SIDS - Monitoring breathing wirelessly: Noninvasive

University of Utah engineers who built wireless networks that see through walls now are aiming the technology at a new goal: noninvasively measuring the breathing of surgery patients, adults with sleep apnea and babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

University of Utah electrical engineer Neal Patwari reclines in a hospital bed surrounded by wireless transceivers like those used to connect home computer networks. In a new study, Patwari and colleagues show how crisscrossing radio signals from a wireless network can detect breathing -- a possible new, noninvasive way of monitoring postsurgical patients, adults with sleep apnea and babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome. (Credit: Yang Zhao, University of Utah)

Catching a breath -- wirelessly: Noninvasive method to watch for SIDS, help surgery patients