So you’re an active sports enthusiastic looking to improve performance, or a novice fitness participant who simply wants to maintain good health and wellness. We do all that we think is needed to get to or remain in our ideal healthy fitness level. Then the unthinkable happens and an adverse medical cardiac event happens during physical activity.
We all assume that our heart beats are normal until one day, it gives you problems – could be minor, or life threatening. It affects all ages from youth to seniors, and from healthy athletes to people with cardiovascular related conditions. People tend to ignore symptoms (or may not be aware of what they are) until their condition has deteriorated to an acute or chronic condition.
For example, unknown medical conditions can give rise to Sudden Death Syndrome – known as SDS, an umbrella term used for the many different causes of cardiac arrest in young people in sports like soccer, where both non-professional and professional athletes push performance beyond what is normal state activity. If there is a way to detect and track the signals that give rise to SDS, it may help to prevent unnecessary injuries and even death in youth and young adults (typically under 35).
So what if you could simply wear an AI enabled smart-shirt (where the wires are embedded into the fabric of a Wearable Technology or more aptly called Wearables), as a diagnostic solution that can be remotely monitored and recorded via a digital App to your cell phone or tablet? Yes, artificial Intelligence (AI) has made that possible. AI enabled Wearables currently exist for public purchase – however motion interference or “noise” from the wearer’s movements during activities distorts the accuracy of the digital readings. Such is the case with the Astroskin smart-shirt App.
In Episode 3, Pierre and Hong Zu share insights on how their new App can improve the current Astroskin smart-shirt App technology. Hong Zu wears an Astroskin smart-shirt and head band in this demo to show how motion activity distorts the standard readings of EGC (electrocardiogram), Respiration (breathing), Acceleration (motion) and Oxygen (saturation) in sports activities.
Dr. Boulanger has focused their new App technology to provide for measurements during motion, and for a preventative window where clinicians can access data readings to provide an early diagnosis of potential heart diseases or conditions. Their new App combines heartbeats and heart rhythms, and removes the motion “noise” from the wearer of the Astroskin smart-shirt – enabling real time heart and vital sign parameters for the wearer to see and track.
Additional details on future applications in Health and in Safety to follow in future Episodes.
About Dr. Pierre Boulanger PhD
Pierre is currently the Director of the Advanced Man Machine Interface Laboratory (AMMI) as well as the Scientific Director of the SERVIER Virtual Cardiac Centre in the Mazankowski Heart Institute. In 2013, Dr. Boulanger was awarded the CISCO chair in healthcare solutions, a 10 years investment by CISCO systems in the development of new IT technologies for healthcare in Canada.
Dr. Boulanger received his in Engineering Physics and his Masters in Physics Laval University, and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Montreal. Dr. Boulanger cumulates more than 35 years of experience in 3D computer vision, rapid product development, and the applications of virtual reality systems to medicine and industrial manufacturing. Dr. Boulanger worked for 18 years at the National Research Council of Canada as a senior research officer where his primary research interest was in 3D computer vision, rapid product development, and virtualized reality systems. He now has a double appointment as a professor at the University of Alberta Department of Computing Science and at the Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging.
About Hong Zu Li
Hong Zu is currently a second year Ph.D. student of Dr. Pierre Boulanger in Computing Science Department at the University of Alberta. He received both his Computing Science Bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from University of Alberta. He is currently working on a continuous heart monitoring system that reports heart anomalies.
About Astroskin
Astroskin is a Wearable Technology, similar to the Biomonitor vest (biometric clothing) that Hexoskin developed with the Canadian Aerospace Agency. Astronaut David St. Jacques wore the Biomonitor vest during his International Space Station mission in 2019.
