News iPods screw with pacemakers

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/05/11/ipods_screw_with_pacemakers/1

 

Surely whatever it is in an iPod thats causing problems will be in many other electronic devices as well?

 

That what I was thinking. It seems very unlikely that this is an ipod specific issue.

 

Makes one wonder what the |FCC| or the (CE) emblem is for ...

 

No discuss link at top of story

How does this apply to the concerns about Wi-Fi discussed in this thread: (link)

 

Like others have said pretty much any electrical item will produce similar or greater EMI, god forbid granddad sits in front of the telly.

So the real issue is that the pacemakers didn't have effective EM shielding.

 

yea, as much as I dislike Apple and wouldn't mind seeing the Ipod fail, I agree its most likley what you said.

 

It's worth noting that the uneducated masses, due to Apple's viral marketing, will often refer to all MP3 players in general as iPods, whether or not they actually are Apple iPods, just like many people colloquially refer to vacuum cleaners as Hoovers in some countries.
The article referenced here doesn't state clearly whether the test was done specifically with Apple iPods, or with a range of MP3 players being referred to colloquially as iPods.

Either way, it's safe to assume that any MP3 player has the potential to cause this problem anyway, but clarification could be useful..

 

i would like to know how that happens.....

 

Man... No doubt the kid got an 'A' for the project... Crazy to see that something keeping someone alive can be screwed up so easily...

 

well that would really suck if i had a pacemakers

 

with the em shielding I am no expert but I don't think its possible due to a pacemaker is reading the very faint electrical signal the body produces when the heart compresses. You can't really em shield that without causing the pacemaker to no function I think its more a problem of that the electrical device is giving off to much interference but what can you do ...

 

Yeah, my grandfather has a pacemaker and after some discussions with him (he used to be a Physics professor) he always wondered about EMI, but as said above, the charge pumped out is so small and the machine so simple that EMI should do effectivly nothing.

I would however like to see this being done with various other MP3 players to make sure that there isn't an even larger problem going on out there.

 

I knew a guy that had is pacemaker disputed by that hand held device that the UPS driver hands you to get your signature, but that thing is like a cell phone.

Anyway, is the EMI from an iPod really that strong? Is it all the signal processing circuitry or is it the motor for the hard drive in the older and Video iPods that throws off the most EM radiation?

 

I think so. What about a mobile phone ? Any one tested