Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS
10.11.2018
Fraunhofer AICOS will be presenting its work in the Fraunhofer booth at MEDICA trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany, from November 12th to November 15th. AICOS will be presenting the results from its research on medical devices which set themselves apart for their accessibility in terms of ease of use and cost, while demonstrating a highly competitive performance.
Medical technology is responsible for increasing life expectancy in many disease areas, improving quality of life and allowing people to remain integrated, economically productive and socially active members of society. Between 1980 and 2011, a European citizen’s life expectancy at birth increased by more than 6 years; improvements in medical technology have played an important part in this. MEDICA, the world’s largest medical trade fair, gives an important contribution to the medical innovations in getting together with the protagonists of this sector.
AICOS will take to the city of Düsseldorf, in Germany, different accessible yet highly competitive technology-based medical devices including: a device for mobile-based risk assessment of diabetic retinopathy by image processing, a mobile dermatology device for automatic skin image capture and automatic risk assessment of skin lesions and a system for fall risk screening and falls prevention. This AICOS’ devices are the result of the R&D work developed within four projects:
- EyeFundusScope: the purpose of this project is to allow a non-expert assessment of diabetic retinopathy by automatically detecting microaneurysms and exudates. These are the first visible signs of diabetic retinopathy, which will be used as an indicator of the severity / risk of the pathology. The solution includes an Android application which will perform the acquisition, data management and determine the diabetic risk level, using as reference the presence of lesions in the retinal images.
- MalariaScope: this project aims to develop a cheap alternative to the current microscopes, that can easily be adapted to a smartphone and used in the field. The goal is to place the smartphone in the adapter along with the blood smear to be analysed and use the built-in camera to capture a set of magnified images. These images will then be processed and analysed in order to identify the malaria parasite and its different species. Based on this platform and methodology, other pathologies can be targeted as well.
- Skin Lesions: this project is a patient-oriented monitoring system of skin lesions using a smartphone. The system collects, processes and stores information of skin lesions through its automatic classification algorithm. The automatic classification is based on the ABCD Rule, an algorithm based on the analysis of 4 visual features: Asymmetry, Border, Colour and Differential structures. All these features are considered highly relevant in the detection of malignant melanoma.
- Fall Sensing: this project aims to create technological solutions that can help the fall risk screening and the implementation of a custom exercise plan that fits the individual needs of each patient, preventing the occurrence of falls in the elderly population.
All these solutions have the peculiarity of being quite accessible in terms of their ease of use and even in their cost, while demonstrating a highly competitive performance.
MEDICA 2018 will have an exclusive place for Fraunhofer Institutes, where AICOS, FIT, IBMT, IFAM, IGD, IPA, ITEM and IZI-BB, will show the results of the daily work in the pursuit of innovation and allow the possibility to contact with entrepreneurs and investors of the medical sector.
The attendance of MEDICA 2018 by Fraunhofer AICOS’ New Business Development Coordinator is a key enabler to the dissemination of Fraunhofer AICOS’ applied research results such as the MalariaScope, and is an initiative promoted under the scope of the project ‘CTFhP – Collective Transfer FhP’, co-funded by ‘NORTE 2020 – Programa Operacional Regional do Norte’, ‘Portugal 2020’ and the European Union through the ‘FEDER – Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional’.
The large presence of Fraunhofer AICOS at MEDICA this year, particularly through its stand and the key researchers of Fraunhofer AICOS’ technology-based medical devices: EyeFundusScope, Skin Lesions and Fall Sensing, is promoted by the project ‘MDevNet – National Network of Knowledge Transfer on Medical Devices’, co-funded by ‘COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização, ‘Portugal 2020’ and the European Union through the ‘FEDER – Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional’.
