A 36 µW 1.1 mm2 reconfigurable analog front-end for cardiovascular and respiratory signals recording

© 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksThis paper presents a 1.2 V 36 µW reconfigurable analog front-end (R-AFE) as a general-purpose low-cost IC for multiple-mode biomedical signals acquisition. The R-AFE efficiently reuses a reconfigurable preamplifier, a current generator (CG), and a mixed signal processing unit, having an area of 1.1 mm2 per R-AFE while supporting five acquisition modes to record different forms of cardiovascular and respiratory signals. The R-AFE can interface with voltage-, current-, impedance-, and light-sensors and hence can measure electrocardiography (ECG), bio-impedance (BioZ), photoplethysmogram (PPG), galvanic skin response (GSR), and general-purpose analog signals. Thanks to the chopper preamplifier and the low-noise CG utilizing dynamic element matching, the R-AFE mitigates 1/f noise from both the preamplifier and the CG for improved measurement sensitivity. The IC achieves competitive performance compared to the state-of-the-art dedicated readout ICs of ECG, BioZ, GSR, and PPG, but with approximately 1.4×-5.3× smaller chip area per channel.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Wireless body sensor networks for health-monitoring applications

This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Physiological Measurement. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0967-3334/29/11/R01

A Wearable System for Real-Time Continuous Monitoring of Physical Activity

Over the last decades, wearable systems have gained interest for monitoring of physiological variables, promoting health, and improving exercise adherence in different populations ranging from elite athletes to patients. In this paper, we present a wearable system for the continuous real-time monitoring of respiratory frequency (fR), heart rate (HR), and movement cadence during physical activity. The system has been experimentally tested in the laboratory (by simulating the breathing pattern with a mechanical ventilator) and by collecting data from one healthy volunteer. Results show the feasibility of the proposed device for real-time continuous monitoring of fR, HR, and movement cadence both in resting condition and during activity. Finally, different synchronization techniques have been investigated to enable simultaneous data collection from different wearable modules.Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida

A novel monitoring system for fall detection in older people

Indexación: Scopus.This work was supported in part by CORFO - CENS 16CTTS-66390 through the National Center on Health Information Systems, in part by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) through the Program STIC-AMSUD 17STIC-03: ‘‘MONITORing for ehealth," FONDEF ID16I10449 ‘‘Sistema inteligente para la gestión y análisis de la dotación de camas en la red asistencial del sector público’’, and in part by MEC80170097 ‘‘Red de colaboración científica entre universidades nacionales e internacionales para la estructuración del doctorado y magister en informática médica en la Universidad de Valparaíso’’. The work of V. H. C. De Albuquerque was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development (CNPq), under Grant 304315/2017-6.Each year, more than 30% of people over 65 years-old suffer some fall. Unfortunately, this can generate physical and psychological damage, especially if they live alone and they are unable to get help. In this field, several studies have been performed aiming to alert potential falls of the older people by using different types of sensors and algorithms. In this paper, we present a novel non-invasive monitoring system for fall detection in older people who live alone. Our proposal is using very-low-resolution thermal sensors for classifying a fall and then alerting to the care staff. Also, we analyze the performance of three recurrent neural networks for fall detections: Long short-term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit, and Bi-LSTM. As many learning algorithms, we have performed a training phase using different test subjects. After several tests, we can observe that the Bi-LSTM approach overcome the others techniques reaching a 93% of accuracy in fall detection. We believe that the bidirectional way of the Bi-LSTM algorithm gives excellent results because the use of their data is influenced by prior and new information, which compares to LSTM and GRU. Information obtained using this system did not compromise the user's privacy, which constitutes an additional advantage of this alternative. © 2013 IEEE.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=842305

Towards disappearing user interfaces for ubiquitous computing: human enhancement from sixth sense to super senses

The enhancement of human senses electronically is possible when pervasive computers interact unnoticeably with humans in Ubiquitous Computing. The design of computer user interfaces towards “disappearing” forces the interaction with humans using a content rather than a menu driven approach, thus the emerging requirement for huge number of non-technical users interfacing intuitively with billions of computers in the Internet of Things is met. Learning to use particular applications in Ubiquitous Computing is either too slow or sometimes impossible so the design of user interfaces must be naturally enough to facilitate intuitive human behaviours. Although humans from different racial, cultural and ethnic backgrounds own the same physiological sensory system, the perception to the same stimuli outside the human bodies can be different. A novel taxonomy for Disappearing User Interfaces (DUIs) to stimulate human senses and to capture human responses is proposed. Furthermore, applications of DUIs are reviewed. DUIs with sensor and data fusion to simulate the Sixth Sense is explored. Enhancement of human senses through DUIs and Context Awareness is discussed as the groundwork enabling smarter wearable devices for interfacing with human emotional memories

