Assistive Smart Cane (ASCane) for fall detection: first advances

The development of fall detection systems with the capability of real-time monitoring is necessary considering that a large amount of people die and suffer severe consequences from falls. Due to their advantages, daily life accessories can be a solution to embed fall-related systems, and canes are no exception. In this paper, it is presented a cane with fall detection abilities. The ASCane is instrumented with an inertial sensor which data will be tested with three different fixed multi-threshold fall detection algorithms, one dynamic multi-threshold and machine learning methods from the literature. They were tested and modified to account the use of a cane. The best performance resulted in a sensitivity and specificity of 96.90% and 98.98%, respectively.This work is supported by the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - with the scholarship reference PD/BD/141515/2018, with the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2013, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) - with the reference project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941

Integrating an MQTT Proxy in a LoRa-Based Messaging System for Generic Sensor Data Collection

[EN] In this paper we use a frugal innovation approach to propose an efficient and generic solution to provide support to the deployment of IoT system in rural areas. Our proposal includes an MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) proxy to integrate generic lowcost and low-power sensor devices in a messaging system based on LoRa (Long Range) technology. MQTT allows these data to be provided to external ¿data lakes¿ so that they can be used for tasks such as reporting, visualization, advanced analytic, and machine learning. LoRa technology provides long wireless links that can be used to connect villages and towns. Through a REST-based interface and using JSON as a lightweight data-interchange format, we show how our platform can be used to distribute generic sensor information from rural communities. Finally, we demonstrate through experimental evaluation that this solution provides stable data transfers over links of various kilometers with a minimal utilization of resources.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades, Programa Estatal de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad, Proyectos I+D+I 2018, Spain, under Grant RTI2018-096384-B-I00.Nakamura, K.; Manzoni, P.; Zennaro, M.; Cano, J.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM. (2020). Integrating an MQTT Proxy in a LoRa-Based Messaging System for Generic Sensor Data Collection. Springer Nature. 282-294. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61746-2_21S282294ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development: The state of broadband 2019. On-line, ITU/UNESCO, Report, September 2019. https://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/opb/pol/S-POL-BROADBAND.20-2019-PDF-E.pdfCrowcroft, J., Wolisz, A., Sathiaseelan, A.: Towards an Affordable Internet Access for Everyone: The Quest for Enabling Universal Service Commitment (Dagstuhl Seminar 14471). Dagstuhl Reports, vol. 4, no. 11, pp. 78–137 (2015). http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2015/4971Micholia, P., et al.: Community networks and sustainability: a survey of perceptions, practices, and proposed solutions. IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor. 20(4), 3581–3606 (Fourthquarter 2018)Cardenas, A.M., Pinto, M.K.N., Pietrosemoli, E., Zennaro, M., Rainone, M., Manzoni, P.: A low-cost and low-power messaging system based on the LoRa wireless technology. Mobile Netw. Appl. 25, 961–968 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-019-01235-5Agarwal, N., Brem, A.: Frugal innovation-past, present, and future. IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev. 45(3), 37–41 (Third 2017)Rao, B.C.: Advances in science and technology through frugality. IEEE Eng. Manag. Rev. 45(1), 32–38 (First 2017)Ottosson, S., Moldavska, A., Ogorodnyk, O., Skogsrød, T.: What is and how to develop sustainable innovation? In: Benlamri, R., Sparer, M. (eds.) Leadership, Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Driving Forces of the Global Economy. SPBE, pp. 191–209. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43434-6_16Chaudhari, B.S., Zennaro, M.: LPWAN technologies: emerging application characteristics, requirements, and design considerations. Future Internet 12(3), 46 (2020)Banks, A., Briggs, E., Borgendale, K.,Gupta, R.: MQTT Version 5.0. On-line, OASIS Standard, Technical report, March 2019. https://docs.oasis-open.org/mqtt/mqtt/v5.0/mqtt-v5.0.htmlSaldana, J., Arcia-Moret, A., Braem, B., Pietrosemoli, E., Sathiaseelan, A., Zennaro, M.: Alternative Network Deployments: Taxonomy, Characterization, Technologies, and Architectures. Internet Requests for Comments, RFC Editor, RFC 7962, August 2016. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/pdfrfc/rfc7962.txt.pdfAhmad, T., Afutu, A., Adjaho, K., Nyarko, Y., Subramanian, L.: Technical report: design, implementation and deployment of intermittency-aware cellular edge services for rural areas. arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.05355 (2016)Martinez, A., Villarroel, V., Seoane, J., del Pozo, F.: Analysis of information and communication needs in rural primary health care in developing countries. IEEE Trans. Inf. Technol. Biomed. 9(1), 66–72 (2005)Bharadwaj, A.S., Rego, R., Chowdhury, A.: IoT based solid waste management system: a conceptual approach with an architectural solution as a smart city application. In: IEEE Annual India Conference, INDICON 2016, pp. 1–6 (2016)Spinsante, S., Ciattaglia, G., Del Campo, A., Perla, D., Pigini, D., Cancellieri, G., Gambi, E.: A LoRa enabled building automation architecture based on MQTT. In: AEIT International Annual Conference 2017, pp. 1–5 (2017)Penkov, S., Taneva, A., Kalkov, V., Ahmed, S.: Industrial network design using low-power wide-area network. In: 2017 4th International Conference on Systems and Informatics (ICSAI), pp. 40–44 (2017)Niswar, M., et al.: IoT-based water quality monitoring system for soft-shell crab farming. In: IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things and Intelligence System, IOTAIS 2018, pp. 6–9 (2018)Huang, A., Huang, M., Shao, Z., Zhang, X., Wu, D., Cao, C.: A practical marine wireless sensor network monitoring system based on LoRa and MQTT. In: 2019 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Electronics Technology (ICET), pp. 330–334 (2019)Paolini, C., Adigal, H., Sarkar, M.: Upper bound on LoRa smart metering uplink rate. In: 2020 IEEE 17th Annual Consumer Communications Networking Conference (CCNC), pp. 1–4 (2020)Lachtar, A., Val, T., Kachouri, A.: Elderly monitoring system in a smart city environment using LoRa and MQTT. IET Wirel. Sens. Syst. 10(2), 70–77 (2020)Nunes, M., Alves, R., Casaca, A., Póvoa, P., Botelho, J.: An internet of things based platform for real-time management of energy consumption in water resource recovery facilities. In: Strous, L., Cerf, V.G. (eds.) IFIPIoT 2018. IAICT, vol. 548, pp. 121–132. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15651-0_11Bhawiyuga, A., Amron, K., Primanandha, R., Kartikasari, D.P., Arijudin, H., Prabandari, D.A.: LoRa-MQTT gateway device for supporting sensor-to-cloud data transmission in smart aquaculture IoT application. In: International Conference on Sustainable Information Engineering and Technology, SIET 2019, pp. 187–190 (2019)Angrisani, L., et al.: An innovative air quality monitoring system based on drone and IoT enabling technologies. 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Enhancement of the Traffic Differentiation Architecture for WBAN based on IEEE 802.15.4

