Cardiac Monitor

After Ratan Tata's 'Nano' comes another 'made in India' feat, once again placing India squarely on the global map. This time the seat of innovation is none other than our very own Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai, and the innovation is the world's smallest wearable cardiac monitor.

The Silicon locket, about the size of candy, is the brain child of Professor Rakesh Lal of the School of Bioscience and Bioengineering, and Professor S Mukherji. The project, funded by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is spearheaded by Professor Dinesh Sharma. Incidentally, though the locket awaits a suitable manufacturer, it's already ready at the Microelectronics Department of IIT Mumbai. The tiny computer is capable of storing a week's electrocardiogram (ECG) data. Professor Lal, a visiting fellow at the University of California, said the basic device is like plug-and-play and that there isn't anything quite as small on the market. Basically, algorithms are fed into the locket's system, enabling it to distinguish between jerks from running, from working out, or climbing stairs, or irrythmic heart beats. Worn with five electrodes on the chest, a sensor in the locket records the heart's electrical activity or ECG. If it detects abnormalities, it can automatically transmit the last few seconds of ECG data to a central server using a mobile phone interface. Whenever a user feels uneasy, he/she can press a locket button to mark that data so that a doctor can later scrutinize marked segments, and check the heart's activity before the irregularity. When connected to a cell phone, the locket can be programmed to send SMS containing marked data to a doctor. Software in the locket forwards the data to the mobile, which sends the SMS.