Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is reporting that a novel portable echo machine, dubbed Ubiquitous Echo, was developed through joint research between AIST and the Hiroshima Institute of Technology. The device is essentially an echo probe that connects to a laptop, so there is no echo machine per se:
The unit can be used in health care or beauty facilities, or even in the home, to visualize the key components of the body (muscles, bones, subcutaneous fat) and give fat and muscle measurements. It is hoped that this technology will help to prevent elderly people from being confined to their beds.
Users connect Ubiquitous Echo to their personal computers and use the included software to collect detailed information about specific parts of the body. The ultrasonic echography equipment traditionally used in medical examinations is prohibitively expensive and too large to be used by health care and beauty facilities or in the home. This new machine is small, lightweight, and inexpensive and can even be put into a bag along with a laptop computer and carried around.
Watch out, echo manufacturers! The time is running short before we have fully functional miniaturized echo probes (with color Doppler, CW/PW, M-mode, etc, etc)–no machine is required, thank you very much. Great news, indeed.
The press release at AIST…