International audienceIn the healthcare domain, Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) has emerged as a vital technology that is capable of providing better methods to diagnose various hazardous diseases. The CANet projet is a project that proposes alternative monitoring solutions. This paper studies the possibility of transmitting different types of information through an IEEE 802.15.4 MAC layer that not supports the transmission of heterogeneous information. We have proposed an extension to the MAC layer which makes possible the transmission of various information types. This solution designed by "diffrentiation layer" uses a purge function to ensure the use of CAP and CFP by the same node in the same superframe and allows the differentiation between several information. Our results show that our solution is reliable under worst-case

Which psychosocial variables affect drive the most? Analysis of sexual desire in a group of Italian men

Literature lacks wide studies on variables affecting sexual desire in men. Aim of this study was to explore the role of some psychosocial variables such as quality of life, sexual function, distress, sexual satisfaction, psychological symptoms, emotions, alexithymia, couple adjustment, sexism, dysfunctional beliefs, cognitive schemas, and modes. A self-administered survey reached 450 heterosexual Italian men (age 31.36 ± 10.73). Results showed "orgasmic function", "lack of erotic thoughts", "erection concerns thoughts", "hostile sexism", and "positive affect" as the main sexual desire predictors. "Depression", "premature ejaculation severity", "sexual distress", "sexual conservatism", and "helpless" predicted in minor manner sexual desire levels. Analyzed variables could represent key factors in the assessment and therapy of sexual desire problems