Watching your health
守护您的健康
A medical monitor that does not intrude
医学监控并非盲目乱闯
Jun 23rd 2010 | TOKYO | From The Economist print edition
________________________________________
YOU are elderly. You live alone. You suffer a heart attack. You cannot raise the alarm. You die. That, unfortunately, is the way that many people in the rich world shuffle off this mortal coil. One way around the problem is to wear an alarm bracelet that detects when something is wrong and calls an ambulance. That means remembering to put the bracelet on, however―and many people do not want to wear one in the first place.
设想你已年逾古稀，独居家中，一日心脏病突发，你却无力报警，就这样撒手人寰。不幸地是，在富裕国家许多人皆因此厄运而与世长辞。一种针对解决该问题的方法是佩戴一副报警手镯，一旦有紧急情况，该手镯便能监测到并通知救护车。这就意味着人们要始终记得戴上这种手镯，然而，大多数人起初对此并不乐意。
PassivSystems, of Newbury, England, is therefore working on an alternative. This is a device that can detect remotely when something is wrong with somebody in the room it is monitoring. The technology to do this, which was developed by Helen Prance and her colleagues at the University of Sussex, is based on electrocardiography.
因此，位于英国纽伯利（Newbury）的PassivSystems公司正在研发一种升级装置。该装置力求能够监测到这种情况，即有人在偏远地区被监控的屋内遭遇突发状况。这项技术是由萨赛克斯大学的海伦.普朗斯（Helen Prance）及她的同事们基于心电图学而研发。
A conventional ECG is made by attaching electrodes to a person's body and recording signals that originate in the heart. Dr Prance's version uses extremely sensitive versions of these electrodes to record the effects of bodily electrical signals on the ambient electric fields that pervade a room and deduce from that what is going on. As Dr Prance puts it, "a person is just like a big bag of water". Any movement which the bag makes will disrupt the fields in the room.
传统的心电图（ECG）是通过将电极与人体相连以记录其心脏发出的信号而得。普朗斯博士的发明则是利用这些电极极为灵敏的电性，记录在遍布屋内的电场中人体所发出的电子信号，并由此推断正在发生的事。这恰如普朗斯博士的形容"人体就像一个大水袋"。这个水袋的任何举动都将切割屋内的电场。
Apply enough computing power to the signal caused by this disturbance and it is possible to detect an individual's movement (and thus, for example, a fall) from several metres away. More subtle movements, such as those of the chest caused by breathing and the beating of the heart, can be registered from a distance of about half a metre, and PassivSystems is trying to increase that range.
将足够的计算能力应用到因干扰而产生的信号中，便能在几米外监测到个人的行为，比如摔跤。目前该技术能在约半米外的距离内，记录人体更为轻微的动作，诸如呼吸时胸膛的起伏以及心脏的跳动，而PassivSystems公司正力图延长这一距离。
If the firms engineers succeed in doing so, the result will be like an electronic nurse that can keep an eye on someone and know when to call the doctor. Not so much Big Brother, then, as Big Sister.
如果这些企业的工程师们能研制成功，那么将有可能出现一位密切关注病人的电子护士，并且它还知道何时该通知医生。从而，与其说它是"老大哥"，还不如说它是"大姐姐"呢。
守护您的健康
A medical monitor that does not intrude
医学监控并非盲目乱闯
Jun 23rd 2010 | TOKYO | From The Economist print edition
________________________________________
YOU are elderly. You live alone. You suffer a heart attack. You cannot raise the alarm. You die. That, unfortunately, is the way that many people in the rich world shuffle off this mortal coil. One way around the problem is to wear an alarm bracelet that detects when something is wrong and calls an ambulance. That means remembering to put the bracelet on, however―and many people do not want to wear one in the first place.
设想你已年逾古稀，独居家中，一日心脏病突发，你却无力报警，就这样撒手人寰。不幸地是，在富裕国家许多人皆因此厄运而与世长辞。一种针对解决该问题的方法是佩戴一副报警手镯，一旦有紧急情况，该手镯便能监测到并通知救护车。这就意味着人们要始终记得戴上这种手镯，然而，大多数人起初对此并不乐意。
PassivSystems, of Newbury, England, is therefore working on an alternative. This is a device that can detect remotely when something is wrong with somebody in the room it is monitoring. The technology to do this, which was developed by Helen Prance and her colleagues at the University of Sussex, is based on electrocardiography.
因此，位于英国纽伯利（Newbury）的PassivSystems公司正在研发一种升级装置。该装置力求能够监测到这种情况，即有人在偏远地区被监控的屋内遭遇突发状况。这项技术是由萨赛克斯大学的海伦.普朗斯（Helen Prance）及她的同事们基于心电图学而研发。
A conventional ECG is made by attaching electrodes to a person's body and recording signals that originate in the heart. Dr Prance's version uses extremely sensitive versions of these electrodes to record the effects of bodily electrical signals on the ambient electric fields that pervade a room and deduce from that what is going on. As Dr Prance puts it, "a person is just like a big bag of water". Any movement which the bag makes will disrupt the fields in the room.
传统的心电图（ECG）是通过将电极与人体相连以记录其心脏发出的信号而得。普朗斯博士的发明则是利用这些电极极为灵敏的电性，记录在遍布屋内的电场中人体所发出的电子信号，并由此推断正在发生的事。这恰如普朗斯博士的形容"人体就像一个大水袋"。这个水袋的任何举动都将切割屋内的电场。
Apply enough computing power to the signal caused by this disturbance and it is possible to detect an individual's movement (and thus, for example, a fall) from several metres away. More subtle movements, such as those of the chest caused by breathing and the beating of the heart, can be registered from a distance of about half a metre, and PassivSystems is trying to increase that range.
将足够的计算能力应用到因干扰而产生的信号中，便能在几米外监测到个人的行为，比如摔跤。目前该技术能在约半米外的距离内，记录人体更为轻微的动作，诸如呼吸时胸膛的起伏以及心脏的跳动，而PassivSystems公司正力图延长这一距离。
If the firms engineers succeed in doing so, the result will be like an electronic nurse that can keep an eye on someone and know when to call the doctor. Not so much Big Brother, then, as Big Sister.
如果这些企业的工程师们能研制成功，那么将有可能出现一位密切关注病人的电子护士，并且它还知道何时该通知医生。从而，与其说它是"老大哥"，还不如说它是"大姐姐"呢。
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