Mobile technologies for life and sports

Anna Petrenko, "Biomolecule"

How many hours a day do you hold a mobile phone in your hands? In reality, twice as much as you just thought, the researchers calculated. Many companies and laboratories have now successfully put mobile technologies at the service of themselves, science and medicine. Read below about what you can learn from mobile apps, how you can diagnose sickle cell disease with a smartphone and what the sheep have taught scientists from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital!

How does your day start? Most likely, you turn off the alarm on your smartphone, and then check your mail on it, read the news or watch the weather forecast. As inexorable statistics show, people on average use the phone five hours a day – and this is about a third of the total waking time! – and they check it about 85 times a day. Interestingly, these figures are a surprise to many: smartphone users are sure that they turn to the device twice as often [1]. In addition, the smartphone has long been not only a phone: for example, a quarter of British users never use it in the traditional mode (that is, for regular calls) once a week!

Researchers and commercial developers could not miss such an opportunity to monitor the state of the user's body. Of course, the registration of the necessary parameters does not take place around the clock, as in the case of an implanted device (you can read about such technologies and modern cyborgs in the previous article of the cycle – "Cyborgs among us" [2]). But still, since the phone becomes a constant companion of a potential patient and buyer, it is possible to design special wearable devices that will monitor the health of the "wards" and connect wirelessly with a smartphone.

Smartphone apps – for every need and need!

Downloading a new application has not been difficult for most smartphone users with any operating system for a long time. Now applications serve not only for entertainment or communication, but also for education, health monitoring and even diagnostics. Many applications work independently. And surprisingly, such programs, created for different purposes, really benefit.

Those who lead a sedentary lifestyle may be interested in an application that automatically sends reminders that from time to time you need to get up and stretch your muscles a little [3]. Such messages begin to arrive after the program has recorded that the user has been inactive for a long time. The study of the effectiveness of the program demonstrates that this approach really works. Participants from the group using the app reduced the time spent sitting by 3%. Although this figure seems small, in practice it is as much as 25 minutes a day.

Some socially oriented researchers also set themselves more global goals – to convey important information to a certain group of the population in an accessible form. In the modern world, such work is especially necessary, since the gap between real scientific knowledge and the level of awareness of ordinary people is truly huge. The availability of medical data and their perception by the population in developing and developed countries also differ greatly.

The new smartphone application Gyan Jyoti, which means "light of knowledge", was created with the financial support of British specialists and demonstrates an attempt to cope with the voiced problems and debunk some myths about contraception [4]. Its target group is married women living in rural India (Fig. 1). In this application you can find motivational videos about various contraceptives and family planning; opinions of couples using contraceptives; a section "Question/Answer of doctors" and much more. According to information provided by the Johns Hopkins Center, in just a few months, the number of women using modern family planning methods has increased significantly. In particular, women who have watched the video are 4.5 times more likely to resort to modern methods of contraception.

Indian women who have used a new educational application that debunks myths about contraception, resort to modern methods of family planning many times more often. Drawing from the website gizbot.com .

Some applications require a wearable device or some additional hardware. For example, a specialized "nozzle" was created on a smartphone to diagnose sickle cell disease (and anemia of the same name, which is included in this group of pathologies), which occurs in a quarter of the population of Central and West Africa [5]. Scientists have presented a highly sensitive method of analysis, which requires a very small blood sample – less than 1 µl – and which, therefore, requires a small amount of reagents. The diagnosis is based on the fact that the density of sickle-shaped erythrocytes under deoxygenated conditions is higher than the density of red blood cells of the usual form. A lightweight and compact device printed on a 3D printer and equipped with an LED for sample illumination, an optical lens for image magnification and two magnets is installed on a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. These magnets, facing each other with the poles of the same name, form a magnetic field and provide magnetic levitation of red blood cells (almost fantastic, yes!).

(Read more about wearable technologies in the article "Big Brother is watching you, or How the development of technology is changing our lives" [6]).

After simple manipulations, the collected blood sample is loaded into a microcapillary tube, which is inserted between magnets. The contents of the tube are illuminated by an LED, and this "picture" is enlarged using an aspherical lens. The smartphone's built-in camera photographs the sample, and the resulting image is processed in one second by a special Android application on the same smartphone. A light microscope is also connected to the device on the smartphone through a special connector. Due to differences in density during levitation in a magnetic field, sickle-shaped erythrocytes are easily distinguished from normal ones (Fig. 2).

