The uMED, or Universal Mobile Electrochemical Detector to use its full name, is a compact device that is able to test blood for disease and water for toxic pollutants, before sending data over a mobile connection for remote analysis by a doctor, or for processing by a monitoring service.
A recent article in Popular Mechanics explains how “the device fuses a dial-up modem with a motor from a cell phone and a souped-up version of a common blood glucose meter.” Going on to say that in use, “A drop of blood is applied onto a chemically active test strip, and the more glucose is in the blood, the stronger the electrical signal is from the strip. The idea with uMED is that a person equipped with the right test strips and a device that can analyze them, a person could rapidly carry out an extraordinary variety of electrochemical tests with just one detector.”
As if that wasn’t enough, the uMED is seemingly also Arduino-compatible and as such can easily be reprogrammed for use with new tests, by someone with minimal training. Furthermore, the device doesn’t even require a network data service, since it incorporates a modem and uses a voice channel as a bearer, thereby ensuring compatibility with every generation of mobile network technology.
The growing case for universal network coverage
Mobile communications has always been about so much more than simply convenience and the benefits it brings in an emergency, whether that be at a personal, community or national level, is clear. However, innovations such as uMED go on to even further underline how mobile communications infrastructure has a vital part to play in not only transforming, but saving lives.
Unfortunately, there still remain a great many areas of the world that are without network coverage. And in fact if we look at Mexico alone this amounts to a staggering 50,000 or so rural localities.
This is where open source network infrastructure — which lends itself to agile deployment, with drastically reduced costs and supporting far more flexible business models — can help. Making it possible to connect communities such as the Mexican village of Yaviche, improving the quality of life and in some cases perhaps even saving lives.
Image source: Alex Nemiroski