Blood pressure monitoring

So not really biohacking, but could potentially be modified in that direction. After fainting 2 or 3 times today from my extreme low blood pressure, I started looking for a wearable blood pressure monitor. I already wear a pedometer, so the addition of a blood pressure monitor does not seem like much of a stretch. However, I cannot find any completed devices, regardless of fairly complete research going back the past 5 years. 

Here are the links for the articles I have been reviewing on the idea. 





How possible would it be to DUI something like this? The technology is well available, and the research is all public access. Something like this would help people like me keep track of what is causing my extreme drops in blood pressure, and could easily be used in the opposite direction as well. There is already an android app developed to track BP, so that could easily be adapted into a more regular tracked system. 
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  • What kind of features were you planning on giving the device?
  • HR, BP, Bluetooth. I need to figure out what type of sensor to use (or what I can miniaturize). I have a programmer who can write the code, but I need to figure out the engineering aspects of it. 
  • Heart rate is pretty easy; there's actually an open-source device (which I can dig up) currently being used in HELEDD for that purpose.
  • Do you want it to continuously monitor all of that data or take readings at regular intervals?
  • That would depend on the design. If it were to continuously monitor, it couldn't use the standard constriction design, if that were the basis for the design, it would have to be regular intervals. Continuously would be the ideal, but then issues of accuracy come up. 
  • edited September 2013
    http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/blood-pressure-tt0408.html
    seems relevant.  If no version of it is yet commercially available, it seems like it would be viable to use a similar method:  Find two points along an artery, put an IR LED/photodiode pair (at, say, 940nm) over each of them to detect pulse, then do math on the difference between the two pulse measurements to get something that approximates blood pressure.

    As to the specific nature of the math this involves...  I haven't a clue.  You could try to dig through Dr. Asada's papers for that. (Sidenote:  That man really missed his calling by failing to open up a chain of Mexican restaurants bearing his name).
  • This guy is generally pretty awesome btw.  Apparently he had all this, and more, in a ring, in 1997, and is talking about implantables.

    http://ilp.mit.edu/images/conferences/2010/RD/Asa da.pdf

  • There are several articles on the net about blood-pressure-measuring-implants, but it seems that not one is available. I haven't found any information about authorization.

    Some links:

  • I wonder how plausible it would be to take his tech and design it for actual use. I don't see anything on the tech specs for his ring. 
  • Perhaps you could write him a letter.
  • I'll try that. 
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