Equipment for magnetic levitation-based diagnostics of sickle cell disease. a is a schematic representation of the attachment of the equipment to the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. b is the device device: an LED is designed to illuminate a blood sample in a microcapillary, two magnets – to provide magnetic levitation of red blood cells, an aspherical lens – to enlarge the image. The sample is photographed by a camera built into a smartphone. b – A photo of magnetic levitation of polystyrene microspheres with a size of 10 microns, taken by a smartphone (scale – 25 microns). g-e – The appearance of the equipment from the front, back and side. w – Photo of levitating microspheres on the smartphone screen. The z – Light microscope, lying on its side and connected to the equipment on the smartphone, visualizes the magnetic levitation of cells. Figure from [5].

Have you walked 10,000 steps today?

One of the most well–known classes of devices that connect to a smartphone is fitness trackers, such as Jawbone UP and Fit-Bit (Fig. 3, from the website thosegamers.com ). First of all, a pedometer is built into them - the simplest motion sensor. It is in the steps today that many healthcare organizations set the minimum level of necessary physical activity. A moderately active lifestyle is now determined by a round number of 10,000 steps per day, although it is obvious to everyone that this figure is conditional. For a resident of a megalopolis who walks an average of 3000-4000 steps daily, this means an increase in the load more than twice. However, it is not so difficult to "work out" them in practice. For example, the British National Health Service advises getting off the bus early and walking on your own two feet at least part of the way to work/home, preferring stairs to escalators and elevators, escorting children to school and walking the dog.

Fitness trackers not only track the number of steps taken, but can also record the duration of sleep, the approximate number of calories spent, and much more. The information is transmitted to a special application in the phone. Perhaps, such a device is the easiest way to monitor the general state of health and physical activity, and it will suit anyone without specific needs [7]. Even if a person decides to give up the tracker at some point, it is quite possible that a more mobile lifestyle will already have time to get into his habit. It is not surprising that already every tenth resident of the United States is the lucky owner of such a bracelet [8].

Sport is life

A special place in new technologies is given to professional athletes and just lovers of physical activity. Registration of individual endurance and achievements of athletes and entire teams can now be entrusted to technology. In addition, the devices also help doctors to control loads to improve athletic performance. Traditionally, these are the already mentioned pedometers, accelerometers and gyroscopes, devices with a built-in GPS receiver for registering movement, as well as various sensors for recording physiological characteristics: heart rate, temperature, etc. [9]. Now new devices are being added to them – for example, a sensor that detects fluid loss during intensive training [10]. The device, which is being developed at the University of Strathclyde (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow), is attached to the body, analyzes the composition of electrolytes in sweat and transmits information to a smartphone in real time. Thus, this transdermal device controls the dehydration of the body during exercise and can become the final touch in the technical equipment of professional athletes and sports enthusiasts working hard.

However, in addition to improving physical fitness and training performance, scientists have another enticing goal – to minimize injury. It is clear that you can't protect an athlete from everything precious, but research is already underway to prevent some frequent injuries. Among the new developments are ingenious sneakers from the Spanish Institute of Biomechanics of Valencia (Instituto de Biomecanica de València) and the shoe manufacturing company KELMĖ [11]. The RUNSAFER device is embedded in these shoes, which can "teach" the correct running technique and thereby prevent potential injury (Fig. 4). An integrated microelectronic measuring system collects biomechanical parameters characterizing the runner's technique during the distance, and wirelessly transmits it to a mobile phone. The mobile application processes the data in real time, sends alerts about changes in running style, if necessary, and even requires you to stop jogging if the probability of injury is very high. Combining the removed characteristics with the heart rate monitor readings, it is possible to track the level of fatigue of the athlete. And finally, the program is also able to function as a social network – fans of this physical activity will be able to exchange experiences and useful information.

The RUNSAFER system in a running shoe will prevent injuries and teach you how to run correctly. Figure from [11].

In fact, such a device can be a huge success, because in Europe alone more than 80 million people are running, that is, more than a third of the European population aged 15 to 65 years. It is estimated that 38% of European runners are being treated now or have ever been injured while running, and 37-56% are injured at least once a year.

