Spending your life at home and never getting out of bed is not only considered socially unacceptable, it can lead to serious medical conditions like bedsores. But thankfully one of those two concerns has been eradicated thanks to the MAP System, a pressure sensing mat that helps prevent pressure ulcers from happening.
Technically designed for use in hospitals and long-term care facilities, the MAP — or monitor, alert, protect — system is a special mat outfitted with thousands of sensors that constantly measure the pressure of someone lying on a mattress on top of it. This information is then relayed to a handheld monitoring unit which not only indicates areas of high, prolonged pressure in relation to where someone is sprawled out, but also recommends when they need to be move, or be moved, to keep bedsores at bay.
Besides keeping patients comfortable and all that good stuff, if implemented elsewhere this technology has the potential to revolutionise multi day gaming sessions, movie marathons, and eventually even let someone endure an entire Academy Awards ceremony. [The MAP System via Gizmag]