Review of sensors for remote patient monitoring

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) of physiological measurements can provide an efficient method and high quality care to patients. The physiological signals measurement is the initial and the most important factor in RPM. This paper discusses the characteristics of the most popular sensors, which are used to obtain vital clinical signals in prevalent RPM systems. The sensors discussed in this paper are used to measure ECG, heart sound, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, blood pressure and respiration rate, which are treated as the most important vital data in patient monitoring and medical examination

Development of Form-Fitted Body-Worn Force Sensors for Space and Terrestrial Applications

University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. December 2016. Major: Design, Housing and Apparel. Advisor: Lucy Dunne. 1 computer file (PDF); iv, 137 pages.Sensing force on the body is useful in the design of many on-body systems, including gas-pressurized space suits, for design diagnostics (e.g., determining where an on-body system is exerting potentially dangerous amounts of force) and for in-use monitoring. Mechanical Counter-Pressure (MCP) space suits have advantages over gas suits, and are an example of where measuring on-body force would be necessary. The development of an unobtrusive and practical means of measuring force in an MCP suit has yet to be established. Reasons for the absence of an established method for force-sensing within an MCP suit lie in the difficulties associated with integrating a force sensor, unobtrusively, into the under-layers of the user’s garment. If the sensor introduces pressure points (e.g., is rigid or bulky), it will potentially cause harm to the user. This thesis describes the process of developing a soft and unobtrusive force sensor that avoids the use of a stiff apparatus. Specifically, the criteria for sensor selection and initial characterization of a variety of candidate sensor configurations when exposed to an applied load will be discussed. This thesis focuses on three experiments that were performed. The first experiment featured a commercial piezoresistive flex sensor as well as a custom coverstitched stretch sensor that were adapted to respond to normal forces and evaluated in a laboratory compression test. The flex sensor response displayed considerable noise, particularly evident in recovery artifacts when the load was fully removed from the sensor. The coverstitch sensor, on the other hand, had a more consistent, linear response in relation to the load being applied. Based on the findings and analysis of the first test, a second experiment was performed to examine the accuracy and performance of different lengths and widths of the coverstitched stretch sensor. The findings concluded that the thin 2’’ coverstitched sensor displayed the most promising results in terms of overall correlation with applied load and standard deviation between trials in relation to the other coverstitched samples that were tested. The final experiment extended the findings from the second experiment to test two different support structure substrates, rubber and silicone, each implemented in a topography of small hemispheres in varying size (small-diameter hemispheres, medium-diameter hemispheres, large-diameter hemispheres, and a flat topography). The results of the third experiment showed promise for the flat topography, which exhibited the strongest correlation between sensor response and applied load for both elastomer rubber and silicone substrate materials. Results were less favorable for the more extreme large-diameter hemisphere topography, which exhibited a weaker correlation indicating the larger the diameter the hemisphere was in the substrate material, the weaker the correlation between the load being applied to the sensor that was overlaid on the substrate material and the sensor’s response (resistance readings). The development of an unobtrusive, form-fitted stretch sensor that measures force is a significant step forward for MCP suit design and controllability, as well as for many other domains in which sensing forces on the body is important. The results of this thesis study illustrate the difficulties associated with implementing a flex sensor onto a pliable surface. Additionally, this thesis study illustrates the potential that the coverstitched stretch sensor has for force-sensing applications

Sensing Systems for Respiration Monitoring: A Technical Systematic Review

Respiratory monitoring is essential in sleep studies, sport training, patient monitoring, or health at work, among other applications. This paper presents a comprehensive systematic review of respiration sensing systems. After several systematic searches in scientific repositories, the 198 most relevant papers in this field were analyzed in detail. Different items were examined: sensing technique and sensor, respiration parameter, sensor location and size, general system setup, communication protocol, processing station, energy autonomy and power consumption, sensor validation, processing algorithm, performance evaluation, and analysis software. As a result, several trends and the remaining research challenges of respiration sensors were identified. Long-term evaluations and usability tests should be performed. Researchers designed custom experiments to validate the sensing systems, making it difficult to compare results. Therefore, another challenge is to have a common validation framework to fairly compare sensor performance. The implementation of energy-saving strategies, the incorporation of energy harvesting techniques, the calculation of volume parameters of breathing, or the effective integration of respiration sensors into clothing are other remaining research efforts. Addressing these and other challenges outlined in the paper is a required step to obtain a feasible, robust, affordable, and unobtrusive respiration sensing system

