Design and Development of a Multi-sensor Monitoring Device for Arm Rehabilitation

A continuous monitoring process for arm rehabilitation activities are important to provide information of rehabilitation results to be analyzed by therapist. The purpose of monitoring is to help them to improve rehabilitation process. Moreover, a portable and simple home-based rehabilitation device can help patients to improve daily rehabilitation activity. Some previous studies regarding home-based rehabilitation process have shown improvement in promoting human movement recovery. But existing rehabilitation devices are expensive and need to be supervised by physical therapist. Some devices are not so efficient to be used at home due to large size and complex system. In this current work, flex sensor, force sensitive resistors and accelerometer were assessed in order to be implemented as a sensory unit for a portable arm rehabilitation device. Analog signal from the sensors will be conveyed to an Arduino microcontroller for data processing and logging. The results of rehabilitation activity can be used for further monitoring and analysis. Experiments were carried out to determine the feasibility of each sensor towards the design of the new rehabilitation monitoring device. The experiments demonstrate the capabilities of the sensors to produce extended information regarding arm movement activity which can be implemented in the design. A liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor will show to the user the achievement of their exercise activity on daily basis

Global and Local Color Time Scales to Encode Timeline Events in Ion Trajectories for Glassies

Glassy compounds lead directly to high ionic conductivity. Ionic conductivity generates ion trajectories. However, these trajectories have been represented by two-dimensional graph in order to visualize the timeline events in ion trajectories. This study addresses this problem by encoding the timeline events in ion trajectories with global and local color scales. Two time scales have been introduced namely Global Color Time Scale and Local Color Time Scale. The rainbow color has been chosen to represent global time scale meanwhile solid color has been used to generate local time scale. Based on evaluation, these techniques are successful in representing timeline events in ion trajectories for understanding the complicated heterogeneous movement of ion trajectories

Study on Finite Element Analysis of Fine Solid Lines by Flexographic Printing in Printed Antennas for RFID Transponder

Printing is offering the feasibility of producing mass quantities of a wide variety of electronic components and devices quickly and at lower cost. Flexography is mainly used for packaging applications, but is also poses a potential method for the micro manufacture of electronic devices, smart packaging and RFID. The flexographic printing process poses as an attractive candidate for printing electronics for its high speed printing capabilities where such volume and large active areas need to be printed. Therefore an investigation for its potential usage in printing electronics are highly in demand hence a research for suitable conductive ink related to this process is vital. Multiple fine solid lines of high quality are essential to enable printing of ink tracks for electronic applications. A step by step approach by printing multiple solid lines, measurements of printing plates and printed images and finite element analysis (FEA) need to be carried out in advance to help comprehending this process that is influenced by many interacting parameters. Plate characteristics are among a number of process parameters that will influence print line quality, which will affect the electrical performance of printed tracks. Printing trials have also been carried out in comparison various ink to check the compatibility and the suitability of the ink developed for printing RFID antennas

A Study on Printed Multiple Solid Line by Combining Microcontact and Flexographic Printing Process for Microelectronic and Biomedical Applications

: Microcontact printing (µCP) is an outstanding surface patterning technique in micron scale and, even in nano scale. Surface science communities like engineers and biologists have been promoting attention in µCP, therefore they have been rich in improvement to the µCP process itself. However the process is relatively slow in production. Meanwhile flexographic technique is a high speed roll to roll process, but low in resolution and still has limitation in printing of micro-scale size. Now a day, low cost fabrication is keys to the successful introduction of printed electronics and roll to roll manufacturing processes. Therefore, study to extend flexographic into the micro-scale size resolutions, may provide an economical commercialization path for electronic devices since, flexographic is a high speed technique commonly used for printing onto very large area flexible substrates. Although low resolution and poor registration are characteristics of today's flexographic process, it has many potential to achieve fine solid line micro size by combining to microcontact printing because both of them having similarities in method of carrying printed pattern to a substrates. This study have been demonstrated that 10micron line with 10micron gap successfully printed by these 2 combinations printing techniques, using graphic ink and biological ink with is Fetal Bovine Serum

A study on optical sensors orientation for tomography system development

This paper describes the investigation of optical sensors performance towards the development of optical tomography system. The orientation of the transmitters has been set from 0o until 180o and then the receiver’s responses were analyzed. Hence, sensors capabilities were tested further by placing blockage object in between the transmitter and receiver and the effect of this arrangement were observed. Finally, new designs of sensor jig were introduced based on the results achieved. Copyright © 2012 IFS

