Water-Electricity-Light System: Technology Innovations

This paper presents the design of the Water-Electricity-Light System (WELS) that is an integration of technologies composed of rain catcher, mechanical filter and UV irradiation, solar panel, charge converter, LED light, inverter and car battery. We traced back its development from a bulky and expensive system that was meant to generate drinking water into a more innovative water cleaning system that integrated lighting and cellphone charging. We tracked the improvements applied to the system to make the design more efficient yet simple enough to be replicated and customized in order to address varied needs. We shared the alterations made to the system components based on installation experiences in different contexts. We also explored ways to lower its cost and to make its power storage more durable. Initial results are shared in this paper. Having seen its usefulness and realized its successful implementation on the ground, we are proposing the pre-positioning of WELS to promote disaster resilience in a community level. We based this assertion on the review of all documentations done and feedback gathered from our ten-year experience of more than 140 WELS installations all over the Philippines

University-Community Partnership For Water Technology Deployment And Co-Innovation: A Decade Of Engagement

The Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines), through its Ateneo Innovation Center (AIC), integrated existing simple technologies into one system – the Water-Electricity-Lighting System (WELS) – to respond to the need for potable water, lighting and communication. WELS is a portable clean water system with provision for lighting and cellular phone charging. It can be connected to a rainwater harvesting facility. Ten years of WELS deployments revealed its flexibility for customization in order to address varied water needs, especially for disaster response. Review of documentations done on past installation experiences highlights the value of engagement between university-based technology providers and community-recipients. This engagement leads to technology improvement and sustainability through co-innovation and contributes to community resilience and education through hands-on training. This paper narrates a decade of deployment experiences and presents the process of community involvement. We present a model of engaging the stakeholders that brings mutual benefit to both university and community through this partnership

Towards Laparoscopic Visual AI: Development of a Visual Guidance System for Laparoscopic Surgical Palpation

Currently, there are numerous obstacles to performing palpation during laparoscopic surgery. The laparoscopic interface does not allow access into a patient’s body anything other than the tools that are inserted through the trocars. Palpation is usually done with the surgeon’s hands to detect lumps and certain anomalies underneath the skin, muscle, or tissues. It can be useful technique for augmenting surgical decision-making during laparoscopic surgery, especially when discerning operations involving cancerous tumors. Previous research demonstrated the use of tactile sensors and mechanical sensors placed at the end-effectors for palpating laparoscopically. In this study, a visual guidance system is proposed for use during laparoscopic palpation, specifically engineered to be part of a motion-based laparoscopic palpation system. In particular, the YOLACT++ model is used to localize a target organ, the gall bladder, on a custom dataset of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Our experiments showed an AP score of 90.10 for bounding boxes and 87.20 on masks. In terms of the speed performance, the model achieved a playback speed of approximately 20 fps, which translates to approximately 48 ms video latency. The palpation path guides are guidelines that are computer-generated within the identified organ, and they show potential in helping the surgeon implement the palpation more accurately. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of deep learning-based real-time image processing models to complete our motion-based laparoscopic palpation system, and to realize the promising role of artificial intelligence in surgical decision-making. Visual presentation of our results can be seen on our project page: https://kerwincaballas.github.io/lap-palpation

Design and Development of an Integrated Web-based System for Tropical Rainfall Monitoring

This study is about the design and development of an integrated web-based system for tropical rainfall monitoring. The system gathers data using a network of low-cost, Android-based acoustic rainfall sensors, a nationwide infrastructure of 5 GHz wireless broadband links, and remote weather stations. The low-cost Android-based acoustic rainfall sensors are deployed at high densities over a local area and the 5 GHz wireless broadband sensors gather rainfall information on a nationwide scale. The sensor network provides information about spatial-variations that are characteristics of tropical rain rates, and complement data from the scarcely deployed remote weather stations. Gathered data is then processed and displayed on a web interface

Design and Development of Electronic Sensor and Monitoring System of Smart Low-cost Phototherapy Light System for Non-Invasive Monitoring and Treatment of Neonatal Jaundice

