Samsung prototypes brainwave-reading wearable stroke detector

A group of Samsung engineers has come up with a system that monitors your brain, to warn you of an impending stroke.

Samsung prototypes brainwave-reading wearable stroke detector

A group of Samsung engineers has come up with a system that monitors your brain, to warn you of an impending stroke.

Samsung's prototype system combines a smartphone app with brainwave sensors to detect the early signs of stroke.Samsung Tomorrow

A group of Samsung engineers have come up with a plan to harness the power of your phone or tablet to warn you of an impending stroke. By monitoring your brainwaves the system would detect the early signs of a stroke, and could one day be built into your glasses to keep you safe all the time.

A stroke happens when the blood supply to part of your brain is cut off by a clot or damaged by a bleed, which causes brain cells in the affected area to die. According to the World Health Organisation, 15 million people across the world suffer from a stroke each year. Around 66 per cent of those people die or are left with permanent physical disabilities.

To combat the problem, five Samsung engineers have come up with a prototype system called Early Detection Sensor & Algorithm Package (EDSAP). There are two parts to the system: a headset, covered in sensors that record electrical impulses in the brain; and a mobile app, in which an algorithm analyses the brainwaves and, in less than a minute, determines the likelihood of a stroke.