Fast and Furryous: Fitbit-style wearable health tracker for pets developed that can detect vital signs like heart and breathing rates through fur
- The tracker is made from a silicone-water material that moulds to the fur shape
- It works by using a sensor to listen for sound waves like a ‘watery stethoscope’
- The device will also work to monitor humans through four layers of clothing
- With other sensors it could be used to track a runaway pet in real time anywhere
Pet owners could soon be able to keep track of their animals heart and breathing rate thanks to a new health monitor that works through thick fur.
The wearable technology, created at Imperial College London, provides a new way to measure vital signs without direct skin contact.
Researchers say the sensor can be used for monitoring the animal’s health as well as for tracking it across large distances in real time.
It is able to detect sound waves coming from the body and could be used by vets during surgery to monitor vital signs without shaving the animal first.
Researchers tested the sensors on dogs to find out what it can detect through fur. It makes use of sound waves rather than the green lights used in traditional sensors so doesn’t need skin contact
As well as working through fur, researchers have got the new sensors to detect breathing and heart rates through four layers of clothing on a human.
The team behind the sensor say it could be used by police forces to monitor the breathing and heart rate of sniffer dogs detecting drugs or explosives.
They say it would also be possible to introduce lower priced and effective sensors for monitoring livestock on farms for the first time.
Study lead author Dr Firat Guder said: ‘Wearables are expected to play a major role in monitoring health and detecting diseases early.
‘Our stretchy, flexible invention heralds a whole new type of sensor that can track the health of animals and humans alike over fur or clothing.’
The device is made from a silicone-water material which tightly moulds to the shape of the fur, clothing or body part it is placed on.
An inbuilt microphone picks up sound waves which are transmitted to a computer then analysed to show vital signs, tracking data and other information.
First author Yasin Cotur said it is like a watery stethoscope and fills any gaps between it and the subject so no air bubbles get in to dampen the sound.
Traditional health trackers use a process called photoplethysmography that involves sending a green light through the skin that is partially absorbed by arteries.
As you exercise the arteries expand as blood flow increases and more green light is absorbed rather than reflected back to the tracker.
It uses this information to estimate heart rate and breathing rate.
The new system works in a similar way but listens for changes in sound waves and analyses the waves to detect heart and breathing rate.
The sensor is worn on a strap around the dog and is like a flexible ‘watery stethoscope’ listening out for changes in wavelengths – it analyses the waves to detect heart and breathing rates
Integrated motion sensors could also be added to the devices enabling people to track movements of their pets through a smartphone app.
It would also show where their pets are and whether they are standing, sitting, lying, and in which direction in real time.
Unlike in humans, for whom there are many fitness tracking devices, there aren’t currently many ‘wearable’ options for pets and other animals.
The researchers suggest that one reason for this is that current trackers cannot monitor vital signs through fur.
As well as health tracking, the researchers say the sensors could help turn findings from sniffer dogs into measurable data.
They are trained to sit or bark when they detect a target object like an explosive device or person stuck in rubble after an earthquake.
There are a series of liquid like sensors that sit in a small silicon mould – the sensors can be loaded with location trackers as well as health monitors
When dogs ‘alert’ to target objects, their heart and breathing rates increase because they are excited to be rewarded.
Researchers say the new sensor could help measure ‘alerting’ behaviour by measuring how excited the dogs are.
An inbuilt algorithm might be able to tell the strength of the dog’s reaction to the smell it detects and even work out how ‘sure’ the dog is of finding the desired object.
The sensors have been tested on dogs and humans, but the researchers hope to adapt them for use on other pets, as well as horses and livestock.
Mr Cotur said: ‘The next step is to validate our system further with animals, primarily focusing on sniffer dogs and then horses and livestock later on.’
The research has been published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.