10,833 research outputs found
Recognition of elementary arm movements using orientation of a tri-axial accelerometer located near the wrist
In this paper we present a method for recognising three fundamental movements of the human arm (reach and retrieve, lift cup to mouth, rotation of the arm) by determining the orientation of a tri-axial accelerometer located near the wrist. Our objective is to detect the occurrence of such movements performed with the impaired arm of a stroke patient during normal daily activities as a means to assess their rehabilitation. The method relies on accurately mapping transitions of predefined, standard orientations of the accelerometer to corresponding elementary arm movements. To evaluate the technique, kinematic data was collected from four healthy subjects and four stroke patients as they performed a number of activities involved in a representative activity of daily living, 'making-a-cup-of-tea'. Our experimental results show that the proposed method can independently recognise all three of the elementary upper limb movements investigated with accuracies in the range 91–99% for healthy subjects and 70–85% for stroke patients
A low-power opportunistic communication protocol for wearable applications
© 2015 IEEE.Recent trends in wearable applications demand flexible architectures being able to monitor people while they move in free-living environments. Current solutions use either store-download-offline processing or simple communication schemes with real-time streaming of sensor data. This limits the applicability of wearable applications to controlled environments (e.g, clinics, homes, or laboratories), because they need to maintain connectivity with the base station throughout the monitoring process. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of an opportunistic communication framework that simplifies the general use of wearable devices in free-living environments. It relies on a low-power data collection protocol that allows the end user to opportunistically, yet seamlessly manage the transmission of sensor data. We validate the feasibility of the framework by demonstrating its use for swimming, where the normal wireless communication is constantly interfered by the environment
Implementing and Evaluating a Wireless Body Sensor System for Automated Physiological Data Acquisition at Home
Advances in embedded devices and wireless sensor networks have resulted in
new and inexpensive health care solutions. This paper describes the
implementation and the evaluation of a wireless body sensor system that
monitors human physiological data at home. Specifically, a waist-mounted
triaxial accelerometer unit is used to record human movements. Sampled data are
transmitted using an IEEE 802.15.4 wireless transceiver to a data logger unit.
The wearable sensor unit is light, small, and consumes low energy, which allows
for inexpensive and unobtrusive monitoring during normal daily activities at
home. The acceleration measurement tests show that it is possible to classify
different human motion through the acceleration reading. The 802.15.4 wireless
signal quality is also tested in typical home scenarios. Measurement results
show that even with interference from nearby IEEE 802.11 signals and microwave
ovens, the data delivery performance is satisfactory and can be improved by
selecting an appropriate channel. Moreover, we found that the wireless signal
can be attenuated by housing materials, home appliances, and even plants.
Therefore, the deployment of wireless body sensor systems at home needs to take
all these factors into consideration.Comment: 15 page
Smart Computing and Sensing Technologies for Animal Welfare: A Systematic Review
Animals play a profoundly important and intricate role in our lives today.
Dogs have been human companions for thousands of years, but they now work
closely with us to assist the disabled, and in combat and search and rescue
situations. Farm animals are a critical part of the global food supply chain,
and there is increasing consumer interest in organically fed and humanely
raised livestock, and how it impacts our health and environmental footprint.
Wild animals are threatened with extinction by human induced factors, and
shrinking and compromised habitat. This review sets the goal to systematically
survey the existing literature in smart computing and sensing technologies for
domestic, farm and wild animal welfare. We use the notion of \emph{animal
welfare} in broad terms, to review the technologies for assessing whether
animals are healthy, free of pain and suffering, and also positively stimulated
in their environment. Also the notion of \emph{smart computing and sensing} is
used in broad terms, to refer to computing and sensing systems that are not
isolated but interconnected with communication networks, and capable of remote
data collection, processing, exchange and analysis. We review smart
technologies for domestic animals, indoor and outdoor animal farming, as well
as animals in the wild and zoos. The findings of this review are expected to
motivate future research and contribute to data, information and communication
management as well as policy for animal welfare
- …