Although TVs and other consumer electronic gadgets continue to occupy center stage at the Consumer Electronics Show, this year’s showcase in Las Vegas will also feature a number of products and technologies in the healthcare area. While consumer-oriented products such as Fitbit immediately come to mind, many of the technological innovations at CES combine hardware and artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor personal health and in some cases aid their recovery from diseases or falls.
One interesting technology is Addison Care™, an augmented reality virtual caregiver from SameDay Security Inc. that engages aging and chronically ill clients throughout the home to supplement their care and provide various health and safety features. Designed to appear on 15-in. monitors, Addison Care™ (Figure 1) carries on live two-way conversations with users, monitoring their activities around the clock.
According to the company, the device uses deep learning algorithms to measure the amount of “learned non-use,” where stroke survivors neglect to use their impaired arm or leg, causing their brain to lose the ability to control those limbs altogether. To speed recovery, the device encourages patients to use their impaired limbs every day, enabling them to regain their lost abilities over time. It provides them with an easy-to-understand rep count throughout the day and sets an intelligent activity goal that updates every day based on the wearer’s actual movement ability, Patients are encouraged and rewarded for meeting goals.
Figure 2: The MiGo wearable fitness tracker helps stroke survivors regain use of impaired body limbs. Image Source: Flint Rehab
Restoring Balance
Scale-1 Portal is unveiling MoveR, an applications for treating balance disorders. Designed for vestibular rehabilitation therapy, the technology transports patients in virtual scenarios controlled live by a health care professional (see video). It gives patients an immersive experience without any headset and without carrying a motion capture device. MoveR offers two experiences immersing the user in a virtual environment with only a pair of 3D glasses.
Using a touch screen with a simple and clear interface, the health care professional can directly control these scenarios in order to adapt them to the patient. Dedicated to reducing visual dependence in disorders of the balancing system, the two experiments will generate a sensory conflict in order to make greater use of somesthesia and the vestibular system.
One of these immersive experiences also encourages the user to perform movements in response to the physician’s choices. This means, for example, trying to catch virtual objects or avoid obstacles in a scrolling path.
AerBetic Inc. is demonstrating a non-invasive, wearable diabetes alert system containing nanosensors that detect gases, given off through breath or skin, that are symptomatic of high or low blood sugar. The device will pair with smartphone apps, aiding the ability to push alerts to patients and caregivers.
According to AerBetic CEO Arnar Thors, the device was inspired by his family pet, a yellow Labrador retriever. The sensors will use patient data and feedback to improve and fine tune over time, Thors says, using machine learning and artificial intelligence to increase fidelity at the individual user level and network-wide.
The device is in the final stages of development, with testing slated to begin the first quarter of this year.
TBI Rehabilitation 
