Portable health monitoring kit using photolethysmogram signal

This study investigates the feasibility of photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals in monitoring health condition and designing a portable health monitoring kit which is suitable for home use. The aim of this study is to ease people in monitoring their health continuously without the need to go to the hospital which can save a lot of time. The focus of this study is to find heart rate and blood pressure recording. The type of PPG sensor used in this project is a non-invasive PPG which measures the blood volume changes in any part of the body. A total of 16 subjects consisting of male and female with age range of 20 to 60 years old were involved in this research. The heart rate and blood pressure for each subject were acquired and analyzed. Based on the result, it shows that higher heart rate reading is associated with female and younger age groups. Meanwhile, for blood pressure value, male subjects tend to have higher blood pressure as compared to female subjects. However, there is no specific pattern for blood pressure in terms of the age group. In the case of HRV analysis based on Kubios software, the SDNN value is higher for male and older age subjects. Meanwhile, the RMSSD value is lower for male and older age subjects. Therefore, PPG signal has the capability to monitor the health status of an individual, which acts as an alternative biological signal for the existing health monitoring systems

Assessment of empirical conversion methods for producing 1-min integration time rainfall rate in Malaysia

This paper presents assessments of empirical conversion methods in obtaining cumulative distribution function of rainfall rate at 1-minute integration time. From collected measured data in Kuala Lumpur, cumulative distributions of rainfall rate at various integration times were compiled. Four conversion methods were selected in the assessment namely: Segal, Burgueno, Ismail et al and Polynomial. The generated 1- minute statistics using the mentioned four empirical conversion methods are then compared with measured statistics, in order to test its validity. Based on the assessment, it can be suggested that the Ismail et al and Polynomial conversion methods seem to be capable of producing rainfall rate statistics at 1-minute integration time with close approximation to the measured values

Assessment of ITU-R predictions for ku-band rain attenuation in Malaysia

This paper presents findings on the assessments carried out pertaining to ITU-R’s predicted rain attenuations. The predictions are put against measurements acquired from a campaign in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The investigation tasks involve generation of annual cumulative distributions using assorted ITU-R recommendations as well as from measured data collected for a period of 20 months. Predicted values generated using established ITU-R rain attenuation prediction models are then compared with measurements values, in order to validate the applicability and effectiveness of each model. Based on the evaluation, it can be suggested that the ITU-R P.618-5 recommendation seems to be a befitting prediction model and capable of generating satisfactory prediction for Malaysia

Mutual impedance with finite feed gap model of dipole antennas using the induced EMF method

Mutual coupling in antenna arrays bring a significant impact especially when antenna elements are placed close with each other. It affects antenna performance, communication capacity and so on. Likewise, an accurate analysis of mutual coupling which can be expressed in terms of mutual impedance is important. A few analytic approaches for mutual impedance between two dipoles are available, one of it is the Induced EMF method. The Induced EMF method is accurate for short and thin, with an infinitesimal feed gap,which is impractical. A finite feed gap which is practical, can be modeled using electromagnetic simulation approaches. However, no analytical techniques are available to compare the results of the design with numerical software. The finite feed gap modelling of the mutual impedance using the Induced EMF method will be highlighted in this paper. The results are compared with other electromagnetic software. Then, the effect of the finite feed gap model has been observed in the far field pattern of dipole antenna arrays and they are in good agreement with other electromagnetic software

Electrocardiogram (ECG) based stress recognition integrated with different classification of age and gender

