Last year, Vayyar Imaging, a leader in 4D imaging technology, announced its next-generation CMOS System on a Chip technology and made its first foray into remote patient monitoring with Walabot HOME. Vayyar’s latest announcement came out last week as part of an expanded partnership with Mini-Circuits, a leader in design, manufacturing, and distribution of radiofrequency (RF) and microwave components. Together, the two companies are offering a new development kit for academic and industry researchers to explore and develop 4D millimeter wave (4D mmWave) imaging and sensing applications.
4D refers to the three physical dimensions and time, as the fourth dimension. The application development platform, VTRIG-74, is a first for the fields of RF and microwave technology where significant overhead and cost is required to develop the kind of imaging and sensing applications made possible by 4D mmWave technology.
With the potential applications including industrial IoT, smart homes, and medical patient monitoring, VTRIG-74 is powered by Vayyar’s high-resolution integrated RF transceiver and radar technologies. As of the announcement, features of the kit include:
- Out-of-the-box ready mmWave transceiver module for 4D imaging and sensing application development
- 20 transmit by 20 receive integrated antenna array for high-resolution 4D imaging
- Flexible operation anywhere within the 62 to 69 GHz band
- Real-time data processing of transmit and receive pair phasors for each swept frequency point
- Pre-configured profiles to adjust receiver resolution and imaging processing time
- Complete API for Python and Matlab
Commenting on the announcement, Mini-Circuit President Ted Heil shared, “The VTRIG-74 builds on that effort to put Vayyar’s extraordinary radar technology into the hands of researchers working to develop the next generation of imaging and sensing applications.”
Raviv Melamed, Vayyar CEO, who Medgadget spoke to last year, similarly expressed that, “The launch of our VTRIG-74 development kit now brings advanced and affordable radar functionality for everyone to explore.”
To learn a little more about 4D mmWave technology and how it will be applicable to healthcare-specific applications, Medgadget heard from Malcolm Berman, Director of Marketing at Vayyar.
Medgadget: What are some current healthcare applications that use 4D mmWave technology?
Malcolm Berman: One application of 4D mmWave technology in the healthcare sector is the monitoring of sensitive populations, such as seniors, at home. For instance, Walabot HOME is radically changing the future of caregiving as the first and only fall alert system that is completely automatic and requires no action from the user. Rather than using a fall detection bracelet, pendant or camera, Walabot HOME uses advanced sensors to capture a general outline of a person’s location and position, while protecting privacy at all times. Further, Vayyar’s intelligent sensors can sense and display each person’s vital signs, monitor activity patterns, and breathing, and can detect irregularities, such as an adult with sleep apnea.
Medgadget: Are there any healthcare technologies that would benefit from the use of 4D mmWave that do not use the technology today?
Berman: We have only scratched the surface of 4D mmWave technology and 4D imaging capabilities in the healthcare sector. One area Vayyar is currently exploring is contactless remote patient monitoring, which can be used to more closely monitor patient’s health without cumbersome and intrusive wires and machines. Vayyar has partnered with Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit academic medical center, to test if medical teams are able to monitor health, activity, and behavior without requiring patients to physically come in contact with monitoring devices while maintaining a high-quality standard of care. This non-evasive 4D imaging technique can enhance patient experience and comfort while providing a more effective solution.
Medgadget: What limitation to developing new 4D mmWave applications lead the partners to create an application development platform?
Berman: The cost and overhead that traditionally accompanies developing this technology makes it impractical for most companies to develop mmWave applications. The kit, therefore, expands the accessibility of developing mmWave applications to a wider array of researchers and application developers than can use the technology today.
Medgadget: What are some healthcare use cases where you’re most excited to see 4D mmWave used in the next few years?
Berman: Overall, 4D mmWave technology has the potential to revolutionize the medical care industry by eliminating the need for costly, invasive, and uncomfortable imaging procedures. For instance, breast cancer screenings are often a painful and expensive procedure, but 4D imaging can provide inexpensive and comfortable access to early screening in a way that also emits a fraction of the radiation that traditional solutions require.
Vayyar was founded with a vision to develop a more effective and painless way of detecting early-stage breast cancer using radio frequency technology. Our intelligent sensors can see into human tissue, creating a 4D scan of a breast, and immediately differentiate between malignant and benign growths. This portable and affordable device is currently undergoing experiments, and we expect to one day offer it to patients – at a reasonable price point – to screen for cancers early on so patients can get the treatment they need as soon as possible.
Link: Vayyar Imaging…