Validation of two types of textile electrodes for electrocardiography and electromyography measurement applications

Tese de mestrado. Engenharia Biomédica. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

A randomized controlled trial of a high intensity interval training intervention using a body sensor network and facebook

Purpose The purpose of this pilot study was to conduct an impact evaluation on adherence to a 5 week high intensity interval training (HIIT) intervention by the use of a body sensor network and social networking site (SNS) software. The study design used was experimental, comprised of two-groups with random allocation to each and pre- and post-tests of repeated sprint performance. Setting University of Ballarat, Australia. Subjects Participants (N = 16) included university student members of a State League 5 field hockey club. The study employed a convenience sample consisting of an intervention group (n=8) and a control group (n=8). Intervention Both groups were given a 5 week HIIT program specifically designed to improve performance in repeated sprint activity (RSA). This program comprised twice weekly training sessions over the 5 weeks with gradual increases in training load and concomitant reduction in rest and recovery. The intervention group used a garment with sensors to gather heart rate and accelerometer data (speed, distance and cadence) that published the physiological data via Bluetooth and GPRS to a purpose-specific software application called SPUTNIK which ran on the Facebook social networking site (SNS). This group could socialise their data amongst themselves and share detailed graphical analysis of their training programs. They were also able to set, change and share their goals and comment on each other’s training, goals and progress. The intervention group could train together as they required. The control group used a heart rate monitor (HRM) to guide their training sessions and a paper-basedMaster Human Movement: Bio-Scienc

Action recognition using instrumented objects for stroke rehabilitation

Assisting patients to perform activities of daily living (ADLs) is a challenging task for both human and machine. Hence, developing a computer-based rehabilitation system to re-train patients to carry out daily activities is an essential step towards facilitating rehabilitation of stroke patients with apraxia and action disorganization syndrome (AADS). This thesis presents a real-time Hidden Markov Model (HMM) based human activity recognizer, and proposes a technique to reduce the time delay occurred during the decoding stage. Results are reported for complete tea-making trials. In this study, the input features are recorded using sensors attached to the objects involved in the tea making task, plus hand coordinate data captured using Kinect sensor. A coaster of sensors, comprising an accelerometer and three force-sensitive resistors, are packaged in a unit which can be easily attached to the base of an object. A parallel asynchronous set of detectors, each responsible for the detection of one sub-goal in the tea-making task, are used to address challenges arising from overlaps between human actions. In this work HMMs are used to exploit temporal dependencies between actions and emission distributions are modelled by two generative and discriminative modelling techniques namely Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) and Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). Our experimental results show that HMM-DNN based systems outperform the GMM-HMM based systems by 18%. The proposed activity recognition system with the modified HMM topology provides a practical solution to the action recognition problem and reduces the time delay by 64% with no loss in accuracy

Ingeniería kansei en el campo del diseño : una aproximación desde la ingeniería estadística aplicada a la percepción de los materiales

