Neuromorphic solutions: Digital implementation of bio-inspired spiking neural network for electrocardiogram classification

Conventional techniques of off-chip processing for wearable devices cause high hardware resource usage which leads to heat generation and increased power consumption. Hence, edge computing methods such as neuromorphic computing are considered the most promising modern technology to replace conventional processing. It is beneficial to employ neuromorphic processing in electrocardiogram (ECG) classification, enabling engineers to overcome the constraints of heat generation caused by hardware utilization. Thus, this work aims to investigate common building blocks in a spiking neural network (SNN), analyze the spike-based plasticity mechanism and implement ECG classification on a neuromorphic circuit. The MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database (MITDB) is preprocessed in MATLAB, then used to train and test an SNN designed for field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), employing spike-based plasticity and Izhikevich neurons. The behaviour of spike timing dependent plasticity (STDP) in a neuromorphic circuit is also visualized in this work. The state-of the-art performance of this work lies in providing a generic mechanism to adapt ECG classification into a neuromorphic solution, a non-Von Neumann architecture. The proposed digital design utilizes 1.058% of hardware resources on a Zedboard. Application-wise, this work provides a foundation for development of neuromorphic computing in wearable medical devices that perform continuous monitoring of ECG

Symmetry in Electromagnetism

Electromagnetism plays a crucial role in basic and applied physics research. The discovery of electromagnetism as the unifying theory for electricity and magnetism represents a cornerstone in modern physics. Symmetry was crucial to the concept of unification: electromagnetism was soon formulated as a gauge theory in which local phase symmetry explained its mathematical formulation. This early connection between symmetry and electromagnetism shows that a symmetry-based approach to many electromagnetic phenomena is recurrent, even today. Moreover, many recent technological advances are based on the control of electromagnetic radiation in nearly all its spectra and scales, the manipulation of matter–radiation interactions with unprecedented levels of sophistication, or new generations of electromagnetic materials. This is a fertile field for applications and for basic understanding in which symmetry, as in the past, bridges apparently unrelated phenomena―from condensed matter to high-energy physics. In this book, we present modern contributions in which symmetry proves its value as a key tool. From dual-symmetry electrodynamics to applications to sustainable smart buildings, or magnetocardiography, we can find a plentiful crop, full of exciting examples of modern approaches to electromagnetism. In all cases, symmetry sheds light on the theoretical and applied works presented in this book