This project will develop and test an Ambulatory Wireless Sleep Monitoring (AWSM) System. This the AWSM system measures and transmits physiological signals for sleep monitoring and diagnostics of sleep abnormalities. This will allow at-home sleep monitoring without having the subject tethered with wires and also enables the patients to be monitored in any hospital bed. outside the specialized hospital sleep monitoring units. AWSM will be capable of recording up to 12 hours of bio-electric signals such as EEG, EOG, ECG, and EMO as well as respiratory related signals such as nasal airflow (thermistry) and chest-wall respiratory effort measurement (Piezo) on ambulatory patients in their home environment. The proposed system takes advantage of the telemetry technology that has already been developed at Cleveland Medical Devices Inc. under prior NIH Phase I and Phase II SBIR grants. All the electrodes and respiratory channels are connected to a small light-weight flexible case which transmits the data by 1 mW FM signals. This minimizes interference with the patient's normal sleep. This wireless feature has several advantages compared to the existing portable systems including: * Minimizing accidental detachment of the electrodes during sleep at the home environment. * Providing a higher reliability home sleep monitor which will reduce the cost for sleep studies by 75% and provide more natural sleep, eliminating """"""""first-night effects"""""""" and the psychological effects of being in the hospital. * Comfortable sleeping condition, which is extremely important for the elderly patients and children, allowing patients to easily leave their beds and move around the house. * Practical system for infants monitoring. The wireless feature is very important in studying the infants because they tend to grab and pull the wires.
In addition to being used to monitor sleep, the AWSM system can be used to communicate the vital signs on patients iii the hospital or at home without interfering with similar systems of other patients. The same unit has numerous industrial and commercial applications for real time control and monitoring. The AWSM system can also be used for markets as diverse as conducting special studies in the workplace to controlling virtual reality games with brainwaves.
