Rejoice, sufferers of chronic physical conditions and every-night-might-be-your-last diseases! There's now an app for that. OK, you can't download it yet -- but soon!
Some clever Dutch researchers have managed to connect electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors, via an ultra-low-power short-range network, to the patient's mobile phone. An app on the phone tracks the readings -- presumably providing you with a pretty graph of your own heart activity, too. If your heart stops or stutters the app can then contact a doctor, or the emergency services, via Wi-Fi or 3G. Though I bet it's Wi-Fi-only in the glorious United States. There's a video after the break, if you want to see it in action.
The designer of the system, Julien Penders, says that other sensors could also be attached to this Body Area Network (BAN). Strap on an electroencephalogram (EEG) and you have an app that could measure changes in your neurological condition. How about a blood sugar concentration sensor for diabetics, or blood alcohol concentration sensor for, er... students?
Curiously, and more than a little unnervingly, this device is called the 'Human++ BAN'. Human Plus (H+), if you weren't aware, represents the transhumanism movement. Imagine a world where everyone has such a device installed at birth -- imagine a world where someone behind a computer, some kind of world controller, knows when you're lying, when you're having sex, when you're feeling suicidal.
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