be seen what the future holds for us in terms of virtual reality simulators, but now that Valve has announced that Half Life 3 won’t be made for VR, I guess that people aren’t that anxious to try these, anymore.

Check out the following video to get a better idea of how the CableRobot simulator looks and works in real life.