With the rapid development of biometric technology, there are more and more healthcare-related products on the market. Among these, the market demand for household healthcare products has grown significantly. In this article, we introduce the current development status of the healthcare application market and use the design of baby monitors as an example to study applicable technology and application development.
A Robust Future For Biometric Technology Application
An extensive variety of healthcare products can be seen in the market and these include: household healthcare consumer products, baby or elderly monitors, fall detectors, smartwatches, smart bracelets, and more. According to a report conducted and released by Transparency Market Research (TMR) targeting the analysis, trend, and forecast on smart healthcare products in global sectors, the market value of global smart healthcare in 2018 was US$37.5 billion; the compound annual growth rate from 2019 to 2027 is expected to increase by 8.8% - an astounding growth for the market.
With the increasing maturity of biometric technologies, many have been applied to different types of products. These common biometric technologies include: biosensors, fingerprint scanners, photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors, and those generally seen in the market such as: fingerprint scanners, palm vein readers, facial recognition technology, and iris scanners.
Given the rapid increase in demand for healthcare products, Arrow Electronics has carried out in-depth research on related biometric technologies specifically targeting healthcare mass-market applications. Arrow Electronics proactively engaged in AI InnoLab Health Programs including applying ToF/RGB on fall detection, baby breathing and movement detection application and PPG used in baby health checks for detecting babies’ blood oxygen and heart rate.
Nowadays, a baby monitor has become one of the “must-haves” for new parents. As technology evolves, there are different approaches to ensure a baby's health through baby monitors. Early baby monitors were only used to listen to the sounds babies made but it was difficult to determine whether they were awake or sound asleep. Current baby monitors have the function of 24/7 recording which can be uploaded onto the cloud. Parents are able to monitor their babies through smartphones and track their sleeping patterns whenever necessary. Music can also be played through baby monitor to comfort the crying baby so he/she can fall back asleep.
3D Time-Of-Flight (ToF) Takes Baby Monitors To A Whole New Level
Arrow Electronics has specifically teamed up with ADI to provide high-precision baby monitor products designed using ToF technology. With the help of ADI’s latest 3D ToF technology, future baby monitors will not only record videos, they will also monitor babies’ movements, and breathing patterns at any time. Alarms can be sounded in a timely manner if an abnormal condition arises. 3D ToF is a type of scannerless LIDAR (light detection and ranging) that uses high power optical pulses in the duration of nanoseconds to capture depth information at short distances from a scene of interest.
Arrow Electronics has created a proof-of-concept design for baby monitors which can accelerate the speed of product development of healthcare devices such as baby monitors. This innovative solution was produced by a joint collaboration of Arrow Electronics, ADI, Motorola, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Engineers can easily start developing algorithms using 3D ToF Evaluation Kit with ADI 3D ToF technology developed by Arrow Electronics alongside a useful software development kit. Customers adopting such designs can speed up their product development while at the same time taking full advantage of the latest high-performance analog front end for ToF.
ADI offers 3D ToF solutions including processing, laser drivers, and power management as well as development boards and software/firmware to aid in quick implementation of 3D ToF solutions. Among these, 3D ToF processors are: ADDI9036 – featuring with CCD TOF Signal Processor with programmable timing and V-Driver; ADP363 – featuring high speed, dual, a MOSFET driver, non-inverting A/B input pins, a laser diode driver with a Vin ranging 9.5V – 18V; and ADP5071 – featuring 2 A/1.2 A DC-to-DC switching regulators with independent positive and negative output CCD power supply and optical modules.
ADI’s ToF solution has an independent depth detection system that outputs depth-per-pixel data which lightens the burden of the processing workload while supporting multi-system operations. ADI’s unique interference cancellation algorithm allows customers to use multiple ToF systems in the same environment and the utilization of a 640x480 pixel sensor enables users to detect smaller and thinner objects. The ADI ToF system can be operated outdoors in strong and intense sunlight which is able to be used in a wide range of applications.
In an effort to speed up the product development of customers, Arrow Electronics has launched 3D ToF Development Platform – AD-96TOF1-EBZ – a proven hardware platform for depth perception that is paired with a processor board from the 96Boards ecosystem and can be used for 3D software and algorithm development. ToF technology can be applied to a wide collection of areas including security and monitoring, Industry 4.0, robotics technologies, automobiles, patient monitoring, augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), and more.
Conclusion
Biometric technologies are relatively diverse, each having their own traits and advantages. Among these, 3D ToF technology is ideal for the development of baby monitors and along with the solution proposed by the joint collaboration of Arrow Electronics and ADI, the speed in product development can be accelerated. It is worth a look for manufacturers who are interested in investing in this market.