Cane monitors users’ health as they walk

Steve Hards

An idea from Lithuanian designer Egle Ugintaite recently won the grand prize in Fujitsu’s 2011 design award – a cane (UK – ‘walking stick’) which monitors the users’ pulse, blood pressure and body temperature as their wrist comes into contact with the sensors. It also has a built-in navigator. It sounds like a good idea, until you recall that the provision of canes to older people is not a simple thing (DLF factsheet PDF) and that the people who could benefit from the monitoring are probably too ill to benefit much from a walking cane. Cane monitors users’ health as they walk.