The implications of these inventions go far beyond hospital critical-care rooms. Similar technology was tested by climbers on Mount Everest. Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson wears ultrasmall accelerometers that analyze the kinematics and physiology of his 400-meter dashes. Champion bicycle racer Lance Armstrong uses new bike-mounted sensing systems to radically improve his performance. Companies like FitSense and Nike have introduced watches with radio links to their shoes.
Some technologies are exotic.
The Media Lab marathoners swallowed a horse pill that measured internal temperature and radioed the results to a belt-buckle receiver. Since the circuit is cast in a plastic shell that keeps it from reacting chemically with the body, approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was a breeze. John Glenn used the same pill sensor system in his latest space flight. Then pour some piping hot coffee into her and watch the graph go up. Then some ice cold beer.