Board demonstrates potential of wireless sensor

The Bio-Nano Sensium (BNS) is an ultra-low-power wireless monitoring system with the potential to revolutionise healthcare management.

Toumaz Technology today announces that its joint venture with Advance Nanotech, Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies, has developed a board level demonstrator of the Bio-Nano Sensium (BNS), an ultra-low-power wireless monitoring system with the potential to revolutionise healthcare management.

The demonstrator system is now available to potential customers and partners for evaluation.

The BNS system is based on Toumaz Technology's ground-breaking low-cost, disposable sensor interface chip - the Sensium - that, thanks to its ultralow power and very small battery size, can be implanted in or worn on the body with complete freedom of movement, unlike existing bulky monitoring solutions.

The Sensium is compatible with a wide range of sensors and can be configured to detect vital signs such as ECG, blood oxygen and glucose, body temperature, and even motion and mobility.

With the ability to wirelessly transmit "problem" event data to network nodes, these locally intelligent sensor interface devices herald a new area in the monitoring and treatment of chronic conditions, promising improved quality of life for patients.

The demonstration board incorporates the Toumaz ultra-low-power wireless platform and Nanopower Sensor Protocol (NSP) operating system, sensor inputs and drivers, and leverages AMx technology principles to produce a flexible and reconfigurable interface, a microcontroller, a USB interface, and a graphical user interface (GUI) for easy setup and programming.

For prospective customers, the board level prototype offers the opportunity evaluate a working model of the BNS system.

For partners and system integrators, the demonstrator provides a working platform for obtaining configuration data, developing control and calibration algorithms for bio-nano sensors, and optimising the NSP wireless operating protocol for specific applications.

Trials of the single chip BNS system are planned for the second quarter of 2006.

Commenting on today's announcement, Toumaz Technology CEO Keith Errey said: "With this first major hardware deliverable from the Bio-Sensium Technologies programme we are able to demonstrate the real potential of the Bio-Nano Sensium to deliver a new paradigm in healthcare".

"We look forward to collaborating with potential partners as we advance towards full prototype, which will integrate all these functions within an ultra-low-power single-chip structure".

Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies is a joint venture between Toumaz Technology and Advance Nanotech, formed to create bio-nano sensors that can be implanted within the body to diagnose and treat a wide variety of medical conditions.

The development effort will focus on the information and communication technology systems necessary for these sensors to interact with their surrounding environment.

The Bio-Nano Sensium will be capable of power consumption orders of a magnitude lower than current state-of-the-art microprocessors.

This nano-power mode of operation is vital to the longer lifetimes, reliability, and stability required in biosensors, especially those that are implanted within the body.

The Bio-Nano Sensium will be based on industry-standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology so that not only will it have superior functional features to other devices but also be capable of low-cost production.

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