Hearing Aid continuous health monitoring: Miniaturisation of sensors to demonstrate proof of concept suitable for hearing aids in an ethnically agnostic solution.

EarMetrics传感器是一种新型传感器，可以集成到标准助听器中，为助听器用户提供医疗级监测系统，而不会影响他们的日常生活。其目的是使人们能够积极监测自己的健康、健身和生活方式（如果他们愿意），和/或从家中的医疗保健监测中获益；帮助人们及早发现疾病，监测和预测长期疾病（如慢性阻塞性肺病）的恶化，并在通常建议住院的情况下允许在家中进行安全护理。最初的EarSwitch是Nick Gompertz博士发明的，在英国国家健康与护理研究所的资助下，用于支持患有运动神经元疾病（MND）的患者。耳机内的传感器提供了一种基于中耳肌肉自主控制的通信新途径；鼓室张量。EarSwitch的工作表明，同样的传感器可以从耳内检测健康和健身信号（EarMetrics）。EarMetrics传感器为生理监测提供了多种独特的优势。最值得注意的是：1)助听器已经佩戴，使其成为添加健康和健身监测的自然场所；2)耳道提供了一个受保护的目标部位，靠近大脑的血液供应，提供比现有的“可穿戴”监测设备更可靠和更有见地的监测；3)传感器从耳朵内部检测没有色素沉着的测量，而不考虑人的肤色。EarMetrics因此提供了重要的中心，多种健康和健身见解的第一个机会，适合所有肤色的人，从助听器。虽然耳部监测器（心率、脉搏波形和氧气监测器）已经在专用耳机中制造出来，并建议在助听器组件中使用，但这些竞争对手从靠近下颌（TMJ）关节的耳道外部部分传递信息。这些测量结果受到吃东西和说话时下颌运动的影响，并且与手指血氧仪一样受到种族不平等的影响；它们的输出受外耳道皮肤颜色的影响，这与助听器内部的EarMetrics传感器不同。该项目是将EarMetrics传感器组合成微型模块，以证明将其纳入助听器的可行性，并演示措施包括；心率，心率变异性，呼吸，与种族无关的中心氧水平以及一种新的无袖带血压替代方案和心功能数据。EarMetrics为所有人提供保持健康的解决方案，无论肤色如何。

EarMetrics sensors are novel sensors to be incorporated in standard hearing aids to provide hearing-aid users medical grade monitoring systems that doesn't impact on their daily lives. This aims to empower people to actively monitor their health, fitness and lifestyle (if they so wish), and/or gain from healthcare monitoring at home; helping people detect illness early, monitor and predict deterioration of long term conditions (e.g. COPD) and allow safe care at home in circumstances when hospital admission would usually be recommended.The initial EarSwitch is the invention of Dr Nick Gompertz to support patients with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) with UK National Institute for Health and Care Research grants. The sensor within an earphone, provides a new route for communication based around voluntary control of the middle ear muscle; the tensor tympani.EarSwitch's work demonstrated the same sensors detect health and fitness signals (EarMetrics) from inside the ear.EarMetrics sensors provides multiple unique benefits for physiological monitoring. Most notably: i) hearing aids are already worn, making it a natural site to add health and fitness monitoring ii) the ear canal provides a protected target site, close to the blood supply to the brain, providing more reliable and insightful monitoring than existing "wearable" monitoring devices, and iii) the sensors detect measurements from inside the ear where there is no pigmentation, irrespective of someone's skin colour. EarMetrics therefore provides the first opportunity for important central, multiple health and fitness insights, suitable for people of all skin colours, from hearing aids.Although ear monitoring (heart rate, pulse waveform and oxygen monitors) has been manufactured in a dedicated earphone, and proposed in a hearing-aid component, these competitors deliver information from the outer part of the ear canal adjacent to the jaw (TMJ) joint. These measurements are affected by jaw movement from eating and talking and are subject to similar racial inequality as finger oximeters; their output is affected by skin colour of the outer ear canal, unlike the EarMetrics sensors inside hearing aids.This project is to combine EarMetrics sensors into miniature modules to demonstrate feasibility for incorporation in hearing aid, and to demonstrate measures including; heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing, racially agnostic central oxygen levels and a new cuff-less blood pressure alternatives and heart function data.EarMetrics offers solutions to maintain health-ageing for all, whatever ones skin colour.