BIOMEDevice presenter charts diagnostics of the future

Boston, MA. “Before your immortality!” was the enticing title of a presentation by Barmak Heshmat, a post-doctorate associate at the MIT Media Lab. Speaking March 27 at BIOMEDevice, Heshmat charted a journey to the diagnostics of the future.

The idea of an elixir of life is thousands of years old, he said, adding that although immortality is not possible, there are ways of extending life and improving wellbeing. We can rely on physics, he said, to repair and preserve the body. Technology, he said, can help improve mental balance, promote physical exercise, and even monitor food quality.

One key to improvements in diagnostics, he said, is the fact that miniaturization in optics is beginning to catch up with miniaturization in electronics. Nanomaterials and 3-D printing techniques are yielding smaller and cheaper sensors. In fact, TellSpec offers a spectrometer on a keychain that can analyze the chemical composition of foods. Heshmat emphasized that we still need lab-grade instruments, but that portable devices are able to distinguish “A from B on a limited scale.”

The Zensorium tinke was another product cited by Heshmat—at the touch of a finger, the tinke measures heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation level, and heart-rate variability.

Another area of interest, Heshmat said, is terahertz technology—from 300 GHz up to 3 or 10 THz, depending on whom you ask. Up until recently, he said, the region between the microwave and IR spectrums have been dark, at least from an applications standpoint. Terahertz technology, he said, offers opportunities in communications as well as imaging and inspection.

The technology is being pursued by companies including Zomega Terahertz Corp., whose website reports that the company “is focused on developing and deploying terahertz-based technology solutions for both the public and private sector. We produce both predesigned and custom systems for time-domain spectroscopy, inspection and non-destructive testing, and CW applications in both point-measurement and imaging modalities, with true turnkey operation and integration into larger systems requiring THz capabilities.”

Heshmat also described other technologies, some of which Ramesh Raskar, a professor at the MIT Media Lab, addressed in a presentation at the 2013 BIOMEDevice event, including high-speed imaging, cameras that look around corners, and EyeNetra—a low-cost cellphone attachment that can determine an eyeglass lens prescription and check for cataracts.

Heshmat said that the eye is a window into health, and technology called eyeMITRA involves scanning the back of the eye to diagnose diabetic retinopathy. While it can currently diagnose an already existing condition, it could ultimately be used for prediction, he said.

Technology is offering amazing diagnostics advantages, he said, but cautioned BIOMEDevice attendees to be careful with companies' initial claims. Technologies take time to develop, and capabilities might be limited at the beginning.

Visit cameraculture.info for more on the work of Raskar, Heshmat, and colleagues at the MIT Media Lab.