I-Corps: Non-weighted Digital Circuits for Low Power Wearable Medical Device

随着婴儿潮一代进入退休期，医疗费用变得很大。2014年，医疗保健占美国支出的20%以上。可穿戴医疗设备提供了缓解这一问题的解决方案，因为它可以感测、处理和传输生物医学信号，并使用预定义的算法和信号处理硬件识别异常信号，并在必要时寻求帮助。它也是未来无人医疗护理系统的关键组成部分。然而，目前的可穿戴医疗设备由于电池供电有限，无法进行实时信号处理和传输。在这个I-Corps项目中，该团队计划探索其提出的非加权和异步数字电路在可穿戴医疗设备中的市场机会。该团队提出的技术基于基于脉冲数字神经形态电路和异步无线电系统，分别取代了线性信号处理和无线通信同步过程中的传统多位二进制加法器和乘法器。所提出的方法为数字和无线电电路设计提供了低功耗和低复杂度的解决方案。这些方法不需要修改当前的数字信号处理算法或集成电路制造技术。这使得所提出的技术能够容易地在当前设计中采用，从而延长系统的电池寿命，提供更多的处理能力并提高无线电设备的功率效率。此外，所提出的可穿戴医疗设备可以扩展到娱乐和运动训练产品，这也是重要且有前景的市场。

As the baby boomers enter retirement, medical cost becomes significant. In 2014, health care accounted for more than 20% of US spending. The wearable medical device provides a solution to alleviate this problem since it can sense, process, and transmit biomedical signals and identify abnormal signals using predefined algorithms and signal processing hardware, and call for help when necessary. It is also a critical component for the future unmanned medical nursing system. However, current wearable medical devices cannot perform real-time signal processing and transmission due to the limited battery power supply. In this I-Corps project, the team plans to explore market opportunities of its proposed non-weighted and asynchronous digital circuits in wearable medical devices. The team's proposed technology is based on pulse-based digital neuromorphic circuits and asynchronous radio systems, which replace the conventional multi-bit binary adders and multipliers in linear signal processing and the synchronization process in wireless communication, respectively. The proposed methods provide a low-power and low-complexity solution for digital and radio circuit design. These methods don't require modification of the current digital signal processing algorithm or integrated circuit fabrication technology. This allows the proposed technology to be easily adopted in current designs, extending the battery lifetime of the system, providing more processing capability and enhancing the power efficiency of the radio devices. In addition, the proposed wearable medical device can be extended to entertainment and sports training products, which are also important and promising markets.