This paper showcases our previous and continuously improving development at Ateneo Innovation Center (AIC) and partners in designing and further enhancing the existing Low-cost Phototherapy Light System (LPLS) and Improved Low-cost Phototherapy Light System (ILPLS) to the new Smart Low-cost Phototherapy Light System (Smart LPLS) with non-invasive jaundice monitoring for newborns with Neonatal Jaundice (NNJ). Developing this tool will help determine the intensity of yellowish color in infants and can monitor NNJ in a non-invasive way. The system is envisioned to be integrated with Mobile or Near Cloud as part of Smart Nursing Station together with other hospital equipment for monitoring, collection, and management of medical records and services. Its solar-power features for off-grid and remote deployments were also explored. This contribution is an extension of the Intelligent Sensors and Monitoring System for Low-cost Phototherapy Light for Jaundice Treatment that was presented in the International Symposium on Multimedia and Communication Technology (ISMAC) in 2019

Microwave Components with MEMS Switches

RF MEMS switches with metal-metal contacts are being developed for microwave applications where broadband, high linearity performance is required. These switches provide less than 0.2 dB insertion loss through 40 GHz. This paper describes the integration of these switches into selected microwave components such as reconfigurable antenna elements, tunable filters, switched delay lines, and SPDT switches. Microwave and millimeter wave measured results from these circuits are presented

MEMS-Based Communications Systems for Space-Based Applications

As user demand for higher capacity and flexibility in communications satellites increases, new ways to cope with the inherent limitations posed by the prohibitive mass and power consumption, needed to satisfy those requirements, are under investigation. Recent studies suggest that while new satellite architectures are necessary to enable multi-user, multi-data rate, multi-location satellite links, these new architectures will inevitably increase power consumption, and in turn, spacecraft mass, to such an extent that their successful implementation will demand novel lightweight/low power hardware approaches. In this paper, following a brief introduction to the fundamentals of communications satellites, we address the impact of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology, in particular micro-electro-mechanical (MEM) switches to mitigate the above mentioned problems and show that low-loss/wide bandwidth MEM switches will go a long way towards enabling higher capacity and flexibility space-based communications systems

Design of a Disaster Information System using Mobile Cloud Wireless Mesh with Delay Tolerant Network

There is a constant need to develop platforms and systems for communication and information sharing when infrastructure is unavailable or when available communication systems are weak. This stems from the recognition of the importance of disaster preparedness and risk reduction management especially in the context of a disaster-prone country like the Philippines. This paper presents a Mobile Cloud System for relay of intelligent information when infrastructure is either weak or down. This proposed system is designed to have high mobility and multi-platform integration capabilities which best fits the disaster scenario. The system implements Wireless Mesh Network (WMN), Delay Tolerant (DTN) and Mobile cloud caching capabilities. Mobile Cloud nodes are pre-positioned in a classroom environment which are most likely used as evacuation centers during disasters. Hence, in peace time they serve as nodes for education but become an information system for disaster management during a disaster scenario. Mobile Cloud nodes are cached with key information and data as well as key web applications that are necessary for disaster-preparedness and risk reduction. Key web applications cached on the nodes include decision support applications i.e. messaging, tracking, streaming and alerting. Mobile Cloud clients in the form of mobile devices i.e. mobile phones, tablets and laptops can communicate amongst each other thru their access of the key web applications hosted on the Mobile Cloud System

Surface-Based Electromyography Gesture Profiling of Laparoscopic Tools Using a Wearable Sensor

This study explores surface-based electromyography (sEMG) to evaluate the effects of tool handling and fatigue on the muscle activation of laparoscopy surgeons. Specifically, the Myo Armband is used because it is a wearable, unobtrusive, and wireless sensor. Collected EMG signatures showed that more complex gestures have more active muscle groups. For the fatigued state, analysis of the signatures using the RMS feature showed that for more complex gestures, RMS increased because of muscle compensation due to fatigue. Accuracy exercise findings showed that there is a decrease in %accuracy when using an endoscope compared to when looking directly and there is a slight decrease in %accuracy once fatigue is induced. 100% accuracy cannot be reached due to awkward tool handling. Through various experiments, this study presented possible methods to evaluate the effects of tool handling and fatigue on the muscle activation of surgeons through use of sEMG. Analysis of these signatures may lead to better understanding on how specific tool design affects muscle activity and muscle fatigue, and to utilize this as a basis for a more ergonomic laparoscopic set-up and tool design