Respira Labs

Respira Labs recently announced that it has developed a wearable device that continuously assesses lung function without the need for traditional pulmonary function tests.

Mountain View, California-based Respira Labs designed its Sylvee wearable initially to assess chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COVID-19 and asthma patients. It is embedded with speakers and microphones that measure change in acoustic resonance as a proxy for changes in lung air volume, which is the basis for traditional pulmonary function tests.

Sylvee is worn on the lower part of the rib cage and monitors the lung function over time to provide a comprehensive overview of a patient’s condition. It injects noise into the lung area and measures the type of sound that is produced. If air is trapped in the lung, it makes a different sound than the resonance of sound produced when air is fully expelled from the lungs.

Air trapping is an early symptom of respiratory decline. With…