Sonavi Labs will be conducting live demonstrations of the soon-to-be-released screening device, Feelix at Display Week in San Jose, CA , May 14th – 16th. The digital stethoscope, set to launch in late 2019, has re-engineered the most widely used medical tool to make it fit for the 21st century. By deploying active noise cancellation, and a proprietary classification algorithm onto their device, Sonavi Labs is poised to transform the respiratory care industry.
On showcase in the I-Zone , sponsored by Eink , will be the company’s inaugural product, Feelix, an advanced digital stethoscope, which features a classification algorithm that can instantly detect abnormalities by analyzing body sounds. Feelix is a screening device that will eventually be available in multiple iterations, including a version for professional physicians and healthcare workers, and separate models for adults and pediatric patients of chronic diseases.
The device on demonstration at the conference will be specifically targeted towards professional physicians. The Sonavi Labs design team created this version of the device with [Eink’s proprietary screen]. Eink, now based in Taiwan, developed its electronic ink display in 1997 at MIT, and following partnerships with Philips, Motorola, Sony, and most notably Amazon, soon became one of the worlds largest distributors of electronic displays.
The Eink screens, which can be seen in hundreds of products from e-readers, like the Amazon Kindle, to cellular phones, and now digital stethoscopes, are widely utilized because of their high visibility in extreme sunlight. The Sonavi Labs team was especially interested in the technology as they developed the professional iteration of the Feelix device. Because a patient screening can happen any where at any time, the Sonavi Labs design team ensured that the Feelix device could be just as accessible and versatile for any situation.
Eink, in fact, has been making significant strides to diversify the applications for its technology and it’s now popping up in unexpected, and highly useful places. Some new uses for the technology that are currently being developed include medicinal packaging, smart- wearable patches, public transportation spaces, in addition to traditional hospital bedside monitors.
The Sonavi Labs engineering team incorporated the Eink screens into their FeelixPro device to provide physicians with a user-friendly experience. Dan McLane, Product Engineer, stated “It is fully graphical so we have full flexibility on the display. We ported a small graphics library [LittleVGL], which is able to run on the CPU we have, but allows us to render graphics more easily than the out-of-the-box tools provided by eInk. This allows us to incorporate dynamic screen elements more easily for reporting results, battery charge, and Bluetooth connection.”
The Feelix device has many applications according to CEO, Ellington West, who has been leading the commercialization strategy since the company’s founding. “Because we so desperately want to help patients in remote and rural communities, the usability was very critical.” West stated. She continued “If we can support healthcare workers in the field, in emergency situations and untraditional clinical environments, then we can also support patients in their homes, which is where the healthcare industry is heading.”
Telemedicine products are growing in popularity and adoption at breakneck speeds with advancements in communications infrastructure and expanded access to mobile technology. “It was only appropriate that the stethoscope receive a modern update”, said Ian McLane, Chief Technology Officer at Sonavi Labs. “Its sort of expected these days with everyone having great screens on their mobile devices, but to achieve this in a very small, low power handheld device is less common.”