My father died from complications of Alzheimers. He was in a nursing home the last couple years of his life. All the doors to the outside had locks, where you had to enter in a code to get in and a code to get out. That did cut down considerably on the wandering-away, but boy, was it jarring the first time I encountered it.
I don't think having the tracker implanted in shoes is a good idea. As others have noted, the person who would wander away would not necessarily put on shoes to do it. Perhaps something like a Medic Alert bracelet, which doesn't come off easily, would be a better idea. I suspect if there's enough of a market for bracelets with chips, Medic Alert would sell them. Although going by what they charge for their watch, the price might not be comfortable for a lot of people. (Not to disparage Medic Alert; I've worn one of their tags since 1986 and they are a fine organization.)
Great idea, except most Alzheimer's patients end up in a nursing home and would most likely not always be wearing their shoes. Why not incorporate it into a medical alert bracelet that may be more difficult to remove? Sounds like I need a patent.
Also, if you ever encounter an Alzheimer's patient who doesn't remember anything, have them dial a phone. Just have them dial it. Most times they will dial a familiar number w/o thinking about it, and it can be a first step to tracking their identity down.
And it only took House 42 minutes, 12 insults directed at Kuttner, 10 remarks about Cuddy's ass, 5 allusions to bisexuality directed at 13, and 5 glares at Forman to figure out.
@OscarWinner_GitEmSteveDave: Well was he playing with your "controller" for an extended period of time?? If so, a little break from your "multiplayer gaming nights" might be in order.
The basic concept only uses a cellphone because of the ability to write an app for the operating system. Once the software can be ported into a device such as a digital camera it would not only be more accurate, but could analyze higher resolution samples for increased capability. Right now there are virtually no digital cameras with OS's that can be written for by the consumer.
Average device cost would be little more than your average 3to 5 megapixel camera, with cost increasing due to software requirements, wireless capability, and advanced detection algorithms.
It will likely be a few years in the wings, with rigorous testing and refinement of the software before it's a comemrcially viable (and medically reliable) tool for common use. The concept is not only brilliant, but could potentially save hundreds of millions of lives.
@BeautifulAgony: Judging from the fourth pictures of the article, the resolution doesn't seem so critical. The way I understood it, the process works by revealing chemicals in plasma of bloodcells that are telltale for infections, by looking for changes in the absorbtion of certain light frequencies. So probably the ability to reproduce color correctly is much more important.
@William_III_Earl_of_Dastardshire: True, in which case better (glass) lenses, to reduce chromatic abberation, are probably more important. I'm do think another megapixel or two of resolution would help in making sure that the color information is accurate from the image/light received and not strange low resolution antialiasing, or compression artificating, etc. Lots of phones have a tendency to perform strange actions such as low-light noise reduction, slight blurring and other compensation to accomodate the fact that they use dodgy little cmos sensors and plastic (or low-quality glass) lenses.
I would like to see the results of a bouble-blind test based on multiple negative and positive samples and at two each of least a dozen different camera phones (without extensive modification of the built-in lens, only the added sample viewer/light).
I have a feeling this wouldn't work well across-the-board without some extensive phone-specific coding, since, as mentioned above, the manufacturers use all kinds of tricks to make people think their crappy little phone takes great pictures. (other tricks include boosting saturation of greens and reds, performing noise reduction on low-saturation reds (ie skintones), and performing soft blur on blue tones, and dropping saturation of pictures taken at night and increasing contrast.
These "tricks" aren't bad per se, as they result in decent looking images from relatively low-quality and very tiny hardware... the problem is that they lead to unreliability when you wish to apply them as tools in the medical trade for detecting infectious diseases.
"I wish to extend my apologies, sir, you do not, in fact have AIDS or syphylis.... damn it, I need to buy a better phone, but my carrier has a crappy selection! Anyway, have a great day, and my apologies for quarantining you for so long! Take care now!"
06/10/09
I don't think having the tracker implanted in shoes is a good idea. As others have noted, the person who would wander away would not necessarily put on shoes to do it. Perhaps something like a Medic Alert bracelet, which doesn't come off easily, would be a better idea. I suspect if there's enough of a market for bracelets with chips, Medic Alert would sell them. Although going by what they charge for their watch, the price might not be comfortable for a lot of people. (Not to disparage Medic Alert; I've worn one of their tags since 1986 and they are a fine organization.)
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Turned out he had been wandering off to a little place called "Angel Delight!"
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02/24/09
Is there anything Hugh Laurie doesn't know?
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Back in the day we used to just call it Rosy Palm...
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I'm just sayin'...
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funny thing about my hand is that its located on my...
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Oh, that's good... I find your ideas intriguing, and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.
12/20/08
Average device cost would be little more than your average 3to 5 megapixel camera, with cost increasing due to software requirements, wireless capability, and advanced detection algorithms.
It will likely be a few years in the wings, with rigorous testing and refinement of the software before it's a comemrcially viable (and medically reliable) tool for common use. The concept is not only brilliant, but could potentially save hundreds of millions of lives.
12/20/08
12/20/08
I would like to see the results of a bouble-blind test based on multiple negative and positive samples and at two each of least a dozen different camera phones (without extensive modification of the built-in lens, only the added sample viewer/light).
I have a feeling this wouldn't work well across-the-board without some extensive phone-specific coding, since, as mentioned above, the manufacturers use all kinds of tricks to make people think their crappy little phone takes great pictures. (other tricks include boosting saturation of greens and reds, performing noise reduction on low-saturation reds (ie skintones), and performing soft blur on blue tones, and dropping saturation of pictures taken at night and increasing contrast.
These "tricks" aren't bad per se, as they result in decent looking images from relatively low-quality and very tiny hardware... the problem is that they lead to unreliability when you wish to apply them as tools in the medical trade for detecting infectious diseases.
"I wish to extend my apologies, sir, you do not, in fact have AIDS or syphylis.... damn it, I need to buy a better phone, but my carrier has a crappy selection! Anyway, have a great day, and my apologies for quarantining you for so long! Take care now!"