Solid State Circuits Technologies

The evolution of solid-state circuit technology has a long history within a relatively short period of time. This technology has lead to the modern information society that connects us and tools, a large market, and many types of products and applications. The solid-state circuit technology continuously evolves via breakthroughs and improvements every year. This book is devoted to review and present novel approaches for some of the main issues involved in this exciting and vigorous technology. The book is composed of 22 chapters, written by authors coming from 30 different institutions located in 12 different countries throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. Thus, reflecting the wide international contribution to the book. The broad range of subjects presented in the book offers a general overview of the main issues in modern solid-state circuit technology. Furthermore, the book offers an in depth analysis on specific subjects for specialists. We believe the book is of great scientific and educational value for many readers. I am profoundly indebted to the support provided by all of those involved in the work. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge and thank the authors who worked hard and generously agreed to share their results and knowledge. Second I would like to express my gratitude to the Intech team that invited me to edit the book and give me their full support and a fruitful experience while working together to combine this book

EUROSENSORS XVII : book of abstracts

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkien (FCG).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Design and implementation of a mobile sensor system for human posture tracking

De reconstructie van menselijke houding en het traceren van bewegingen kan in vele toepassingen worden gebruikt. Van animatie waar de bewegingen van acteurs kunnen gekoppeld worden aan een digitaal personage, tot revalidatie waar artsen na biomechanische analyse snel accurate diagnoses kunnen stellen. De snelle evolutie in de ontwikkeling van microsensoren en de opkomst van draadloze sensornetwerken hebben ertoe geleid dat draadloze nodes met verschillende sensoren hiervoor kunnen worden gebruikt. Door de informatie van deze sensoren te combineren is het immers mogelijk om absolute oriëntatie te berekenen. Eens deze informatie van elk lichaamsdeel bekend is, kan de volledige houding gereconstrueerd worden. In dit onderzoek werd een inertieel traceringssysteem ontwikkeld waarbij, in tegenstelling tot commerciële oplossingen, geen gyroscopen werden gebruikt. De sensor nodes worden enkel voorzien van accelerometers en magnetometers. Computer software implementeert het traceringssalgoritme en visualiseert de gereconstrueerde menselijke houding. Ingebedde software bepaalt dan weer de werking van de nodes en implementeert een draadloos protocol op maat dat toelaat om de informatie van verschillende nodes te ontvangen. De werking van het volledige systeem werd gevalideerd aan de hand van experimenten waarbij de houding van een persoon werd gevolgd.Human posture reconstruction and motion tracking is of interest for many different applications. From animation where captured motion sequences from actors can be mapped to a digital character in order to obtain a realistic visualization, to revalidation, where biomechanical analysis enables physicians to determine which exercises should be executed for a better and faster recovery. The combination of the increasingly fast evolution in the development of micromachined and the rise of wireless sensor networks as a distributed solution has allowed inertial sensors to become a fast emerging technology for orientation tracking. Sensor nodes equipped with accelerometers, magnetometers and gyroscopes supply three dimensional readings that can be used to determine driftfree absolute orientation. By approximating the human body by a set of rigid structures interconnected by joints, posture reconstruction is made possible when each of the individual bodyparts is equipped with a sensor node. In this work, an inertial tracking system was developed where, contrast to commercial applications, no gyroscopes were included. The sensor nodes were only equipped with accelerometers and magnetometers. Computer software implements the tracking algorithm and visualizes the reconstructed human posture. Embedded software determines the functionality of the nodes and implements a fully custom wireless protocol that allows to receive information from several nodes. The functionality of the entire system was validated by conducting full body tracking experiments

2009 Annual Progress Report: DOE Hydrogen Program

This report summarizes the hydrogen and fuel cell R&D activities and accomplishments of the DOE Hydrogen Program for FY2009. It covers the program areas of hydrogen production and delivery; fuel cells; manufacturing; technology validation; safety, codes and standards; education; and systems analysis