Life-Saving Wristwatch One of 16 Big Ideas

Can a wristwatch save your life? Researchers at Illinois and Princeton University think so. Their idea for a real-time health monitoring wristwatch that could speed emergency response during emergency medical situations via the existing cell phone network was one of 16 "big ideas" selected for Google's 10th Anniversary Project Contest. It was the only proposal in the health category to be selected.

The lifesaving wristwatch would come equipped with sensors that would monitor such crucial health measures as heartbeat and blood pressure, and speed emergency response in the event of sudden cardiac arrest, carbon dioxide poisoning or other life-threatening condition, according to Tanil Ozkan, a MechSE doctoral student and one of three researchers who proposed the concept.

Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in the United States. “About 325,000 people die of heart attacks each year, and an estimated 95 percent of the victims of sudden cardiac arrest die before reaching a hospital or receiving emergency care,” Ozkan said. “Speeding emergency response via a real-time monitoring response system could save lives--particularly in situations when a person is sleeping or no one else is around to help.”

Best of all, such a real-time health monitoring and response system could be built and integrated to the existing cell phone communications network using current capabilities in sensory electronics and miniaturization. Google is promoting the idea through educational and academic channels in the hope that it can inspire the collaborative nanoscale sensor development and testing, random signal processing and smart systems miniaturization efforts needed to turn the technology into a reality.

“Google organized this competition in such a way that we can claim no intellectual property rights but they promised to give 10 million dollars to institutions or cooperative efforts that actually develop the technology,” Ozkan said.

The health-monitoring and response wristwatch is the brainchild of Ozkan and two other researchers: Ilker Bayer, a postdoctoral researcher in Illinois’ Department of Aerospace Engineering, and Onur Ozyesil, a former member of Illinois Coordinated Science Laboratory who is now a doctoral student at Princeton University. The three have posted a 30-second video about their proposal on You Tube. View the video.