(Credit: toysf400/Shutterstock) If you've ever spent any time at a hospital, you know what it's like to be under constant supervision. Sensors and monitors keep track of your most basic bodily functions day and night, giving doctors and nurses to-the-second information on how you're doing. All that supervision comes with wires and sensors taped and stuck all over a patient's body, though, which is annoying and can throw off some readings. Now, two Cornell University researchers say they've devised a way to monitor vital signs that doesn't require skin contact. Their technique relies on small radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors, the same technology that's in key fobs, that can pick up heartbeats, chest movements and even blood pressures, and can keep track of multiple patients at once. The technology could be useful in hospitals where round-the-clock supervision is key.
The system, detailed in a paper published Monday in Nature Electronics, ...
