Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Healthcare devices with infrared

I received an announcement forwarded from one of my readers about a healthcare product in Japan - Wireless Japan 08 show. Omron had introduced a weighing machine that uses infrared to beam data from the device to a computer for monitoring one's body fat over time - now that's a useful thing these days! Quite a clever thing. Here's the picture from the show, the Omron HBF-362 (beaming from the device) and from their website (the full view of the product), respectively:

Also from the same Wireless Japan 08, there were phones from Sharp and Docomo that have built-in health monitoring capabilities, and beaming to local devices using infrared. From the Sharp SH706iw can measure your heartrate using the sensor on the underside of the phone:









Here is Docomo's unidentified phone:











So I thought I should check out US products too, and lo and behold! There are at least two companies already using infrared in their products.

Roche Accu-Chek Blood Glucose Meter Systems:
Compact Plus Meter, Compact Meter, Aviva and Active models (in order below):










A diagram from the Roche product brochure showing how to transfer data:









Pol
ar Systems makes sports monitoring devices with infrared to beam data to PCs:
RS800CX, S725X, CS600 and their IrDA-USB adaptor (below) - and 14 other models not shown here:

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