TechRoar

Centuries ago in Medieval England, it was common practice to wrap smallpox patients in red cloth in hopes that the illness would disappear. Although patients may have been delighted by their new wardrobe, the cloth, of course, did little to heal their ailment. Today, one need only consider this example to remember how far we’ve come over the years in understanding sickness, and how much technology has helped us cure and treat such conditions.

Although smallpox has been dealt with in the modern world, being diagnosed with a heart disorder is no trivial matter. Many scientists invest countless hours and immense effort into their work in hopes that they may improve the quality of life of millions who suffer from heart failure and related cardiovascular diseases. In fact, thousands of people a year die while waiting for a donor to show up with a healthy heart; in America alone only about 2000 heart transplants are carried out each year, which is much less than required. The invention of a long-lasting artificial heart has long been a milestone for academics all around the world. The first of these was approved by the FDA in 2004, after 10 years of research. Although it is currently used during heart transplants to keep blood circulating, there have been several modifications to the original device. After the first experiments that took place in as early as the 1950s, people began looking for more and more ways to make an artificial heart that could permanently replace a natural heart and could function properly inside a human being. In August 2006, an artificial heart called the Berlin Heart was used on a 15-year-old girl in Alberta. Although it was meant to be temporary, it was removed after 146 days, by which time her heart had healed completely and was able to take over its functions.

The next feat of electronic biomedical engineering was announced in October 2008, when French professor A.F. Carpentier declared that a fully functional artificial heart would be ready for experimentation by 2011. This device uses electronic sensors to beat rhythmically and chemically treated animal tissue. Similarly, many engineering firms are in the competition to come up with the most efficient heart. As heart disease is becoming an increasingly common issue, what with the cholesterol-rich diets of today’s consumers and improved healthcare leading to an ageing population, many have joined the race and are using the best technology to reach a solution.

As for how the artificial heart works, it depends on the technology and method that is used in each individual product. Some artificial hearts are run by a hydraulic system which contains and controls the movement of a fluid that allows the heart to function. Some even use technology that is similar in principle to those used to build airplanes. However, all artificial hearts need an internal power source, which comes in the form of a battery that is often implanted inside the abdomen of the patient. Other components such as an external battery and control also exist to allow the heart to work.

Due to these new and innovative methods, heart patients can look forward to greater living standards.

Imagine a pocket-sized piece of technology that could tell you the number of calories burned, steps taken, miles walked, quality of sleep and intensity of exercise you’ve had all day. That’s pretty much what the Fitbit Tracker is; a tiny, wireless device you can use to record your fitness. A stack of algorithms knitted tightly around accelerometer motion sensors and squashed into an attractive, miniature package make the nifty gadget that gathers data about your daily activity and uploads them onto a personal site. Alternatively, you can view the data straight from the Fitbit Tracker itself. The blue OLED display is easy to read and it also includes a picture which shows your overall activity level. So even glancing at the device will let you know when to quicken your step.

Tests have shown the Tracker to be over 95% accurate when recording data about your daily activities. It is not going to be as precise when you’re doing things like cycling and it certainly wasn’t designed use in a swimming pool. Fitbit isn’t waterproof either, although it is water-resistant and hence safe to wear on your wrist. The attached accessories are a wristband and belt holster. The duty of the Fitbit charger is quite obvious; the juice pumped into the tiny tracker is enough to make it last 10 days. Besides charging, the base station also serves as a wireless port into which the tracker dumps fitness information. You don’t need to be within range for it to work. The Fitbit records and stores detailed daily data for a week and summarised daily data for a month.

The Fitbit website is where your data finally ends up and you can make that as private or public as you wish. The synchronising software runs on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X. The website is free to use and a great place to meet people with similar health goals. It allows you to create online groups with this people and includes a tool to ‘track’ what the fitbit device doesn’t; your weight and daily nutrition (i.e. calorie intake).

The Fitbit Tracker will be available in the summer 2009 and sell for $100 in the USA only. They will certainly be available worldwide sometime in 2010.