Artificial intelligence technology embedded in a smart bed saved the life of a 70-year-old man. According to a case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, cardiologist James Ip from Weill Cornell College and New York documented how a smart bed for one man detected a dangerous drop in his heart rate to 42 beats per minute overnight—much lower than his usual rate of 78. The system then sent him an alert. The man, who was disturbed by the bed's reading, checked his notifications and then verified the data again using a smartwatch connected to a blood pressure monitor. When he began to feel short of breath, he contacted his doctor, who advised him to go to the emergency room immediately. Later, hospital tests confirmed he had a complete heart block, a condition where the electrical signals between the heart's upper and lower chambers stop communicating, causing the two halves of the heart to beat independently, which significantly slows the heart's function. Without immediate treatment, this bradycardia would have inevitably led to cardiac arrest. Fortunately, the smart bed detected the condition in time, and doctors were able to implant a dual-chamber pacemaker quickly, and his symptoms disappeared. The life-saving technology installed in the bed is called Ballistocardiography (BCG), which tracks subtle body movements to estimate heart rate. This technology appears in various consumer devices, from beds to wearables.
