Universal Solar Powered Water Quality Monitoring IoT Device and Notification System

Water constituents are often event-driven so concentrations and properties vary strongly in time. Due to this, there is a high demand for devices which can get accurate and real time measurements as these changes occur. Current methods of monitoring water quality mostly involve a team of people who collect samples which are later analyzed in a laboratory. This process is time consuming, expensive and has a slow reaction time which may lead to missing out on important changes in the water parameters. This paper describes a prototype solution which is affordable and capable of producing quick and accurate results in real time. This prototype measures the water quality using various sensors which record the pH level, temperature, total dissolved solids, conductivity and changes in the level of water. These sensors are connected to the ESP32 DevKit V4 microcontroller which processes and transmits the data in real time using Wi-Fi to the thinger.io online monitoring dashboard. This dashboard also stores all the data so it can be for analyzing the trends in changes of water quality. In addition to that, this prototype utilizes solar energy harvesting allowing it to be self-sufficiently powered throughout the year.Water constituents are often event-driven so concentrations and properties vary strongly in time. Due to this, there is a high demand for devices which can get accurate and real time measurements as these changes occur. Current methods of monitoring water quality mostly involve a team of people who collect samples which are later analyzed in a laboratory. This process is time consuming, expensive and has a slow reaction time which may lead to missing out on important changes in the water parameters. This paper describes a prototype solution which is affordable and capable of producing quick and accurate results in real time. This prototype measures the water quality using various sensors which record the pH level, temperature, total dissolved solids, conductivity and changes in the level of water. These sensors are connected to the ESP32 DevKit V4 microcontroller which processes and transmits the data in real time using Wi-Fi to the thinger.io online monitoring dashboard. This dashboard also stores all the data so it can be for analyzing the trends in changes of water quality. In addition to that, this prototype utilizes solar energy harvesting allowing it to be self-sufficiently powered throughout the year

Internet of things based real-time coronavirus 2019 disease patient health monitoring system

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has led to many infected worldwide and has become a global crisis. COVID-19 manifests in the form of shortness of breath, coughing and fever. More people are getting infected and healthcare systems worldwide are overwhelmed as healthcare workers become exhausted and infected. Thus, remote monitoring for COVID-19 patients is required. An internet of things (IoT) based real-time health monitoring system for COVID-19 patients was proposed. It features monitoring of five physiological parameters, namely electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), oxygen saturation (SpO2) and body temperature. These vitals are processed by the main controller and transmitted to the cloud for storage. Healthcare professionals can read real-time patient vitals on the web-based dashboard which is equipped with an alert service. The proposed system was able to transmit and display all parameters in real-time accurately without any packet loss or transmission errors. The accuracy of body temperature readings, RR, SpO2 and HR, is up to 99.7%, 100%, 97.97% and 98.34%, respectively. Alerts were successfully sent when the parameters reached unsafe levels. With the proposed system, healthcare professionals can remotely monitor COVID-19 patients with greater ease, lessen their exposure to the pathogen, and improve patient monitoring

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

A Microinstrumentation System for Remote Environmental Monitoring

This paper reports on a hybrid micro-instrumentation system that includes a embedded micro-controller, transducers for monitoring environmental parameters, interface/readout electronics for linking the controller and the transducers, and custom circuitry for system power management. Sensors for measuring temperature, pressure, humidity, and acceleration are included in the initial system, which operates for more than 180 days and dissipates less than 700 microW from a 6V battery supply. The sensor scan rate is adaptive and can be event triggered. The system communicates internally over a 1 MHz, nine-line intramodule sensor bus and outputs data over a hard-wired serial interface or a 315MHz wireless link. The use of folding platform packaging allows an internal system volume as small as 5 cc

An Empirical Study Comparing Unobtrusive Physiological Sensors for Stress Detection in Computer Work.

Several unobtrusive sensors have been tested in studies to capture physiological reactions to stress in workplace settings. Lab studies tend to focus on assessing sensors during a specific computer task, while in situ studies tend to offer a generalized view of sensors' efficacy for workplace stress monitoring, without discriminating different tasks. Given the variation in workplace computer activities, this study investigates the efficacy of unobtrusive sensors for stress measurement across a variety of tasks. We present a comparison of five physiological measurements obtained in a lab experiment, where participants completed six different computer tasks, while we measured their stress levels using a chest-band (ECG, respiration), a wristband (PPG and EDA), and an emerging thermal imaging method (perinasal perspiration). We found that thermal imaging can detect increased stress for most participants across all tasks, while wrist and chest sensors were less generalizable across tasks and participants. We summarize the costs and benefits of each sensor stream, and show how some computer use scenarios present usability and reliability challenges for stress monitoring with certain physiological sensors. We provide recommendations for researchers and system builders for measuring stress with physiological sensors during workplace computer use