The objective of the current doctoral thesis is the theoretical and experimental application of Kansei engineering in the field of design. Kansei engineering is a method that aims to develop or improve products, services and/or experiences by translating the emotional needs of users into parameters or characteristics of the design itself. In the present investigation, Kansei engineering uses as a base statistical engineering, since the most appropriate statistical and analytical methods are used to provide value, validity and rigor. The first contribution of the thesis is the creation of a Theoretical Framework of the emotional dimensions –sensation, perception, emotion, feeling and affect– as a result of a systematic review in two scientific databases. The objective is to promote the integration of emotions during any stage of the creative process; therefore, a common taxonomy is developed with definitions, theories and measurement tools for each of the emotional dimensions. In addition, three figures -Emotional Path, Emotional Systematization, and Preliminary Mapping of Design and Emotion- have been created in order to synthesize all information and to be used as visual guides. Once the state of the art is developed, the research has focused on two different topics related to Kansei engineering and its updating in the 21st-century context: communication channels and measurement tools. For this, the materials are selected as the scope of application. Regarding Communication Channels, two case studies are carried out –pilot test and experiment– in order to understand how user perception may vary depending on the interaction and the amount of information received. In the experimental design, three materials are presented through three different communication channels to evaluate their sensory properties. In some cases, people evaluate the same material for each channel and in others, each participant evaluates a different material per channel, through the Perception Evaluation Kit. The results indicate that in some communication channels there are significant differences regarding the perception of sensory properties. Responses level in both experiments is very similar, that is to say, the order of presentation for the communication channels does not seem to influence perception. In addition, channel 3 is the preferred one regardless of the predominant learning style. The contribution concerning the Measurement Tools chapter is to apply a heterogeneous method- ology that uses self-report and physiological tools to assess the perception of recycled materials, as well as the environmental attitude and consumption habits of the participants. The purpose is to detect if there is any relationship between the information that is extracted from the two types of tools. Electrodermal activity, hedonic appreciation, and evaluations of sensory properties have reported significant differences between materials. In contrast, electromyography, the precision in the identification and the relationship between consumption habits and environmental attitude have not observed significant effects or interactions in the data. Finally, the Statistics and Design section reflects on the relationship and union of the two disciplines and presents two points of confluence between these –statistical engineering and Data-Driven Design–. The contribution of this chapter is the Data Collection Toolkit, a set of methodologies, resources and tools for designers. The objective is to promote better practice in research through design so that the experiment has greater validity and statistical base.El objetivo de la presente tesis doctoral es la aplicación teórica y experimental de la ingeniería kansei en el ámbito del diseño. La ingeniería kansei es un método que apunta al desarrollo o la mejora de productos, servicios y/o experiencias mediante la traducción de las necesidades emocionales de los usuarios en parámetros o características del propio diseño. En la presente investigación la ingeniería kansei utiliza como base la ingeniería estadística, ya que se emplean los métodos estadísticos y analíticos más apropiados para aportar valor, validez y rigurosidad. La primera contribución de esta tesis es la creación de un Marco Teórico de las dimensiones emocionales -sensación, percepción, emoción, sentimiento y afecto- fruto de una revisión sistemática en dos bases de datos científicas. El objetivo es promover la integración de las emociones durante cualquier etapa del proceso creativo, y por ello se desarrolla una taxonomía común sobre definiciones, teorías y herramientas de medición para cada una de las dimensiones emocionales. Además, se han creado tres figuras -Emotional Path, Emotional Systematization y Mapeo preliminar de diseño y emoción- que sintetizan esta información para ser utilizadas como guías visuales. Una vez comprendido el estado del arte, se focaliza la investigación en dos temáticas distintas relacionadas con la ingeniería kansei y su adaptación en el contexto del siglo XXI: los canales de comunicación y las herramientas de medición. Para ello, se seleccionan los materiales como ámbito de aplicación. Respecto a los Canales de Comunicación, se realizan dos casos de estudio -prueba piloto y experimento- con el fin de comprender cómo puede variar la percepción del usuario según la interacción y la cantidad de información que recibe. En el diseño experimental se presentan tres materiales a través de tres canales de comunicación distintos para evaluar sus propiedades sensoriales. En algunos casos las personas evalúan el mismo material para cada canal y en otros, cada