Image enhancement for red blood cell segmentation

A number of issues in blood cell image features such as illuminations, weak edge boundaries and color similarities especially between white blood cell (WBC) cytoplasm and red blood cell (RBC) which affect the accuracy of the segmentation of red blood cell image. This research aims to overcome the issue by applying image enhancement technique. Average filter, image contrast and median filter being proposed in this research. Each of the techniques help to eliminate fairly spread noises, display clear images and diminish single pixel noises. As the result, the quality image is increased and ready for the segmentation process

Development of Artificial Hand Gripper by using Microcontroller

This paper focuses on the development of a measurement hand gripper to help handicap patient due to accident and diseases. Basically, when the patient needed to perform exercises they must get an appointment with a doctor. Normally this will take few weeks or months. This is because the rehabilitation devices at Physiotherapy Department in hospital are very limited. From this problem, we suggest to develop a reasonably cheap home-based rehabilitation measurement devices which can perform the task of assisting paralyze patient at home. The basic movement of the patient was limited from a wrist, elbow and shoulder. The development of this project involves the designing of a sensors equipped Smart Glove and a measurement hand gripper device. The hand gripper device will move based on a human operator’s finger movement using the Smart Glove. The purpose of our project is to design and develop a master-slave system robotic hand which can be a substitution for the paralyzed hand in therapy to aid in recovery process of patients upper limb function. The project involves an Arduino microcontroller for the instrumentation, communication and controlling applications. A series of flex sensors are fitted in a master glove to get readings from the movement of human fingers. Microcontroller will further use this information to control multiple servos that controls the movement of slave robotic hand

Design and Development of a portable Pulse Oximetry system

Heart is the most important part in human body. Thus, it is important to follow-up and monitor its condition. Heart rate (HR) and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) are important indicators directly related to heart-pulmonary system. Monitoring of HR and SpO2 offers us a good indication of heart functionality. Therefore, it is crucial to design and develop a homemade inexpensive device for measuring HR and SpO2. Pulse Oximeter (PO) is an opto-electronic non-invasive medical instrument capable of measuring and recording the changes of HR and SpO2 at the finger tip. In this paper we will demonstrate the overall process involved in the development of a portable (PO) system which can be used for health condition monitoring or for educational and research purposes

Development of wireless-based low-cost current controlled stimulator for patients with spinal cord injuries

A spinal cord injury (SCI) has a severe impact on human life in general as well as on the physical status and condition. The use of electrical signals to restore the function of paralyzed muscles is called functional electrical stimulation (FES). FES is a promising way to restore mobility to SCI by applying low-level electrical current to the paralyzed muscles so as to enhance that person’s ability to function and live independently. However, due to the limited number of commercially available FES assisted exerciser systems and their rather high cost, the conventional devices are unaffordable for most peoples. It also inconvenient because of wired based system that creates a limitation in performing exercise. Thus, this project is concerned with the development of low-cost current controlled stimulator mainly for the paraplegic subjects. The developed device should be based on a microcontroller, wireless based system using Zigbee module, voltage-to-current converter circuit and should produce proper monophasic and biphasic current pulses, pulse trains, arbitrary current waveforms, and a trigger output for FES applications. The performances of the device will be assessed through simulation study and validated through experimental work. This device will be developed as in the new technique of the stimulator development with low cost and one of the contributing factors in Rehabilitation Engineering for patients with SCI

Development of wireless-based low-cost current controlled stimulator for patients with spinal cord injuries

A spinal cord injury (SCI) has a severe impact on human life in general as well as on the physical status and condition. The use of electrical signals to restore the function of paralyzed muscles is called functional electrical stimulation (FES). FES is a promising way to restore mobility to SCI by applying low-level electrical current to the paralyzed muscles so as to enhance that person’s ability to function and live independently. However, due to the limited number of commercially available FES assisted exerciser systems and their rather high cost, the conventional devices are unaffordable for most peoples. It also inconvenient because of wired based system that creates a limitation in performing exercise. Thus, this project is concerned with the development of low-cost current controlled stimulator mainly for the paraplegic subjects. The developed device should be based on a microcontroller, wireless based system using Zigbee module, voltage-to-current converter circuit and should produce proper monophasic and biphasic current pulses, pulse trains, arbitrary current waveforms, and a trigger output for FES applications. The performances of the device will be assessed through simulation study and validated through experimental work. This device will be developed as in the new technique of the stimulator development with low cost and one of the contributing factors in Rehabilitation Engineering for patients with SCI