Open Source Device Aims to Help Diabetics Monitor Blood Sugar
by Lisa Hoover - Aug. 03, 2009Comments (4)- Related Blog Posts
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Living with diabetes is difficult, but people can typically lead completely normal lives by managing their illness with medication and healthy lifestyle choices. Some diabetics suffer from chronic and severe low blood sugar, also known as brittle diabetes, that can be a little tougher to manage since blood glucose levels need to be carefully monitored literally around the clock.
Peter Semmelhack, founder and CEO of Bug Labs and self-proclaimed "inveterate tinkerer" is developing an open source device to alert diabetics when their blood sugar falls dangerously low, particularly while sleeping. Though still in its early stages, Semmelhack has already run a couple of preliminary experiments that indicate his personal project shows a lot of promise for helping diabetics manage their blood sugar and insulin levels.
The project, tentatively named the HH1 after a post Semmelhack wrote for Make Magazine called "Hacking Health" is a simple, battery-powered wearable device that monitors a persons heart rate and watches for increases that may indicate low blood sugar levels. The prototype uses a chest strap connected to a radio receiver that sends data to a bedside module. Though Semmelhack's first experiment didn't work out as planned, the second recorded six straight hours of heart rate data.
"The next step will be to build in thresholds that trigger some events," writes Semmelhack. "What I’m really aiming for is to set up an alarm that has some teeth (remember this is about letting you or someone else know if you’ve reach a dangerously low blood sugar level while sleeping). An email won’t really help. I need to wake people up. So we have a module here that contains a relay. With it I can potentially switch lights on and off or, probably better, turn on something that makes noise... Once these thresholds are set up and triggers/alarms established I’ll conduct a small 'clinical trial' with some volunteers and see how that goes."
Semmelhack has devised a rough timeline for the HH1 project and hopes to reach out soon to others willing to help set up some clinical trials for the device. If you or someone you care about struggles with diabetes, then this is one project you'll want to keep an eye on or even pitch in to help develop.
