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Both the “Non-contact Electro-cardiogram Monitoring Bedsheet” and “Health-shirt” designed by the Joint Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) received the Best Lifestyle Gold Award (Home Life and Healthy Living) from the Hong Kong ICT Awards 2008 today (9 February). These two low-cost and user-friendly devices, developed by a team led by Professor Zhang Yuan-ting of the Department of Electronic Engineering, CUHK, monitor heart rate and blood pressure on a 24-hour basis which is particularly beneficial to heart disease patients and people with high risk (elders and hypertension patients).

Coronary heart disease is the number one killer in Hong Kong and causes more than 6,000 deaths each year. Patients suffering from sudden heart attack may die shortly if rescue is not available in time. The Non-contact Electro-cardiogram Monitoring Bedsheet uses soft and thin conductive textile as electrodes, which are fixed on specific spots to monitor user’s heart rate and its variability. Whenever the bedsheet detects a hazardous situation, it will give an alarm or dial a designated phone number for help, thus preventing sudden deaths of heart disease patients during sleep. As no electrodes or wires are attached to the user, the bedsheet will not obstruct normal sleep and suits people of different ages with different sleeping postures. The accuracy of the bedsheet reaches 90%. It will be put on the market in six months with a price below HK$1,000.

A common sphygmomanometer can measure blood pressure at a certain moment only. If continuous monitoring of blood pressure is needed, the measuring procedures have to be performed repeatedly. The Health-shirt avoids such inconvenience, and integrates the functions of monitoring, diagnosis and non-drug treatment. By putting on the specially designed Health-shirt, a user’s variability of heart rate and blood pressure can be measured continuously by means of the conductive textile in the shirt. The indices are then shown on watches or mobile phones. When the blood pressure reaches a certain high level, a built-in MP3 player will automatically play a suitably therapeutic music to lower the user’s blood pressure to normal level.

Two other professors from CUHK’s Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering are also on the ICT awardees list. Professor Charlie Wang’s “From Styling Design to Fabricated Wetsuit” won the Best Lifestyle Bronze Award (Work Life and Professional Services). By applying the technique of transforming 3D body data into 2D pieces, the wetsuit optimizes customization of clothes and greatly shortens the production time. Professor Hui Kin-chuen’s “Sustainability Voyage” received the Best Digital Entertainment (Digital Entertainment Software) Certificate of Merit. This 3D virtual game was designed for the Hong Kong Science Museum and allows participants to experience the damage of environmental pollution on ocean and reinforcing the importance of environmental protection.