Wearable device is in trend right now. Ren-Gui Li, Professor from the Department of Electrical Engineering and founder of Zoetek, has been working on healthcare applications for electrical and information techniques for years. The aim for Li is to develop medical wearable device that is different from what we could see on the current market. Li noted that most wearable devices focus on sport and entertainment purposes, but medical wearable device is gaining more attention than ever since we are entering an aging society.
Li is the leader of medical mechatronics laboratory which made over 10 million NTD technology transfer income during 2012 to 2014. Recognizing the potential of medical mechatronics technology, Taipei Tech Innovation and Incubation Center helped Li to start a new company, Zoetek, which develops medical measurement device. Many products such as portable oxymeter/ sphygmomanometer and intelligent health promotion bracelet are already available.
The intelligent health promotion bracelet can measure user’s heartbeat, blood pressure, sleeping quality, and heart rate variability. By tracking user’s heart rate variability, it can be used for sudden death risk calculation. In Li’s opinion, integration of various useful measurements such as blood pressure instead of pedometer in wearable device can increase user’s interests of usage.
The logic behind intelligent health promotion bracelet is Green LED, which can detect heartbeat and blood oxygen content. But Li said it is difficult to get precise data for all the optical interference in the environment. In order to make it work, Taipei Tech alumni lent a helping hand. EVERLIGHT and Lite-On Technology Corporation provided their research and develop energy for designing a special component for Li’s bracelet. With the help of Taipei Tech alumni’s strong support, the precision of intelligent health promotion bracelet can be elevated and now is under process for applying for medical equipment certification.
Leehter Yao, President of Taipei Tech, indicated that alumnus is strength for our teachers and students to start a business. Zoetek’s R&D process and it made its way to Incubation Board for Startup and Acceleration Firms are two great examples to name a few.
