This wireless ultrasound patch can sense deep tissue vital signs

The team built on its previous model of soft ultrasonic sensor design, which required wires and cables for data and monitoring, thus restricting a user’s mobility. They explained in the statement that the newly developed USoP includes a small, flexible control circuit that communicates with an ultrasound transducer array to collect and transmit data wirelessly. 

A breakthrough in the Internet of Medical Things

The team took the help of an artificial intelligence tool that helped the researchers interpret the data and track subjects in motion. The USoP was able to wirelessly transmit physiological signals into the cloud for computing, diagnosis, and run a full analysis. 

“We eventually made the machine learning model generalization work by applying an advanced adaptation algorithm,” said Ziyang Zhang, a master’s student at UC San Diego and co-first author of the paper. “This algorithm can automatically minimize the domain distribution discrepancies between different subjects, which means the machine intelligence can be transferred from subject to subject. We can train the algorithm on one subject and apply it to many other new subjects with minimal retraining.”

The team believes that this technology has the potential to save and improve lives, as it’s the first time that a device has been developed which can track and evaluate cardiovascular function in motion. 

“Abnormal values of blood pressure and cardiac output, at rest or during exercise, are hallmarks of heart failure. For healthy populations, our device can measure cardiovascular responses to exercise in real time and thus provide insights into the actual workout intensity exerted by each person, which can guide the formulation of personalized training plans,” added Lin.