Electronic devices and systems for monitoring of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases

Diabetes is a serious chronic disease which causes a high rate of morbidity and mortality all over the world. In 2007, more than 246 million people suffered from diabetes worldwide and unfortunately the incidence of diabetes is increasing at alarming rates. The number of people with diabetes is expected to double within the next 25 years due to a combination of population ageing, unhealthy diets, obesity and sedentary lifestyles. It can lead to blindness, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, amputations and nerve damage. In women, diabetes can cause problems during pregnancy and make it more likely for the baby to be born with birth defects. Moreover, statistical analysis shows that 75% of diabetic patients die prematurely of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The absolute risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes is lower than that in patients with type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes, in part because of their younger age and the lower prevalence of CVD risk factors, and in part because of the different pathophysiology of the two diseases. Unfortunately, about 9 out of 10 people with diabetes have type 2 diabetes. For these reasons, cardiopathes and diabetic patients need to be frequently monitored and in some cases they could easily perform at home the requested physiological measurements (i.e. glycemia, heart rate, blood pressure, body weight, and so on) sending the measured data to the care staff in the hospital. Several researches have been presented over the last years to address these issues by means of digital communication systems. The largest part of such works uses a PC or complex hardware/software systems for this purpose. Beyond the cost of such systems, it should be noted that they can be quite accessible by relatively young people but the same does not hold for elderly patients more accustomed to traditional equipments for personal entertainment such as TV sets. Wearable devices can permit continuous cardiovascular monitoring both in clinical settings and at home. Benefits may be realized in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of major 15 diseases. In conjunction with appropriate alarm algorithms, they can increase surveillance capabilities for CVD catastrophe for high-risk subjects. Moreover, they could play an important role in the wireless surveillance of people during hazardous operations (military, fire-fighting, etc.) or during sport activities. For patients with chronic cardiovascular disease, such as heart failure, home monitoring employing wearable device and tele-home care systems may detect exacerbations in very early stages or at dangerous levels that necessitate an emergency room visit and an immediate hospital admission. Taking into account mains principles for the design of good wearable devices and friendly tele-home care systems, such as safety, compactness, motion and other disturbance rejection, data storage and transmission, low power consumption, no direct doctor supervision, it is imperative that these systems are easy to use and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The aim of this work is to develop an easy to use tele-home care system for diabetes and cardiovascular monitoring, well exploitable even by elderly people, which are the main target of a telemedicine system, and wearable devices for long term measuring of some parameters related to sleep apnoea, heart attack, atrial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis. Since set-top boxes for Digital Video Broadcast Terrestrial (DVB-T) are in simple computers with their Operating System, a Java Virtual Machine, a modem for the uplink connection and a set of standard ports for the interfacing with external devices, elderly, diabetics and cardiopathes could easily send their self-made exam to the care staff placed elsewhere. The wearable devices developed are based on the well known photopletysmographic method which uses a led source/detector pair applied on the skin in order to obtain a biomedical signal related to the volume and percentage of oxygen in blood. Such devices investigate the possibility to obtain more information to those usually obtained by this technique (heart rate and percentage of oxygen saturation) in order to discover new algorithms for the continuous and remote or in ambulatory monitoring and screening of sleep apnoea, heart attack, atrial fibrillation and deep vein thrombosis

managing the miTV Offering

There are three main purposes with this thesis: The first purpose is to find the opinions of the next generation users about mobile TV as an integrated function in mobile phones and the requirement for mobile TV to be appealing to the consumer. The second purpose is to find out what the value chain of mobile TV may look like and if there are incentives for all players required. The third purpose is to analyze how Sony Ericsson Mobile Communication (SEMC) and players in similar situations, being technology pushing, shall manage the phenomenon of inertia in technology innovation adoption resulting in deviations in consumer opinions and industry interests. The conclusions are: The N-Gens are spontaneously negative when first introduced to the mobile TV concept. This resistance can only be overcome by presenting a complete offering, miTV that exceeds the high expectations of the N-Gens. To create this offering will require the cooperation of the DTV value chain and the mobile phone value chain in a value creating net, including the right partners. This will most likely be achieved by the hybrid solution. Merely presenting an offering is not enough; it also has to be introduced to the market in the right way. For SEMC, this means by a triple drive strategy

Economically sustainable public security and emergency network exploiting a broadband communications satellite

The research contributes to work in Rapid Deployment of a National Public Security and Emergency Communications Network using Communication Satellite Broadband. Although studies in Public Security Communication networks have examined the use of communications satellite as an integral part of the Communication Infrastructure, there has not been an in-depth design analysis of an optimized regional broadband-based communication satellite in relation to the envisaged service coverage area, with little or no terrestrial last-mile telecommunications infrastructure for delivery of satellite solutions, applications and services. As such, the research provides a case study of a Nigerian Public Safety Security Communications Pilot project deployed in regions of the African continent with inadequate terrestrial last mile infrastructure and thus requiring a robust regional Communications Satellite complemented with variants of terrestrial wireless technologies to bridge the digital hiatus as a short and medium term measure apart from other strategic needs. The research not only addresses the pivotal role of a secured integrated communications Public safety network for security agencies and emergency service organizations with its potential to foster efficient information symmetry amongst their operations including during emergency and crisis management in a timely manner but demonstrates a working model of how analogue spectrum meant for Push-to-Talk (PTT) services can be re-farmed and digitalized as a “dedicated” broadband-based public communications system. The network’s sustainability can be secured by using excess capacity for the strategic commercial telecommunication needs of the state and its citizens. Utilization of scarce spectrum has been deployed for Nigeria’s Cashless policy pilot project for financial and digital inclusion. This effectively drives the universal access goals, without exclusivity, in a continent, which still remains the least wired in the world

