About five years ago, a group of researchers at ETH Zurich, a public research university in Zurich, Switzerland were working on solving problems related to the complications of a sleep study.
Soumya Sundar Dash was invited to the sleep lab to share his expert opinion on the study being conducted. In the lab he noticed that 32 wires were plugged into the participant to conduct the study. He wondered, “How can someone sleep naturally with so many wires attached and how correct would that data point be?”
This led Dash to co-found Sleepiz, along with Marc Rullan and Max Sieghold in 2018. An engineer by training, Soumya’s specialization in wireless signal analysis and his PhD in electromagnetic fields, helped to devise a solution that would enable a faster diagnosis of sleep disorders and wider access to sleep data.
The device, which is medically approved in 36 countries, uses a combination of radar technology, signal processing, and machine learning algorithms. It transmits electromagnetic waves which get reflected off the human body and are measured by the device. From this data, micro-motions of the person are computed.
Sleepiz One+ can detect movements such as an individual’s sleeping position or actions of their limbs. It can also compute respiratory patterns and pulse rate from the heartbeat. All this information is then gathered, and advanced signal processing is used to classify them.
The device fits in the palm of a hand. It can diagnose sleep disorders such as sleep apnea without touching the patient. The same technology enables the monitoring of multiple respiratory diseases in a hospital or home setting. With this device, early detection of ‘code blue’ incidents is possible which increases the opportunity to save lives.
The company entered the Indian market in mid-2022 and since then have been providing real-time health updates to hospitals and doctors in the U.S. and India via a B2B business model. Its biggest R&D center is in Pune, India.