Vest monitors its wearer’s lungs continuously

The lung function of patients with respiratory problems is typically monitored with a stethoscope, which requires a health care provider and usually a trip to a clinic. An experimental new vest, however, has been designed to monitor lung function continuously and reliably throughout the day.

A report on newatlas.com says that the Pneumo.Vest is a wearable being developed as part of the M³ Infekt project, which involves 10 branches of Germany’s Fraunhofer research group. The technology is currently aimed mainly at Covid-19 patients, although it could certainly be applied to other respiratory conditions.

Incorporated into the front and back of the vest are multiple piezoceramic acoustic sensors, which individually detect even the smallest noises produced by the lungs. Because the location of each sensor (relative to the lungs) is already known, it’s possible to determine where within the lungs each noise is coming from.