Conception, design and evaluation of an ICT platform for independent living and remote health monitoring

The current society is dealing with a progressive ageing of the population. Life expectancy is constantly increasing and, at the same time, families tend to have less children than in the past. For these reasons, the global proportion of people aged 60 or over is expected to outnumber the younger age groups. This trend will have a serious impact on the society, since the health related costs will rise, there will be a lack of professional caregivers trained to assist the elderly and more and more people will suffer from chronic diseases that must be treated somehow. To overcome this situation, in the past years many initiatives aiming at increasing the elderly independence were born. The problemin developing technological systems for the elderly is that they are reluctant to try out newsystems and devices, so a great emphasismust be put on the design of an acceptable and usable solution. In this thesis, an ICT platform for independent living of older adults is presented. The platform is based on a standard TV and remote control, in order to lower the risk of technology refusal by older people, and aims at offering a rich set of services that include social networking, support, welfare and health. The health aspect is important but not the leading one, since such platformshould be first perceived as useful for different aspects of their daily life, and not strictly related to the concept the being oldmeans having health problems. Another aimof the proposed platformis to expand the offered services by involving external service providers, that will exploit the basic functionalities offered natively by the platform. The aspects related to the initial studies that let to the definition of system requirements and technical specifications will be presented, together with some preliminary usability results obtained from several user tests. Starting from mid 2016, the proposed platformwill be tested during three field trials in Italy, Belgiumand the Netherlands

Opportunities And Challenges of E-Health and Telemedicine Via Satelite

The introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the health scenario is instrumental for the development of sustainable services of direct benefit for the European citizen. The setting up of satellite based applications will enhance rapidly the decentralisation and the enrichment of the European territory driving it towards a homogenous environment for healthcare

Multimedia delivery in the future internet

The term “Networked Media” implies that all kinds of media including text, image, 3D graphics, audio and video are produced, distributed, shared, managed and consumed on-line through various networks, like the Internet, Fiber, WiFi, WiMAX, GPRS, 3G and so on, in a convergent manner [1]. This white paper is the contribution of the Media Delivery Platform (MDP) cluster and aims to cover the Networked challenges of the Networked Media in the transition to the Future of the Internet. Internet has evolved and changed the way we work and live. End users of the Internet have been confronted with a bewildering range of media, services and applications and of technological innovations concerning media formats, wireless networks, terminal types and capabilities. And there is little evidence that the pace of this innovation is slowing. Today, over one billion of users access the Internet on regular basis, more than 100 million users have downloaded at least one (multi)media file and over 47 millions of them do so regularly, searching in more than 160 Exabytes1 of content. In the near future these numbers are expected to exponentially rise. It is expected that the Internet content will be increased by at least a factor of 6, rising to more than 990 Exabytes before 2012, fuelled mainly by the users themselves. Moreover, it is envisaged that in a near- to mid-term future, the Internet will provide the means to share and distribute (new) multimedia content and services with superior quality and striking flexibility, in a trusted and personalized way, improving citizens’ quality of life, working conditions, edutainment and safety. In this evolving environment, new transport protocols, new multimedia encoding schemes, cross-layer inthe network adaptation, machine-to-machine communication (including RFIDs), rich 3D content as well as community networks and the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) overlays are expected to generate new models of interaction and cooperation, and be able to support enhanced perceived quality-of-experience (PQoE) and innovative applications “on the move”, like virtual collaboration environments, personalised services/ media, virtual sport groups, on-line gaming, edutainment. In this context, the interaction with content combined with interactive/multimedia search capabilities across distributed repositories, opportunistic P2P networks and the dynamic adaptation to the characteristics of diverse mobile terminals are expected to contribute towards such a vision. Based on work that has taken place in a number of EC co-funded projects, in Framework Program 6 (FP6) and Framework Program 7 (FP7), a group of experts and technology visionaries have voluntarily contributed in this white paper aiming to describe the status, the state-of-the art, the challenges and the way ahead in the area of Content Aware media delivery platforms