participante evalúa un material distinto por canal, a través del Perception Evaluation Kit. Los resultados indican que en algunos canales de comunicación hay diferencias significativas respecto a la percepción de las propiedades sensoriales. El nivel de las respuestas en las dos tipologías de experimento es muy parecido, lo que indica que el orden de presentación de los canales de comunicación parece no influir en la percepción. Además, la preferencia por el canal 3, interacción completa del material, destaca independientemente del estilo de aprendizaje predominante en la persona. La contribución respecto al capítulo de Herramientas de Medición es aplicar una metodología heterogénea que utiliza herramientas de autoreporte y fisiológicas para evaluar la percepción de los materiales reciclados, así como la actitud ambiental y los hábitos de consumo de los participantes. La finalidad es detectar si hay alguna relación entre la información que se extrae de las dos tipologías de herramientas. La actividad electrodermal, la apreciación hedónica y las evaluaciones de las propiedades sensoriales han reportado diferencias significativas entre materiales. En cambio, en la electromiografía, la precisión en la identificación y la relación entre hábitos de consumo y actitud ambiental no se han observado efectos o interacciones significativas en los datos. Por último, en el apartado Estadística y Diseño se reflexiona sobre la relación y la unión de las dos disciplinas y se presentan dos puntos de confluencia entre estas -la ingeniería estadística y el Data-Driven Design-. La aportación de este capítulo es el Data Collection Toolkit, un conjunto de metodologías, recursos y herramientas para los diseñadores. El objetivo es promover una mejor práctica en la investigación a través del diseño para que el experimento tenga una mayor validez y sustento estadísticoL’objectiu de la present tesi doctoral és l’aplicació teòrica i experimental de l’enginyeria kansei en l’àmbit del disseny. L’enginyeria kansei és un mètode que apunta al desenvolupament o la millora de productes, serveis i/o experiències mitjançant la traducció de les necessitats emocionals dels usuaris en paràmetres o característiques del mateix disseny. En la present recerca l’enginyeria kansei utilitza com a base l’enginyeria estadística, ja que s’utilitzen els mètodes estadístics i analítics més apropiats per a aportar valor, validesa i rigorositat. La primera contribució de la tesi és la creació d’un Marc Teòric de les dimensions emocionals –sensació, percepció, emoció, sentiment i afecte– fruit d’una revisió sistemàtica en dues bases de dades científiques. L’objectiu és promoure la integració de les emocions durant qualsevol etapa del procés creatiu, per això es desenvolupa una taxonomia comuna sobre definicions, teories i eines de mesura per a cadascuna de les dimensions emocionals. A més, s’han creat tres figures –Emotional, Path, Emotional Systematization i Mapeig preliminar de disseny i emoció– que sintetitzen aquesta informació per a ser utilitzades com a guies visuals. Una vegada comprès l’estat de l’art, es focalitza la recerca en dues temàtiques diferents relacionades amb l’enginyeria kansei i la seva adaptació al context del segle XXI: els canals de comunicació i les eines de mesura. Per a això, se seleccionen els materials com àmbit d’aplicació. Respecte als Canals de Comunicació, es realitzen dos casos d’estudi –prova pilot i experiment– amb la finalitat de comprendre com pot variar la percepció de l’usuari segons la interacció i la quantitat d’informació que rep. En el disseny experimental es presenten tres materials a través de tres canals de comunicació diferents per a avaluar les seves propietats sensorials. En alguns casos les persones avaluen el mateix material per a cada canal i en uns altres, cada participant avalua un material diferent per canal, amb el Perception Evaluation Kit. Els resultats indiquen que en alguns canals de comunicació hi ha diferències significatives respecte a la percepció de les propietats sensorials. El nivell de les respostes a les dues tipologies d'experiment és molt semblant, el que indica que l'ordre de presentació dels canals de comunicació sembla no influir en la percepció. A més, la preferència pel canal 3, interacció completa del material, destaca independentment de l'estil d'aprenentatge predominant en la persona. La contribució respecte al capítol d’Eines de Mesura és aplicar una metodologia heterogènia que utilitza eines d’autoinforme i fisiològiques per a avaluar la percepció dels materials reciclats, així com l’actitud ambiental i els hàbits de consum dels participants. La finalitat és detectar si hi ha alguna relació entre la informació que s’extreu de les dues tipologies d’eines. L’activitat electrodermal, l’apreciació hedònica i les avaluacions de les propietats sensorials han reportat diferències significatives entre materials. En canvi, en l’electromiografia, la precisió en la identificació i la relació entre hàbits de consum i actitud ambiental no s’han observat efectes o interaccions significatives en les dades. Finalment, en l’apartat Estadística i Disseny es reflexiona sobre la relació i la unió de les dues disciplines i es presenten dos punts de confluència entre aquestes –l’enginyeria estadística i el Data-Driven Design–. L’aportació d’aquest capítol és el Data Collection Toolkit, un conjunt de metodologies, recursos i eines per als dissenyadors. L’objectiu és promoure una millor pràctica en la recerca a través del disseny perquè l’experiment tingui una major validesa i base estadística.Estadística i investigació operativ

