Alligator Online

A UF engineer is working on a wireless device that could read vital signs, such as heart and breathing rates, from a cell phone or laptop.

The device uses a miniaturized Doppler radar, much like the radar police use to gauge the speed of a car, said Jenshan Lin, the device's designer and an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The radar sends a frequency to the body that reads heartbeat and movement of the chest produced by breathing. That frequency is then bounced back to the radar, which sends the information to a computer.

To read the information, Lin created a computer program that shows the information in the form of waves, similar to an electrocardiogram, or EKG.

Lin said hospitals could use his device to track a patient's vital signs without attaching sensors to their bodies. Patients also could use the device to send their doctors their vital signs from the comfort of their homes.

Lin said he wants to reduce the device, roughly shoebox-size, to a size small enough to fit inside a cell phone or laptop.

In 2000, Lin began work on the device at Bell Labs, the research and development unit of Lucent Technologies, with colleagues from Stanford University and the University of Hawaii.

After being hired by UF in 2003, Lin continued to work on the device, increasing the frequency used to transmit the signal.

With higher frequencies, the device could detect vital signs from a greater distance, he said.

Currently, the device can read vital signs with 100-percent accuracy from a distance of half a meter. However, Lin said he hopes to receive accurate signals from a 10-meter distance in the future.

Because the device reads vibrations, Lin also said he is trying to apply it to reading the vocal vibrations of people who are unable to speak. A computer program would then replay those vibrations as the person's voice, he said.

In the future, Lin said his device could also work as a lie detector or even as a security system, allowing civilians to know how many people are inside their homes or allowing soldiers to know the number of people behind a wall.