Nerve/Brain/Muscle spike sensing

[FuZZ1L0G1C]

Hi all.
A thought that has been playing around recently.
While In hospital for past week for a Grand Mal Seizure, I had a sensor / data recorder strapped to my waist, with a few dozen sensors super-glued to my now clean-shaven head.
Every time, before a seizure the limbs convulse before unconciousneness which I gather sends spikes of muscle signals.
Now my thought is this:
My mobile cellular communcations device ('cell' to mere mortals) has been programmed with an ER24 (emergency) number as supplied by my insurance.
Does anybody in the know think it would be possible to link an episode "current" spike to ER24 or is this too 'out there'?
PS - extreme dizziness and confusion may render me a bit off line for a while but still active as member.

 

[(*steve*)]

A colleague of mine (now sadly deceased) had a pacemaker which would talk via something like Bluetooth to a box attached to his computer.

Every time he say down in front of his computer it would send a stored log of his heart activity to his cardiac specialist.

One has to wonder if there's an app for that? Something like a Fitbit for your heart (or in your case your brain).

 

[Nanren888]

Not sure whether you want to catch the brain seizure (EEG) or the muscle activity (EMG).
Either way, bio-medical electronics is a bit of an art. Even very small currents can have an effect. There are lots of EEG and EMG projects and circuits online. Read all the warnings, though. They will say things like, always battery power, to avoid problems from being connected to other circuits and possible leakage from them.
EMG is realtively easy to detect, with low-noise amplifiers and circuitry, to the extent that it seriously gets in the way of trying to look at EEG. EMG is of course, what you get everytime you walk, move, twitch and so on, so you would need something a little smart to tell the difference between reaching for the remote and an attack. You'd also have to be wired up at the time. Bluetooth or wifi out to the phone, is quite straightforward in comparison.
Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is designed to help you build things that last ages on batteries.
False alarms to emergency services may render your agreement invalid, which may not be in your long-term best interests. Your agreement may even prohibit anything automatic.

 

[Nanoamps]

Fuzz1,
This exact same technique has been used for years in Cardiac monitoring. Cardiac Event monitors can sense a lengthy number of waveform shapes of your cardiac ecg and then capture and report on them (generally only the non-normal waveshapes). Devices often can connect using bluetooth or wifi with little or no assistance from the patient. You could research those devices and potentially utilize some of their techniques or approaches.
I have a niece prone to gran mal, so I can see how this really could be a useful device. Could even replace those dogs they train to alert on certain indicators.
This would not be an entirely impossible project for a Raspberry Pi or the likes. Those maker platforms have solved all the bluetooth and wifi connectivity complications for you. All you need to do is capture EEG info and signal process looking for your indicators. Lights could go off/on, emails could be sent... oh the potential of it all!
-Nano

 

[FuZZ1L0G1C]

Thanks for interesting input.
Anybody remember the movie / novel 'Terminal Man'?
As a fan of technology-based 'maybe possible' sci-fi, this now-old thriller was entertaining.
Basically, AFAIR, a man has a brain-fart or for whatever reason the neuro surgeons implant a chip into his grey matter.
As with many of these 'don't-try-this' horror/thriller stories, something goes wrong.
The circuit goes haywire, and the now super-intelligent patient / medical guinea-pig wreaks havoc.

Or the real case (on DSTV's "Discovery Family" channel's "1000 ways to die" series), a young adult male who has a pacemaker decides to 'hack' it with electronics.
I forget how he did this, may have been electromagnetic, by holding probes, or over-riding the default pulse-beat frequency via a control-pad.
The theory was that he used to (illegally) slightly increase his pulse-rate for an oxygen 'rush' or something.
What our pace-hacker friend didn't know was that through the thin wall of a neighbouring apartment, a gamer started playing an action game on his console.
High-frequency pulsed electrical radiation from the console fed into the over-ridden pacemaker, causing defibrilation then failure.
/Thinks: OMG what a friggin idiot.

 

[twister]

Thanks for interesting input.
Anybody remember the movie / novel 'Terminal Man'?
As a fan of technology-based 'maybe possible' sci-fi, this now-old thriller was entertaining.
Basically, AFAIR, a man has a brain-fart or for whatever reason the neuro surgeons implant a chip into his grey matter.
As with many of these 'don't-try-this' horror/thriller stories, something goes wrong.
The circuit goes haywire, and the now super-intelligent patient / medical guinea-pig wreaks havoc.

Or the real case (on DSTV's "Discovery Family" channel's "1000 ways to die" series), a young adult male who has a pacemaker decides to 'hack' it with electronics.
I forget how he did this, may have been electromagnetic, by holding probes, or over-riding the default pulse-beat frequency via a control-pad.
The theory was that he used to (illegally) slightly increase his pulse-rate for an oxygen 'rush' or something.
What our pace-hacker friend didn't know was that through the thin wall of a neighbouring apartment, a gamer started playing an action game on his console.
High-frequency pulsed electrical radiation from the console fed into the over-ridden pacemaker, causing defibrilation then failure.
/Thinks: OMG what a friggin idiot.

 

[twister]

Will they soon make computers so small that they can be implanted into your brain?

 

[Hopup]

Medical Instrumentation: Application and Design is book which should have lot of useful information.

 

[Nanren888]

Thanks for interesting input.
Anybody remember the movie / novel 'Terminal Man'?

Or the real case (on DSTV's "Discovery Family" channel's "1000 ways to die" series), a young adult male who has a pacemaker decides to 'hack' it with electronics.

From memory the only reasonable reason "Terminal man" was called that was it was his end.
Despite the reference, the pacemaker sounds like urban myth, to me.
.
Implants, augmentations, sure, many would suggest that they will be necessary soon enough just to be competitive when applying for a job. The young will complain that their parents didn't pay for adequate up to date enhancements to make them competitive.
.
For your application, check the suggested references and cautionary tales about leakage and safe operating. With these in mind and consequent careful design, monitoring should be safe enough, if you take adequate precautions.
If you want reliable detection of any conditions, you'll likely need some machine learning/classification. Also a hot topic, so many tutorials.
Raspberry pi, mentioned about is generally too heavy on battery to carry round, but an excellent proof of concept platform if you want to use off the shelf toolboxes for things. eg Python has lots of free tools.