Building planning action models using activity recognition

Activity recognition is receiving a special attention because it can be used in many areas. This field of artificial intelligence has been widely investigated lately for tasks such as following the behavior of people with some kind of cognitive impairment. For instance, elderly people with dementia. The recognition of the activities that these people carry on permits to offer assistance in case they need it while they are performing the activities. Currently, there are many systems capable of recognizing the activities that a user performs in a specific environment. Most of these systems have two problems. First, they recognize states of the activities instead of the entire activity. For instance, instead of recognizing an activity that starts at the moment ���� and ends at ����, these systems split the time line in fixed-length temporal windows that are classified as belonging to an activity or another. These windows sometimes overlap two activities which makes classifying the activities more difficult. Also this prevents the system from detecting the states of the system before and after each activity. These states are needed to build behavioral models. Second, most of these systems recognize complete high-level activities such as cooking or making tea but they can not recognize the low-level activities that compose the high-level activities. For example, pick-up the fork or switch on the oven. For this reason, most of the systems in the literature can not be used to assist people during the activities since they recognize the activity itself and they can not provide the low-level activities that the user has to execute to complete the high-level activity. For these reasons, in this thesis we have three objectives. The first objective is the development of a new activity recognition algorithm capable of overcoming the problems that the fixed-length temporal windows cause and, also, capable of extracting the states that the system can traverse. The second objective is to automatically generate an automated planning domain able to represent the user behavior using the activity recognition system. In order to do that, we will use the activity recognition system developed in the previous step to recognize the activities and the states of the environment before and after the activities. Once the system is capable of performing this task, the planning domain is generated using that information. Then, the automated planning domain will be used by an automated planner to generate sequences of actions to reach the goal of the user. That way, those sequences will be used to assist users by telling them the next action or actions to accomplish their goals. The third objective is to use automatically generated planning domains for guiding users to accomplish the task they pursue. In addition, we want to check whether the generated plans can be used to recognize the activities alone or to help a sensors system to improve its results. Also, the generated plans will be used to predict the next activities that the user may perform. This way, we will test the planning domains and the plans generated by the planner to check if they are capable of offering information to recognize the activity that the user performs or, at least, offering information for the activity recognition system to improve its results. --------------------------El campo del reconocimiento de actividades realizadas por las personas recibe en la actualidad una especial atención debido a sus numerosas áreas de aplicación y al desarrollo de las tecnologías que lo hacen posible. En los últimos años, se ha investigado mucho en este área de la Inteligencia Artificial para tareas como el seguimiento de personas que presenten algún tipo de dependencia. Por ejemplo, personas mayores con demencia senil o cualquier otra discapacidad cognitiva. El reconocimiento de las actividades que estas personas llevan a cabo podría permitir la monitorización inteligente de dichas actividades y, en caso de ser necesario, asistir a estas personas para permitirles completar con éxito las tareas que deben realizar. En la actualidad, existen sistemas capaces de reconocer lo que los usuarios de dichos sistemas realizan dentro de un entorno definido. La mayoría de estos sistemas tiene dos problemas. El primer problema es que reconocen sólo estados parciales de cada actividad. Es decir, en lugar de reconocer una actividad completa que comienza en el punto ���� y termina en el punto ����, estos sistemas dividen la línea temporal en ventanas de tiempo de un tamaño determinado que clasifican como pertenecientes a una actividad u otra. Estas ventanas temporales tienen el problema de que muchas veces solapan dos actividades, lo que hace muy difícil la correcta clasificación de las actividades a las que pertenecen dichas ventanas. Además, esto también dificulta la obtención de los estados que anteceden y suceden a las actividades. Dichos estados son necesarios a la hora de construir modelos de comportamiento. El segundo problema es que reconocen actividades de alto nivel completas como cocinar o preparar té, pero no las actividades de bajo nivel o acciones, como coger el tenedor o encender la tetera, que componen dichas actividades de alto nivel. Así, salvo unas pocas excepciones, la mayoría de los sistemas presentes en la literatura no pueden ser utilizados para asistir a los usuarios durante la realizaciíon de las actividades ya que no pueden saber cómo de completa está la actividad. Por todo ello, en esta tesis se plantean tres grandes objetivos. El primero es la implementación de un nuevo algoritmo de reconocimiento de actividades que evite los problemas que provocan las ventanas temporales de longitud fija y pueda ser utilizado también para extraer los estados por los que el usuario lleva al sistema a través de sus acciones. El segundo objetivo es la generación automática de un dominio de planificación automática que represente el comportamiento del usuario a partir de las actividades reconocidas. Para ello se utilizará el algoritmo desarrollado en el paso anterior para reconocer las acciones que componen las actividades y los estados que anteceden y suceden a cada acción. Una vez que se tiene un sistema capaz de generar los estados y acciones realizadas por el usuario, se genera un dominio de planificación utilizando dicha información. Entonces, el dominio de planificación podrá ser utilizado por un planificador automático ya existente para generar secuencias de acciones a partir del estado actual, que podrán ser utilizadas para asistir al usuario en determinadas situaciones. El tercer objetivo es el de estudiar la utilización de los dominios de planificación generados para crear planes y guiar con estos a los usuarios del sistema. Además, se quiere comprobar si los dominios de planificación generados por el sistema pueden ser utilizados para reconocer actividades por sí solo o junto con un sistema de sensores para conseguir así mejores resultados. También se quiere probar su capacidad para predecir futuras acciones.Programa en Ciencia y Tecnología InformáticaPresidente: José Manuel Molina López; Vocal: Thomas Leo Mccluskey; Secretario: Xavier Alamán Roldá