Integrated circuit & system design for concurrent amperometric and potentiometric wireless electrochemical sensing

Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) biosensor platforms have steadily grown in healthcare and commerial applications. This technology has shown potential in the field of commercial wearable technology, where CMOS sensors aid the development of miniaturised sensors for an improved cost of production and response time. The possibility of utilising wireless power and data transmission techniques for CMOS also allows for the monolithic integration of the communication, power and sensing onto a single chip, which greatly simplifies the post-processing and improves the efficiency of data collection. The ability to concurrently utilise potentiometry and amperometry as an electrochemical technique is explored in this thesis. Potentiometry and amperometry are two of the most common transduction mechanisms for electrochemistry, with their own advantages and disadvantages. Concurrently applying both techniques will allow for real-time calibration of background pH and for improved accuracy of readings. To date, developing circuits for concurrently sensing potentiometry and amperometry has not been explored in the literature. This thesis investigates the possibility of utilising CMOS sensors for wireless potentiometric and amperometric electrochemical sensing. To start with, a review of potentiometry and amperometry is evaluated to understand the key factors behind their operation. A new configuration is proposed whereby the reference electrode for both electrochemistry techniques are shared. This configuration is then compared to both the original configurations to determine any differences in the sensing accuracy through a novel experiment that utilises hydrogen peroxide as a measurement analyte. The feasibility of the configuration with the shared reference electrode is proven and utilised as the basis of the electrochemical configuration for the front end circuits. A unique front-end circuit named DAPPER is developed for the shared reference electrode topology. A review of existing architectures for potentiometry and amperometry is evaluated, with a specific focus on low power consumption for wireless applications. In addition, both the electrochemical sensing outputs are mixed into a single output data channel for use with a near-field communication (NFC). This mixing technique is also further analysed in this thesis to understand the errors arising due to various factors. The system is fabricated on TSMC 180nm technology and consumes 28µW. It measures a linear input current range from 250pA - 0.1µW, and an input voltage range of 0.4V - 1V. This circuit is tested and verified for both electrical and electrochemical tests to showcase its feasibility for concurrent measurements. This thesis then provides the integration of wireless blocks into the system for wireless powering and data transmission. This is done through the design of a circuit named SPACEMAN that consists of the concurrent sensing front-end, wireless power blocks, data transmission, as well as a state machine that allows for the circuit to switch between modes: potentiometry only, amperometry only, concurrent sensing and none. The states are switched through re-booting the circuit. The core size of the electronics is 0.41mm² without the coil. The circuit’s wireless powering and data transmission is tested and verified through the use of an external transmitter and a connected printed circuit board (PCB) coil. Finally, the future direction for ongoing work to proceed towards a fully monolithic electrochemical technique is discussed through the next development of a fully integrated coil-on-CMOS system, on-chip electrodes with the electroplating and microfludics, the development of an external transmitter for powering the device and a test platform. The contributions of this thesis aim to formulate a use for wireless electrochemical sensors capable of concurrent measurements for use in wearable devices.Open Acces

Application of Smart Solid State Sensor Technology in Aerospace Applications

Aerospace applications require a range of chemical sensing technologies to monitor conditions in both space vehicles and aircraft operations. One example is the monitoring of oxygen. For example, monitoring of ambient oxygen (O2) levels is critical to ensuring the health, safety, and performance of humans living and working in space. Oxygen sensors can also be incorporated in detection systems to determine if hazardous leaks are occurring in space propulsion systems and storage facilities. In aeronautic applications, O2 detection has been investigated for fuel tank monitoring. However, as noted elsewhere, O2 is not the only species of interest in aerospace applications with a wide range of species of interest being relevant to understand an environmental or vehicle condition. These include combustion products such as CO, HF, HCN, and HCl, which are related to both the presence of a fire and monitoring of post-fire clean-up operations. This paper discusses the development of an electrochemical cell platform based on a polymer electrolyte, NAFION, and a three-electrode configuration. The approach has been to mature this basic platform for a range of applications and to test this system, combined with "Lick and Stick" electronics, for its viability to monitor an environment related to astronaut crew health and safety applications with an understanding that a broad range of applications can be addressed with a core technology