Analysis of Wireless Body-Centric Medical Sensors for Remote Healthcare

Aquesta tesi aborda el problema de trobar solucions confortables, de baixa potència i sense fils per aplicacions mèdiques. La tesi tracta els avantatges i les limitacions de tres tecnologies de comunicació diferents per la mesura de paràmetres del cos i mètodes per redissenyar sensors per avaluacions òptimes centrades en el cos. La tecnologia RFID es considera una de les solucions més influents per superar el problema del consum d'energia limitat, a causa de la presència de molts sensors connectats. També s'ha estudiat la tecnologia Bluetooth de baixa energia per resoldre els problemes de seguretat i la distància de lectura que, en general, representen el coll d'ampolla de RFID pels sensors de cos. Els dispositius analògics poden reduir dràsticament les necessitats d'energia a causa dels sensors i les comunicacions, considerant pocs elements i un mètode de transmissió simple. S'estudia un mètode de comunicació completament passiu, basat en FSS, que permet una distància de lectura raonable amb capacitats de detecció precises i confiables, que s'ha discutit en aquesta tesi. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és investigar múltiples tecnologies sense fils per dispositius portàtils per identificar solucions adequades per aplicacions particulars en el camp mèdic. El primer objectiu és demostrar la facilitat d'ús de les tecnologies econòmiques sense bateria com un indicador útil de paràmetres fisiopatològics mitjançant la investigació de les propietats de les etiquetes RFID. A més a més, s'ha abordat un aspecte més complex respecte a l'ús de petits components passius com sensors sense fils per trastorns del son. Per últim, un altre objectiu de la tesi és el desenvolupament d'un sistema completament autònom que utilitzi tecnologia BLE per obtenir propietats avançades mantenint baix tant el consum com el preuEsta tesis aborda el problema de encontrar soluciones confortables, inalámbricas y de baja potencia para aplicaciones médicas. La tesis discute las ventajas y limitaciones de tres tecnologías de comunicación diferentes para la medición en el cuerpo y los métodos para elegir y remodelar los sensores para evaluaciones óptimas centradas en el cuerpo. La tecnología RFID se considera una de las soluciones más influyentes para superar el consumo de energía limitado debido a la presencia de muchos sensores conectados. Además, la baja energía de Bluetooth se ha estudiado se ha estudiado la tecnologia Bluetooth de baja energia para resolver los problemas de seguridad y la distancia de lectura que, en general, representan el cuello de botella de la RFID para los sensores de cuerpo. Los dispositivos analógicos pueden reducir drásticamente las necesidades de energía debido a los sensores y las comunicaciones, considerando pocos elementos y un método de transmisión simple. Se estudia un método de comunicación completamente pasivo, basado en FSS, que permite una distancia de lectura razonable con capacidades de detección precisas y confiables, que se ha discutido en esta tesis. El objetivo de esta tesis es investigar múltiples tecnologías inalámbricas para dispositivos portátiles para identificar soluciones adecuadas para aplicaciones particulares en campos médicos. El primer objetivo es demostrar la facilidad de uso de las tecnologías económicas sin batería como un indicador útil de dichos parámetros fisiopatológicos mediante la investigación de las propiedades de las etiquetas RFID. Además, se ha abordado un aspecto más complejo con respecto al uso de pequeños componentes pasivos como sensores inalámbricos para enfermedades del sueño. Por último, un resultado de la tesis es desarrollar un sistema completamente autónomo que utilice la tecnología BLE para obtener propiedades avanzadas que mantengan la baja potencia y un precio bajo.This thesis addresses the problem of comfortable, low powered and, wireless solutions for specific body-worn sensing. The thesis discusses advantages and limitations of three different communication technologies for on body measurement and investigate methods to reshape sensors for optimum body-centric assessments. The RFID technology is considered one of the most influential solutions to overcome the limitated power consumption due to the presence of many sensors connected. Further, the Bluetooth low energy has been studied to solve security problems and reading distance that overall represent the bottleneck of the RFID for the body-worn sensors. Analog devices can drastically reduce the energy needs due to the sensors and the communications, considering few elements and a simple transmitting method. An entirely passive communication method, based on FSS is studied, enabling a reasonable reading distance with precise and reliable sensing capabilities, which has been discussed in this thesis. The objective of this thesis is to investigate multiple wireless technologies for wearable devices to identify suitable solutions for particular applications in medical fields. The first objective is to demonstrate the usability of the inexpensive battery-less technologies as a useful indicator of such a physio-pathological parameters by investigating the properties of the RFID tags. Furthermore, a more complex aspect regards the use of small passive components as wireless sensors for sleep diseases has been addressed. Lastly, an outcome of the thesis is to develop an entirely autonomous system using the BLE technology to obtain advanced properties keeping low power and a low price

ICS Materials

This present book covers a series of outstanding reputation researchers’ contributions on the topic of ICS Materials: a new class of emerging materials with properties and qualities concerning interactivity, connectivity and intelligence. In the general framework of ICS Materials’ domain, each chapter deals with a specific aspect following the characteristic perspective of each researcher. As result, methods, tools, guidelines emerged that are relevant and applicable to several contexts such as product, interaction design, materials science and many more