The Telepresence Frame beams your vital stats home

Leave it to an artist to create a piece of technology as morbid as it is meaningful. Revital Cohen, an artist exploring the relationship of man and machine in medical settings where devices like life support are in use, has created an object which feeds data on a patient's health to his or her family in real-time. Called the Telepresence Frame, the device gathers information generated by heart monitors and the like, and sends them to a display in the home of loved ones, so that they can constantly be kept aware of one's condition. If (or when) the patient dies, the box records up until the final moments, then plays back its collected information in a continuous loop. Cheery, right? Somehow, we don't see this one flying off store shelves anytime soon.

[Via we make money not art]

[Ted @ Feb 8th 2008 6:29AM]

That thing would have the potential for an great but morbid practical joke... Maybe when I'm an old man I'll get one for my family and make it show all my vitals as having stopped... then leap out of the closet and laugh myself into a coma.

[Flashpoint @ Feb 8th 2008 8:01AM]

beep....beep...beep....beep...

...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[SoreThumb @ Feb 8th 2008 1:54PM]

You jerk! You're already making me laugh myself into a coma 8D

[Magnulus @ Feb 8th 2008 6:55AM]

Hee hee! This is one step closer to Mrs. Weasley's family clock! ^_^

[Grant @ Feb 8th 2008 7:06AM]

That is exactly what I was thinking.

[FThorn @ Feb 8th 2008 7:27AM]

I think a great On*star-type service would couple vital signs monitoring with cell access to emergency services. We WILL see this in our lifetimes. Why is all tech fun/sensory-oriented? We could use some utilitarian applications such as this. For one, being able to monitor vital signs. Two, monitor/record for safety and legal reasons, your surroundings. Beam this info to off-site(body) storage for tamper-proof, legally/court-certified evidence containment.

[fraz @ Feb 8th 2008 7:49AM]

in terms of looking after the elderly this is pretty neat, without causing the eyesore of having those massive hospital machines. Plus the whole wireless transmission of them has to be a new idea? Or just repackaged? Great concept non-the-less. Forget selling in stores, it would be great for remote monitoring of the elderly in their own homes without need for constant checking on, you could sit in your office on the other side of the house and still be able to make sure things are ok. The storage is also useful for checking if anything odd happened that might explained any unexpected changes in state, kinda like a plane's black box.

as for the picture, only one thing pops to mind - fugly. Could do with being in a nicer frame/mount rather than one that looks like it's from a house where a bunch of old people died

@Ted hehe

[Wwhat @ Feb 8th 2008 8:18AM]

...

[dajimmers @ Feb 8th 2008 8:17AM]

I think it's a great idea, just the wrong end of the lifespan. Make one of these into a baby monitor (and remove the on-baby wires, just have the mobile sense heart rate from afar or something like that), and parents would go nuts buying the things. Check your cell phone to see how baby's doing, get an ear-piercing, seizure-inducing alarm when rate goes too fast or too slow, etc. Instant $$$

[shastada @ Feb 8th 2008 8:54AM]

This is very similar to a research project at GT:

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/fce/ecl/projects/dfp/index.html

[JP @ Feb 8th 2008 11:24AM]

that´s a shame! spending resourses in stuff like that!

c´mon! and that design! it´s crap! really a piece of shit!

[bombgigitty @ Feb 8th 2008 2:06PM]

Great so your mom knows when your having sex this pos start going crazy!

[Gammoth13 @ Feb 8th 2008 2:24PM]

This is interesting...

[marcopolo @ Feb 8th 2008 2:58PM]

As an anesthesiologist, this would be a great monitor to have - especially if I could toggle between multiple ICU / PACU patients in real time to see how their vitals are fairing in the postop period.

[skulldriveshaft @ Feb 8th 2008 7:56PM]

we still need you to visit us bedside, otherwise our vital signs will deteriorate faster from the lack of human contact beyond the random visits from family members which decrease as the period at the hospital increases.