Of tricorders and lemmings

Telehealth & Telecare Aware is privileged to break the news of the new Tricorder-like device developed by iMonsys called EIMO, a compliment we take to heart. Watch the demo video:
 

 
It seems perhaps a trifle churlish therefore to point out that there is similar functionality in other products under development, such as Wello, which looks like it is going to become available about the same time, too. However the Wello slips over your phone so is much less intrusive and, some would say, has more cool. There are of course a bunch of competitors for the Tricorder X prize too, perhaps most famously the Scanadu Scout.

To explain where the lemmings come in, this reviewer went to a Wayra event recently (at which there were some brilliant pitches, especially from Cookiesmart (telepathology), Handle My Health, My Clinical Outcomes, Virtually Free and BreakBad, that we hope to cover in a future blog).

On arrival, the warm-up had already started, given by a financier who asked if anyone remembered Star Trek. He went on to say how wonderful it was that we were now within reach of developing a Tricorder. That got this reviewer thinking that actually we will in one sense shortly be ahead of Startrek: if the predictions of companies like Leman Micro as given at a recent RSM event turn out to be correct, mobile phones will not only be the Communicator, in mid 2015 they will also be the Tricorder too as vital signs measurement becomes a mobile phone feature.

All these Tricorder lookalikes therefore risk heading for the same precipice that many wearables are already close to, as mobiles absorb their functionality (and if this reviewer’s experience is anything to go by, are rather more reliable too).

So which Star Trek functionality might be next? Perhaps it’ll be a little while before mobiles become real Transporters? Hopefully mobiles will not develop Phaser functionality though (except for 007 and their like, perhaps). Then of course there’s Warp drive

Categories: Latest News.

Comments

  1. I would like to issue a challenge to the Tricorder community, which perhaps the TTA team could adjudicate. I have seen so much huffanpuff and vapourware over the years, it is difficult to separate the actual capability of the devices from that which is alluded too in the marketing videos. iMonSys cordially invite an independent TTA examiner to devise a simple ‘prove it’ hands on test to make comparisons, the results of which will be published on these pages. I don’t think we need to include technical detail such as calibration or data analysis, or predictive software development, let’s keep it simple. Does it do what you say it does TODAY. Any takers?

  2. Hi Graham, many thanks for your comment. If I heard/read your video correctly, the EIMO will not actually be available until August-September 2014 in its ‘household’ version (later for the clinically-approved version), which are similar timescales to ‘tricorder’-like competitors. How is it possible therefore to do a ‘prove it’ test today?

  3. Hi Charles
    Good question.
    During the initial R&D we developed prototypes, for our research. When we demonstrated these to our doctors, they were staggered at the excellent readings we were achieving, but suggested a more convenient configuration would be much more acceptable to the end user. We redesigned to their spec, and built and tested the new model. The readings are even better on this pre production version. So I am able to demonstrate on either the original prototype or the pre production prototype, as I am sure other Tricorder companies can do.

    BTW we have published academic papers on developing the algorithms for Eimo, which form the basis of the research requirements for eventual medical approval.