Broadcast mobile television service in Finland : a techno-economic analysis

Kaupallinen DVB-H-tekniikkaan perustuva, matkaviestimillä vastaanotettaville digitaalisille joukkoviestintäpalveluille (DVB-H-mobiilitelevisio) tarkoitettu verkkotoimilupa myönnettiin Digita Oy:lle Suomessa maaliskuussa 2006. Vuotta myöhemmin verkko on toiminnassa, mutta Suomessa ei toimi palveluoperaattoreita eikä yleisölle ole myynnissä DVB-H-vastaanottimia. Yksi mahdollinen syy nykytilanteeseen on parhaisiin liiketoimintamalleihin liittyvä epävarmuus matkaviestinoperaattoreiden ja TV-yhtiöiden kannalta. Tämä DVB-H-liiketoiminnan tulevaisuutta koskeva epävarmuus synnytti motivaation ja kiinnostuksen tämän tutkimuksen tekemiseen. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on tunnistaa DVB-H-mobiilitelevision todennäköiset liiketoimintamallit ja järjestää ne taloudellisen suorituskyvyn mukaan. Valitsimme tutkimusmenetelmäksi teknis-taloudellisen analyysin, ja rakensimme DVB-H-mobiilitelevision liiketoimintaekosysteemistä kvantitatiivisen mallin, joka mahdollistaa potentiaalisten kassavirtojen arvioinnin eri parametrein. Keräsimme lähtötiedot mallia varten kirjallisuuskatsauksella sekä haastattelemalla kattavan määrän alan johtavia asiantuntijoita. Teknis-taloudellisen analyysin tulokset tukevat haastateltujen asiantuntijoiden vallitsevia odotuksia: DVB-H-palvelut eivät todennäköisesti tule olemaan suuri tulonlähde tai seuraava 'tappajasovellus' matkaviestinoperaattoreille tai TV-yhtiöille Suomessa. Tulosten mukaan matkaviestinoperaattorin kannalta riskittömin liiketoimintamalli olisi yhteistoiminta TV-yhtiöiden kanssa palvelujen tuomiseksi markkinoille. Tässä mallissa TV-yhtiöt hankkisivat lähetyskapasiteetin ja ohjelmistosisällön, ja matkaviestinoperaattori hoitaisi palvelujen myynnin ja markkinoinnin kuluttajille. Kuitenkin suurin potentiaali arvon luomiselle sekä matkaviestinoperaattorin että TV-yhtiön kannalta näyttäisi olevan toistensa roolin omaksumisessa (matkaviestinoperaattorista tulisi DVB-H-TV-yhtiö, tai TV-yhtiö myisi DVB-H-palveluja suoraan kuluttajille ohittaen matkaviestinoperaattorit). Näihin malleihin kuitenkin liittyy myös huomattavasti korkeammat riskit. Yhteenvetona tulokset näyttävät intressiristiriidan näiden kahden avainosapuolen välillä liittyen kustannusten ja mahdollisten tuottojen jakamiseen. Matkaviestinoperaattorit, TV-yhtiöt ja muut DVB-H-mobiilitelevisiosta kiinnostuneet osapuolet voivat käyttää tämän tutkimuksen tuloksia vertailukohtana omille tutkimuksilleen. Mikä tärkeämpää, tulokset voivat mahdollistaa uusia keskusteluja osapuolten välillä. Lisäksi tämä diplomityö pohjustaa jatkotutkimuksia DVB-H-tekniikan kaupallistamisen liiketoimintamalleihin.A commercial DVB-H mobile TV spectrum licence was awarded to Digita Oy in Finland in March 2006. One year later, the network infrastructure is operational but there are no service operators or DVB-H enabled handsets available to the public. One possible reason for the current situation is the uncertainty concerning best business models for both mobile operators and broadcasters. This uncertainty surrounding the future of the DVB-H business sparked the motivation and interest for conducting this study. The purpose of this study is to identify plausible DVB-H mobile TV business models, and to evaluate and rank such models according to their economic performance prospects. We chose techno-economic analysis as the research method, and constructed a quantitative model of the DVB-H mobile TV business ecosystem, enabling the evaluation of potential cash flows with different parameters. We collected data for the modelling through conducting a literature review as well as a comprehensive set of interviews with leading industry experts. The results of the techno-economic analysis support the dominant expectations of the interviewed experts. DVB-H mobile TV services are not likely to become a major source of revenues, let alone the next 'killer application', for mobile operators or broadcasters in Finland. This study indicates that the least risky and easiest-to-implement business model for a mobile operator appears to be co-operating with broadcasters to bring the new services to market. According to the proposed business model, broadcasters would take care of attaining the required DVB-H network capacity as well as provide the programming, whilst mobile operators would take care of the sales and marketing of the new services to consumers. Yet the foremost value creation potential for mobile operators and broadcasters appears to be in also performing the other party's role (a mobile operator becoming a DVB-H broadcaster, or a broadcaster selling DVB-H services directly to consumers, bypassing mobile operators). These models are, however, also associated with considerably higher risks. To conclude, the results of this study indicate a conflict of interests between the two key parties regarding the sharing of costs and potential revenues. Mobile operators, broadcasters, and other parties interested in DVB-H mobile TV business, can use the results of this study for reference and comparison with their own calculations. More importantly, the results can provide avenues for new discussions between the parties. In addition, this study paves ground for further research on potential business models concerning the commercialisation of the DVB-H mobile TV service technology