WLAN Card to Sense Your Vital Signs

The applications of what we learned from the vast body of knowledge called Science can never be bounded by anything, it is unlimited in nature, if we can just capitalize. Technology, as they say, is dynamic, and I fully agree. Once there is something new, created for one purpose, or created to solve a problem, that is technology. Still, if this something new is applied to another purpose or applied to solve another problem, that is also technology. But why am I saying these things? Well, my second article here at Techdock is something that is invented for some purpose but now being used for an entirely different application.

In this technology-dependent era, connectivity is important as well as mobility. Most of the gadgets are being used for mobile communications. Whether you are a tech-guru or not, you are probably familiar with a wireless LAN card. Yes! Wireless LAN card used for having mobile internet access on your PC. It allows you to connect to an access point that then connects you to the internet. But, as I said, technology is dynamic, and don’t be surprised with my next statement. Wireless LAN card can be used for vital signs monitoring. You read it right again!

Olga Boric-Lubecke, Geert Awater, and Victor M. Lubecke in their paper Wireless LAN PC Card for Vital Sign Sensing experimented on using the wireless LAN card for sensing vital signs. Yes. I will no longer describe the details of the experiments and how it was done, but lets talk more of the results. The researchers showed that it is possible to measure your heart beat and respiratory activities using the wireless LAN card exploiting the principle of the Doppler Effect. They were able to monitor vital signs using the configured wireless LAN card and a software (which they created) to interpret the results. If you don’t believe me yet, try to research on Doppler principle, and let your mind work from there. But I tell you, this is true.

So, if you have nothing much to do with your time, try to find out something from existing things to create something new from it. How about using your PC as a portal to other countries. (Packetized human being and send them over the internet). Just kidding, it will kill airline companies. (But I do not say it is impossible!) See you on my next article!