Another common injury, especially characteristic of contact sports (football, rugby), is a traumatic brain injury. Studies of the brain of deceased athletes have shown that due to numerous bruises, they develop encephalopathy and neurodegenerative diseases. Even protective helmets, which are used in some types of competitions, do not save from them, because the brain is still "hanging out" in the cerebrospinal fluid inside the skull. Realizing that the means invented by man do not help, scientists turned to their eternal source of inspiration – nature – and did not lose. Woodpeckers and thick–horned sheep are two kinds of living creatures that work with their heads in the literal sense of the word in their daily life and do not suffer from it at all (Fig. 5). As it turned out, this is due to the fact that their intracranial pressure is finely regulated. In addition, the study of the traumatic nature of competitions at different heights revealed that athletes receive almost a third less concussions at high altitude. Probably, this can also be explained by the fact that the brain takes up more space inside the skull when climbing to height and changing pressure, says Gregory Myer, director of the laboratory of human Functioning at Cincinnati Children's Hospital (Cincinnati Children's Hospital, USA).

The fight of thick-horned sheep in Canada does without traumatic brain injuries (Brian Leith Productions / Terra Mater / Ben Wallis). Drawing from the website natgeotv.com .

Thus, the scientists were faced with the task of making the brain fit more tightly to the skull from the inside. To do this, they developed a special open "collar" that is put on the neck and weakly presses on the jugular veins, through which blood flows from the head back to the heart [12]. Consequently, when wearing this U-shaped "collar", the outflow of blood from the skull is slightly reduced. The device does not require a mobile application. The development can be useful not only for athletes, but also for the military (Fig. 6).

Studies on rats have already shown that such a device reduces the manifestations of traumatic brain injury. Now scientists are conducting tests on pigs and hope to test the new "collar" on humans later.

A U-shaped "collar" that weakly squeezes the jugular veins and thereby reduces the outflow of blood from the head can reduce the consequences of head injuries. Figure from [12].

In general, the work of this device is based on guesswork, and so far it is impossible to draw a clear parallel between the injuries visible on the MRI and the symptoms in humans. Another disadvantage of this development is that the biochemical consequences of such forcible retention of blood have also not been studied. Therefore, scientists will have to show not only the effectiveness of such a device, but also its safety, as well as study in detail the results of its wearing and the physiological mechanisms underlying manipulations with the position of the brain in the skull.

The road to a bright future

What tasks do researchers and developers of new equipment and programs have to face? Leaving aside ethical issues, information confidentiality issues and cost, let's focus on the main technical snags and commercial difficulties. So, an abstract wearable device that removes important indicators for assessing health should be compact, understandable to the user and not be discharged for a long time.

First of all, how to combine the compactness of the device with the ability to work for a long time? After all, wearable devices have limitations on the size of the battery, which sets the battery life of the device. Continuous monitoring is a very expensive thing for sensors, so some companies choose periodic monitoring of the measured parameters. In the case of motion sensors, this can work successfully – for example, if it is a motor activity registration sensor connected to GPS. However, this approach is far from ideal for monitoring physiological parameters. Thus, the question of how to extend the operating time of the device without recharging is one of the first and most difficult tasks [7].

The second question is how to motivate a person to use a device or smartphone application? For commercial companies, attracting an audience is generally the goal of any development, because the project should bring material benefits. But at the same time, as in the case of an application with information on contraceptive methods for Indian women, the result of the campaign also depends on the correct design. Rare organizations prefer to pay their employees conditional money for maintaining a healthy lifestyle with the help of a fitness tracker. This is done, for example, by the American insurance company Oscar, which cooperates with a company that produces Misfit Flash trackers [13]. Any of the company's team can receive a reward of up to $ 20 and spend it on the Amazon website if they fulfill the norm for the number of steps taken per day.

As experts show, for the success of an application or device, both the "fun" factor and the degree to which a person can link a novelty with their preferences and goals are important. For some altruists, it is also important that his data will be included in the general database of a major scientific work. For example, 8 out of 10 people who have used the 23andMe genetic test are ready to share their information for research, so why will wearable technology users refuse? Finally, if the application for maintaining a healthy lifestyle provides people with a platform for communication, then the motivation is also social in nature: who would want to look unsportsmanlike and lazy in front of friends [8]?

At the current pace of technology development and psychological marketing tricks, it can be assumed that wearable and implantable devices connected to a smartphone or autonomous will soon finally flood the world. Apparently, human evolution is moving in such a direction that soon Homo sapiens will be hung with devices from the outside and pierced from the inside. And so far there is no reason to believe that this trend will fade away.

Literature

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Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  27.06.2016