Wearable and Implantable Wireless Sensor Network Solutions for Healthcare Monitoring

Wireless sensor network (WSN) technologies are considered one of the key research areas in computer science and the healthcare application industries for improving the quality of life. The purpose of this paper is to provide a snapshot of current developments and future direction of research on wearable and implantable body area network systems for continuous monitoring of patients. This paper explains the important role of body sensor networks in medicine to minimize the need for caregivers and help the chronically ill and elderly people live an independent life, besides providing people with quality care. The paper provides several examples of state of the art technology together with the design considerations like unobtrusiveness, scalability, energy efficiency, security and also provides a comprehensive analysis of the various benefits and drawbacks of these systems. Although offering significant benefits, the field of wearable and implantable body sensor networks still faces major challenges and open research problems which are investigated and covered, along with some proposed solutions, in this paper

Triboelectric Effect Enabled Self-Powered, Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Opportunities for developing ASSURED and REASSURED devices

The use of rapid point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics in conjunction with physiological signal monitoring has seen tremendous progress in their availability and uptake, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, to truly overcome infrastructural and resource constraints, there is an urgent need for self-powered devices which can enable on-demand and/or continuous monitoring of patients. The past decade has seen the rapid rise of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as the choice for high-efficiency energy harvesting for developing self-powered systems as well as for use as sensors. This review provides an overview of the current state of the art of such wearable sensors and end-to-end solutions for physiological and biomarker monitoring. We further discuss the current constraints and bottlenecks of these devices and systems and provide an outlook on the development of TENG-enabled PoC/monitoring devices that could eventually meet criteria formulated specifically for use in LMICs.Ulster Universityhttp://www.mdpi.com/journal/micromachineshj2021Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineerin

Review of flexible energy harvesting for bioengineering in alignment with SDG

To cater to the extensive body movements and deformations necessitated by biomedical equipment flexible piezoelectrics emerge as a promising solution for energy harvesting. This review research delves into the potential of Flexible Piezoelectric Materials (FPM) as a sustainable solution for clean and affordable energy, aligning with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By systematically examining the secondary functions of stretchability, hybrid energy harvesting, and self-healing, the study aims to comprehensively understand these materials' mechanisms, strategies, and relationships between structural characteristics and properties. The research highlights the significance of designing piezoelectric materials that can conform to the curvilinear shape of the human body, enabling sustainable and efficient mechanical energy capture for various applications, such as biosensors and actuators. The study identifies critical areas for future investigation, including the commercialization of stretchable piezoelectric systems, prevention of unintended interference in hybrid energy harvesters, development of consistent wearability metrics, and enhancement of the elastic piezoelectric material, electrode circuit, and substrate for improved stretchability and comfort. In conclusion, this review research offers valuable insights into developing and implementing FPM as a promising and innovative approach to harnessing clean, affordable energy in line with the SDGs.</p

Review of flexible energy harvesting for bioengineering in alignment with SDG

To cater to the extensive body movements and deformations necessitated by biomedical equipment flexible piezoelectrics emerge as a promising solution for energy harvesting. This review research delves into the potential of Flexible Piezoelectric Materials (FPM) as a sustainable solution for clean and affordable energy, aligning with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By systematically examining the secondary functions of stretchability, hybrid energy harvesting, and self-healing, the study aims to comprehensively understand these materials' mechanisms, strategies, and relationships between structural characteristics and properties. The research highlights the significance of designing piezoelectric materials that can conform to the curvilinear shape of the human body, enabling sustainable and efficient mechanical energy capture for various applications, such as biosensors and actuators. The study identifies critical areas for future investigation, including the commercialization of stretchable piezoelectric systems, prevention of unintended interference in hybrid energy harvesters, development of consistent wearability metrics, and enhancement of the elastic piezoelectric material, electrode circuit, and substrate for improved stretchability and comfort. In conclusion, this review research offers valuable insights into developing and implementing FPM as a promising and innovative approach to harnessing clean, affordable energy in line with the SDGs.</p

Applications of Affective Computing in Human-Robot Interaction: state-of-art and challenges for manufacturing

