COGNIONICS HAS DEVELOPED A HIGH-QUALITY, LOW-NOISE, DRY/NON-CONTACT ECG ELECTRODE THAT CAN OBTAIN SIGNALS E…

Public award description

COGNIONICS HAS DEVELOPED A HIGH-QUALITY, LOW-NOISE, DRY/NON-CONTACT ECG ELECTRODE THAT CAN OBTAIN SIGNALS EVEN THROUGH LAYERS OF CLOTHING WITHOUT ANY SKIN PREPARATION. ALTHOUGH THE IDEA OF A NON-CONTACT ELECTRODE IS NOT NEW AND HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY INVESTIGATED BY OTHER RESEARCH GROUPS, A SUCCESSFUL DESIGN HAS YET TO BE ACHIEVED DUE TO UNRESOLVED ISSUES RELATING TO NOISE, ARTIFACTS AND COMPLEXITY. THE COGNIONICS TECHNOLOGY IS BASED IN PART ON A NOVEL CUSTOM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER DEVELOPED BY THE PI AND LICENSED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO. THE PATENT-PENDING AMPLIFIER IS SPECIFICALLY OPTIMIZED FOR HIGH-IMPEDANCE BIOPOTENTIAL SENSING AND IS ABLE TO ACHIEVE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER PERFORMANCE IN TERMS OF INPUT IMPEDANCE AND NOISE THAN THE DISCRETE OFF-THE-SHELF COMPONENTS USED IN PREVIOUS RESEARCH EFFORTS. IN CONTRAST TO OLDER DESIGNS, THE COGNIONICS SENSOR REQUIRES NO MANUAL ADJUSTMENTS (NEUTRALIZATION), CONSUMES A MINIMUM OF POWER (A FEW UWS) AND IS VIRTUALLY INSENSITIVE TO VARIATIONS IN THE BODY-ELECTRODE COUPLING STRENGTH. THE NEW AMPLIFIER COMBINED WITH SEVERAL COGNIONICS DEVELOPED PROPRIETARY TECHNIQUES HAS ALREADY YIELDED A NON-CONTACT SENSOR WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNAL QUALITY EVEN ON FULLY AMBULATORY SUBJECTS. THE PHASE I PROPOSAL WILL FURTHER DEVELOP THE SENSOR TO DEMONSTRATE FULL COMPLIANCE WITH AAMI ECG SPECIFICATIONS THROUGH BOTH BENCH AND LIVE TESTING. IN PHASE I, A SINGLE LEAD NON-CONTACT CHEST STRAP WILL BE PRODUCED TO SERVE AS AN EVALUATION PLATFORM FOR DELIVERY TO NASA. A SUCCESSFUL PHASE I PROJECT WILL DEMONSTRATE THAT THE CORE COGNIONICS NON-CONTACT SENSOR CAN FULLY MEET NASA'S SIGNAL QUALITY REQUIREMENTS. THE PHASE II PROJECT WILL DEVELOP A FULL DIAGNOSTIC ECG DEVICE FOR USE IN SPACE ENVIRONMENTS AND INTEGRATE THE SENSOR WITHIN EXISTING AND FUTURE NASA SYSTEMS (E.G., SPACESUITS).