Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have come up with a mobile medical imager that works on Windows Mobile phones over plain ol’ USB. Its applications are still limited due to the power and space requirements of other useful imaging techniques like MRI, but it’s a promising application for the tiny computers we all have in our pockets.
Smartphones are capable of so much, yet mostly all they do is pass on audio streams and squirt a few text characters at each other. Wouldn’t you like to have a “determine baby’s gender” app? Great for settling bets.
The project was made possible by a $100k grant from Microsoft, and isn’t actually aimed at the consumer market (believe it or not). It’s meant to be used in developing countries, where stationary machines are too expensive, but cell phone coverage is expanding. Local doctors could take an ultrasound or what have you, beam it to a central location where a specialist can diagnose, and then hear back an hour later — all from the field. And you know that the military would like to get their hands on a few as well. Better in-situ medical care is good for everybody.
They’re hoping to hook up with MIT for some field trials in third-world countries.
[image credit: David Kilper/WUSTL Photo]
Wow, my first thought was: I bet Microsoft funded this as a research project and it’s a tiny proof of concept in response to the hundreds of medical apps and devices that will certainly be developed and made commercially available within weeks or months of the iPhone 3.0 release. And, lo and behold, I read below the fold… “The project was made possible by a $100k grant from Microsoft, and isn’t actually aimed at the consumer market (believe it or not)… They’re hoping to hook up with MIT for some field trials in third-world countries.”
What an incredibly callous response, and one which I completely did not expect.
You’re comparing fantasy apps on a platform that is nonexistent in the area this is made for to an actual prototype developed for years and ready for field trials. Read the article, read your comment, and tell me if it still makes sense.
What’s callous about it? The grant was given last year for making WinMo the central device — in other words, there was very little science to it. The devices themselves, the miniaturization has been underway for decades. The hard part wasn’t plugging usb into a WinMo phone and writing a basic imaging app that is admittedly limited, but that’s all this story is about. There are already handheld sonograms; this project used off-the-shelf, already available usb scanners. If you really don’t the iPhone is more powerful than the average WinMo phone, or more desireable as a platform, or that many developers won’t be building these apps in a handful of months, you haven’t been observing some of the medical apps currently available. I don’t know what’s so mindblowing about a guy granted a hundred grand taking a year to write an app. Nor do I see how saying so is callous. Is saying that somehow killing a baby in Africa or something?
How much has Apple donated to research and third world projects as compared to Microsoft and the Bill Gates Foundation?
That’s AWESOME!. Wgas who funded it as it would work great in 3rd world countries where money is tight (US). I use a 500mghz winmo phone and anything that makes it productive without an attached monthly fee/scam (unlike the iphone) is alright by me. I personally feel MS is at it’s best in very tightly controlled environs and not in the “I can do anything you can imagine” win 7 environ.
Nice job on all counts. I suppose Microsoft is not the evil empire it’s made out to be. I learned a ton about USB devices for all sorts of purposes here http://www.justaskgemalto.com/en/search/node/usb.
Once again, Star Trek has predicted a scientific advance! Woot!
If you’ll remember, Star Trek also predicted flash drives, medical monitoring beds, the amazon kindle/palm pilots and netbooks.