The introduction of collaborative robots aims to make production more flexible, promoting a greater interaction between humans and robots also from physical point of view. However, working closely with a robot may lead to the creation of stressful situations for the operator, which can negatively affect task performance. In Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), robots are expected to be socially intelligent, i.e., capable of understanding and reacting accordingly to human social and affective clues. This ability can be exploited implementing affective computing, which concerns the development of systems able to recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. Social intelligence is essential for robots to establish a natural interaction with people in several contexts, including the manufacturing sector with the emergence of Industry 5.0. In order to take full advantage of the human-robot collaboration, the robotic system should be able to perceive the psycho-emotional and mental state of the operator through different sensing modalities (e.g., facial expressions, body language, voice, or physiological signals) and to adapt its behaviour accordingly. The development of socially intelligent collaborative robots in the manufacturing sector can lead to a symbiotic human-robot collaboration, arising several research challenges that still need to be addressed. The goals of this paper are the following: (i) providing an overview of affective computing implementation in HRI; (ii) analyzing the state-of-art on this topic in different application contexts (e.g., healthcare, service applications, and manufacturing); (iii) highlighting research challenges for the manufacturing sector

Wireless power transmission: R&D activities within Europe

Wireless power transmission (WPT) is an emerging technology that is gaining increased visibility in recent years. Efficient WPT circuits, systems and strategies can address a large group of applications spanning from batteryless systems, battery-free sensors, passive RF identification, near-field communications, and many others. WPT is a fundamental enabling technology of the Internet of Things concept, as well as machine-to-machine communications, since it minimizes the use of batteries and eliminates wired power connections. WPT technology brings together RF and dc circuit and system designers with different backgrounds on circuit design, novel materials and applications, and regulatory issues, forming a cross disciplinary team in order to achieve an efficient transmission of power over the air interface. This paper aims to present WPT technology in an integrated way, addressing state-of-the-art and challenges, and to discuss future R&D perspectives summarizing recent activities in Europe.The work of N. Borges Carvalho and A. J. S. Soares Boaventura was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under Project CREATION EXCL/EEI-TEL/0067/2012 and Doctoral Scholarship SFRH/BD/80615/2011. The work of H. Rogier was supported by BELSPO through the IAP Phase VII BESTCOM project and the Fund for Scientific Research-Flanders (FWO-V). The work of A. Georgiadis and A. Collado was supported by the European Union (EU) under Marie Curie FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IAPP 251557 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness Project TEC 2012-39143. The work of J. A. García and M. N. Ruíz was supported by the Spanish Ministries MICINN and MINECO under FEDER co-funded Project TEC2011-29126-C03-01 and Project CSD2008-00068. The work of J. Kracek and M. Mazanek was supported in part by the Czech Ministry of Education Youth and Sports under Project OC09075–Novel Emerging Wireless Systems

Evidence-based Development of Trustworthy Mobile Medical Apps

abstract: Widespread adoption of smartphone based Mobile Medical Apps (MMAs) is opening new avenues for innovation, bringing MMAs to the forefront of low cost healthcare delivery. These apps often control human physiology and work on sensitive data. Thus it is necessary to have evidences of their trustworthiness i.e. maintaining privacy of health data, long term operation of wearable sensors and ensuring no harm to the user before actual marketing. Traditionally, clinical studies are used to validate the trustworthiness of medical systems. However, they can take long time and could potentially harm the user. Such evidences can be generated using simulations and mathematical analysis. These methods involve estimating the MMA interactions with human physiology. However, the nonlinear nature of human physiology makes the estimation challenging. This research analyzes and develops MMA software while considering its interactions with human physiology to assure trustworthiness. A novel app development methodology is used to objectively evaluate trustworthiness of a MMA by generating evidences using automatic techniques. It involves developing the Health-Dev β tool to generate a) evidences of trustworthiness of MMAs and b) requirements assured code generation for vulnerable components of the MMA without hindering the app development process. In this method, all requests from MMAs pass through a trustworthy entity, Trustworthy Data Manager which checks if the app request satisfies the MMA requirements. This method is intended to expedite the design to marketing process of MMAs. The objectives of this research is to develop models, tools and theory for evidence generation and can be divided into the following themes: • Sustainable design configuration estimation of MMAs: Developing an optimization framework which can generate sustainable and safe sensor configuration while considering interactions of the MMA with the environment. • Evidence generation using simulation and formal methods: Developing models and tools to verify safety properties of the MMA design to ensure no harm to the human physiology. • Automatic code generation for MMAs: Investigating methods for automatically • Performance analysis of trustworthy data manager: Evaluating response time generating trustworthy software for vulnerable components of a MMA and evidences.performance of trustworthy data manager under interactions from non-MMA smartphone apps.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201