The Institute of Biomedical Engineering became a site for interviews, conversations and workshops. The research and applications being developed here became the subject of student projects, documentaries and a set of prototypes called Vital Signs, that explored biometric monitoring.

Vital Signs is a response to the digital plaster - an array of body worn sensors which record biometric data. Sensors on the body, measure blood pressure levels and the poisition of the body in space, and upload the data to a server. Vital Signs offers an example of how this medical application might move out into other markets, responding in particular to a recent documentary and an RSA report, both discussing perceptions of child safety. Vital Signs is a hypothetical and functional of prototypes that allow anxious parents to monitor their child.

Three USB peripherals display biometric in real time:

• Heart
• Movement
• Breath

above: the prototpyes link to a sensor patch across a network

 

Designing Vital Signs protoypes

above: technologies mediate relationships

above: stills from Cotton Wool Kids, a parent discusses an imnplantable tracking device with an engineer

above: products for child monitoring

above: Laying out a circuit board for an LED display in Eagle

above: buidling the heart monitor with Arduino and a display

above: movement algorithms for walk and lung were coded by Alex Zivanovic