3. Taking the bathroom scale to a whole new level
Researchers at Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania have developed a bathroom scale that will monitor personal health to diagnose conditions like cardiac arrhythmia, while also still measuring weight.
“Hospitals are fully equipped with advanced technologies for diagnosing illnesses and critical conditions, but it is too expensive to use this equipment for everyday health monitoring,” said Vaidotas Marozas, director of the KTU Institute of Biomedical Engineering, in a press release. “On the other hand, people do not have many devices for personal health monitoring at home, and these devices could be very practical.”
The multifunctional body composition scales are designed to measure a person’s pulse in the feet and hands through sensors on the handlebar and footpad electrodes. The scales can then determine if the person has any problems based on the pulse’s arrival time from the heart to the feet.
If the speed of the pulse is faster, that could indicate stiff arteries which could mean a possible development of arteriosclerosis.
The research team also plans to expand the platform of the scales to accommodate more conditions.
“We are continuously increasing the number of parameters that can be measured using our scales. For example, alongside arterial stiffness, the scales can also detect cardiac arrhythmia. I believe that in the future, the multifunctional body composition scales will measure more than 20 various health parameters,” said Marozas.