Back in the beginning of this century, houses were more likely to have a connected land line than internet. Smart phones were still years away. Melexis Netherlands, a division of micro-electronics giant Melexis, was developing a network interface for blood pressure meters. This device allowed patients to dramatically increase the monitoring frequency and therewith the quality of their medical care.
By simply plugging the printer cable of a standard Omron blood pressure device in to the I-modem, a data string was sent to the Melexis server, which was then further distributed to the physician through internet.
Our design challenge was to design a friendly product that required minimal user interaction. Tough negotiating with the electronics engineers brought down the number of flashing LED's and clunky buttons to a minimum. We created a subtly curved, well balanced shape that blended in with the users bed room, either from a table or mounted to a wall.
Later versions incorporated bluetooth and more advanced features.