Projects
Sleep Loop
SleepLoop is a wearable sleep monitoring and stimulation system developed at the Universities of Zurich (ETH Zurich and University of Zurich). The aim of SleepLoop is to understand and enhance health by using mobile technologies that deepen sleep in various stages of life from childhood to old age. SleepLoop enables large scale research outside of the lab and will support all people that need deeper and a more regenerative sleep.
I am the technical director of the SleepLoop Hochschulmedizin Zürich Flagship, responsible for all technical innovations of SleepLoop.
The SleepLoop technology is commercialized for medical applications by Tosoo AG.
PhoneOximeter
I designed the hardware connectivity and the algorithms that enable low power on-board extraction of heart rate and respiratory rate for one of the first smartphone based pulse oximeter, the PhoneOximeter. The PhoneOximeter was used for screening sleep apnea, pneumonia, pre-eclampsia and sepsis and has been evaluated in clinical trials at British Columbia Children’s Hospital (Canada), Tygerberg Hospital (South Africa) and Mulago Hospital (Uganda). The success of the PhoneOximeter launched an entire new research direction that led to the Audio Oximeter that was commercialized by the spin-off company LionsGate Technologies and obtained medical device approval in 2015.
Robotics Development
I contributed to the developments of different mobile robots, especially in the field of perception of the environment and energy management. Within a graduate project I designed and produced a solar recharge module for the sugar-cube sized robot Alice developed by Gilles Caprari at the Autonomous System Lab of EPFL.
During my master thesis work in Brussels at the Unit of Social Ecology (Universite Libre de Bruxelles) I improved the detection of cockroaches with the IR and pixel array sensors of InsBot. The use of Artificial Neural Networks embedded in an 8-bit microcontroller reduced detection errors. For the educational robot E-Puck, developed at EPFL by Francesco Mondada and colleagues, I developed a sensor extension for a multitude of distance and orientation sensors.
Solar Impulse
Solar Impulse was the ambitious project of the Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. They flew around the world in a solar powered airplane to highlight the potential of renewable energy for aviation. The plane is a masterpiece of engineering and has impressive technical data: 61 meters wingspan, 1.5 tons, 25 knots cruising speed, zero emission. I had the opportunity to contribute to this challenging project since the very beginnings in 2004. First within a student project studying stress of pilots, then as part of my PhD research activities. I designed different elements for the monitoring of the pilots health such as a oxygen surveillance system or an adaptive sleep / wake classification device that is part of a symbodic system for the monitoring of the pilot’s fatigue and gives haptic feedback about the planes flying state.
Capnobase
I initiated and designed a web platform that serves as a reference data repository for respiratory signals. I also designed the accompanying software that enables annotation and browsing of this data. Researchers and students are now able to search, browse and comment on over 200 annotated respiratory signal data sets containing unique examples of healthy and abnormal respiratory patterns and benchmarks. The database is used internationally by lecturers, researchers, and industry professionals for teaching or testing signal processing and classification algorithms.
Capnobase and the associated smart fusion algorithm remains the benchmark data set for validating algorithms to extract respiratory rate from photoplethysmographic signals. This work has been cited several hundred times.
Robot Competitions
Together with friends I build two robots to participate at the student robot contest SmartRob in 2003 and 2004.
PeleBot was designed to collect and shoot as many balls as possible into a goal.
PaletBot had to collect pallets in different colors and pile them in correct order in a repository. PeleBot became 2nd in 2003 and PaletBot won in 2004.
Other members of the team were Silvan Schnydrig (’03 & ’04), Flurin Pfiffner (’03), Jan Schildknecht (’03), Stefan Keller (’03), Usina Streit (’03), Michael Karlen (’04).
Subsequently I co-organized later editions of the contest.
Climbing Events & Support
Promoting sustainable climbing lies dear to my heart. For many years I coordinated and supported the child and youth climbing of a regional branch of the Swiss Alpine Club (Monte Rosa). I was organizing chair of the Swiss Climbing Boulder Cup ’08 in Brig, where the best climbers of Switzerland met in the historic palace of Stockalper.
Another project of mine was the Raglu.ch webpage that is an information platform for the climbers of the Wallis/Valais region. It featured maps, a forum, a shop, and many other useful information about climbing in the Wallis/Valais and supported the renovation of many climbing sites.