THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNRECOGNIZED: SMART TEXTILE SIGNAL CLUSTERING BY SELF-ORGANIZING MAP

The present article is a series of publications dedicated to the research of smart fabric sensors integrated into socks and is also part of the project aimed at developing the measuring system based on smart fabric supplied with sensors and intellectual data processing. The aim of the article is to perform a practical study on the application of Self-Organizing Map to smart textile signal clustering. Within the framework of the research, different approaches to the organization of network training are explored. A method for encoding an input pattern is also proposed. It has been established that the network is able to recognize the signal as a good step, a bad step, and an unrecognized step. The primary classification allows further selecting specific algorithms for a detailed analysis of good steps and bad steps. The detailed analysis of bad steps is the key to solving the problem of revealing of an athlete’s special type of fatigue, leading to injuries

SMART GLOVE USAGE POSSIBILITY FOR BASKETBALL TRAINING: PROOF OF CONCEPT

Nowadays, basketball is one of the most entertaining and popular sports. In the last years, the number of people that are dedicating themselves to basketball has grown rapidly. The increasing number of sportsmen defines the increasing demand to monitor and analyse their performance, hereby granting the possibility to review and evaluate mistakes made within different game phases, which, in turn, would be useful for future training. The present research is the first step to develop a wireless system (Smart Basketball Glove (SBG)) for basketball shot analysis and training. SBG system is based on knitted tension and pressure sensors that were already successfully used in Smart Socks and Smart Shirt applications. These sensors, while embedded into the proposed system’s textile part, showed high tactile sensitivity and speed of response and, therefore, demonstrates potential abilities to analyse the wrist and fingers movement and estimate the forces with which fingers interact with the ball during basketball shot. Necessary requirements for data acquisition and transition device of SBG are formulated for further system’s development as well.

Improving the recovery of patients with subacromial pain syndrome with the daid smart textile shirt

Funding Information: Funding: This work has been supported by the European Regional Development Fund within the Activity 1.1.1.2 “Post‐doctoral Research Aid” of the Specific Aid Objective 1.1.1 “To increase the research and innovative capacity of scientific institutions of Latvia and the ability to attract external financing, investing in human resources and infrastructure” of the Operational Program “Growth and Employment” (No. 1.1.1.2/VIAA/1/16/153). Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Wearable technologies provide many possibilities for applications in medicine, and especially in physiotherapy, where tracking and evaluation of body motion are of utmost importance. Despite the existence of multiple smart garments produced for applications in physiotherapy, there is limited information available on the actual impact of these technologies on the clinical outcomes. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Double Aid (DAid) smart shirt, a purely textile‐based system, on the training process of patients with subacromial pain syndrome. A randomized controlled trial was performed where patients with subacromial pain syndrome had to perform the assigned training exercises while employing the DAid smart shirt system. The core point of each exercise was to perform a movement while holding the shoulders stationary. The smart shirt was designed to sense even slight shoulder motion thus providing the patient with feedback on the accuracy of the motion, and allowing the patient to adjust the movement. The appropriate muscles should be strengthened through an increased effort to control the shoulder motion. The recovery of patients using the feedback system at the end of the treatment was compared to that of a reference group through standardized tests—the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder, and Hand score (DASH score), Closed Kinetic Chain Upper Extremity Stability test (CKCUES test), and internal/external rotation ratio. The test group that used the DAid system demonstrated significantly better results of the performed tests for all applied outcome measures compared to the reference group (p <0.001). An overall positive impact on the patient recovery was observed from the DAid smart shirt system when applied for rehabilitation training of patients with subacromial pain syndrome.Peer reviewe

Photothermostimulated exoelectron emission of bone tissue

Exoelectron emission (EE) phenomenon underlies a new electron spectroscopy method being advanced to investigate different man-made materials. At the same time EE spectroscopy is not used yet for a lot of natural biomaterials, bone being among them. This condensed matter, considered as a natural composite exists in the biological objects due to interaction via the bone surface with the environment. Therefore surface properties of the bone become crucial for bone living functions. Because of EE spectroscopy sensitivity to study surface properties, it may be applied to explore bone tissue too. Unfortunately, EE method cannot be yet extended in considered field due to underlying processes and mechanisms are unknown. The present work is aimed to improve such a situation. To do this, the regularities and mechanisms of bone tissue EE have been studied. EE from bone is provided as a pre-threshold photoelectron emission. Its quantum yield is modulated by relaxation of structural imperfections. They create local states affecting electron state density. Such excitations belong to Ca-O bonds, placed both in a mineral phase and interface, coupled the latter with organic component of the bone. The discovered EE mechanism is looked for development of new bone tissue exploration methods, medical diagnostics and treatment. The thesis consists of introduction, five chapters, resume. It is written on 62 pages, contains 29 figures, 5 tables and 134 referencesAvailable from Latvian Academic Library / LAL - Latvian Academic LibrarySIGLELVLatvi

International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics

This volume presents the proceedings of the International Symposium on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics and is dedicated to the 150 anniversary of the Riga Technical University, Latvia. The content includes various hot topics in biomedical engineering and medical physics

Knitted Resistive Fabric: Properties and Applications

The presented paper relates to the field of “smart textiles”. A new type of knitted strain sensing elements (knitted resistive fabric (KRF)) which can be integrated in the smart garment was developed. KRF was produced from conductive resistive, nonconductive isolating and nonconductive elastomeric yarns. Elastomeric yarn was used as the base yarn and was knitted within the whole fabric, but isolating and resistive yarns (functional yarns) were used as face yarns and knitted in specific sequence. Electrical model of KRF is proposed to describe the behavior of sensing element. The developed KRF has high sensitivity to strain deformation and can be used as local strain sensor or distributed resistive sensing field to control deformation of human body parts, joint motion, respiration etc