Good mental health is important in our daily life. A person commonly finds stress as a barrier to enhance an individual’s performance. Be reminded that not all people have the same level of stress because different people have dissimilar problems in their life. In addition, different level of age and gender will affect unequal amount of stress. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is an electrical indicator of the heart that can detect changes of human response which relates to our emotions and reactions. Thus, this research proposed a non-intrusive detector to identify stress level for both gender and different classification of age using the ECG. A total of 30 healthy subjects were involved during the data acquisition stage. Data acquisition which initialize ECG data were divided into two conditions; which are normal and stress states. ECG data for normal state only need the participant to breath in and out normally. In other hand, the participants also need to undergo Stroop Colour word test as a stress inducer to represent ECG in stress state. Then, Sgolay filter was selected in the pre-processing stage to remove artifacts in the signal. The process was followed by feature extraction of the ECG signal and finally classified using RR Interval (RRI), different amplitudes of R peaks and Cardioid graph were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed technique. As a result, Class 5 (age range between 50-59 years old) marks the highest changes of stress level rather than other classes, while women are more affected by stress rather than men by showing tremendous percentage changes between normal and stress level over the proposed classifiers. The result proves that ECG signals can be used as an alternative mechanism to recognize stress more efficiently with the integration of gender and age variabilities

Emotion recognition using electroencephalogram signal

Emotion play an essential role in human’s life and it is not consciously controlled. Some of the emotion can be easily expressed by facial expressions, speech, behavior and gesture but some are not. This study investigates the emotion recognition using electroencephalogram (EEG) signal. Undoubtedly, EEG signals can detect human brain activity accurately with high resolution data acquisition device as compared to other biological signals. Changes in the human brain’s electrical activity occur very quickly, thus a high resolution device is required to determine the emotion precisely. In this study, we will prove the strength and reliability of EEG signals as an emotion recognition mechanism for four different emotions which are happy, sad, fear and calm. Data of six different subjects were collected by using BrainMarker EXG device which consist of 19 channels. The pre-processing stage was performed using second order of low pass Butterworth filter to remove the unwanted signals. Then, two ranges of frequency bands were extracted from the signals which are alpha and beta. Finally, these samples will be classified using MLP Neural Network. Classification accuracy up to 91% is achieved and the average percentage of accuracy for calm, fear, happy and sad are 83.5%, 87.3%, 85.83% and 87.6% respectively. Thus, a proof of concept, this study has been capable of proposing a system of recognizing four states of emotion which are happy, sad, fear and calm by using EEG signal

Design and optimize microstrip patch antenna array using the active element pattern technique

Microstrip patch antennas are widely used in modern day communication devices due to their light weight, low cost and ease of fabrication. In this paper, we have designed and fabricated two Microstrip Patch Antennas (slotted-ring and truncated-slotted ring) and array at 2.4 GHz for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) applications using Computer Simulation Technology, CST. The antenna design consists of rectangular radiating patch on Rogers RT5880 substrate and is excited by using coaxial probe feeding technique. The truncated-slotted ring has been designed on top of the radiating patch to improve bandwidth. The simulation and measurement results of the both antennas are in close agreement with each other. Due to the good agreement of simulation and measurement results of truncatedslotted ring antenna in comparison with slotted-ring antenna, it has been selected for antenna array design. The simulated and measured S11 of truncated-slotted ring antenna shows -21dB and -15.6 dB at 2.4 GHz respectively. Then, the antenna has been formed into 1x4 array in order to observe its beamforming capability. The proposed antenna array is suitable for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi standard which is proposed to be used for IoT

Adaptive control of nonlinear system based on QFT application to 3-DOF flight control system

Research on unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) became popular because of remote flight access and cost-effective solution. 3-degree of freedom (3-DOF) unmanned helicopters is one of the popular research UAV, because of its high load carrying capacity with a smaller number of motor and requirement of forethought motor control dynamics. Various control algorithms are investigated and designed for the motion control of the 3DOF helicopter. Three-degree-of-freedom helicopter model configuration presents the same advantages of 3-DOF helicopters along with increased payload capacity, increase stability in hover, manoeuvrability and reduced mechanical complexity. Numerous research institutes have chosen the three-degree-of-freedom as an ideal platform to develop intelligent controllers. In this research paper, we discussed about a hybrid controller that combined with Adaptive and Quantitative Feedback theory (QFT) controller for the 3-DOF helicopter model. Though research on Adaptive and QFT controller are not a new subject, the first successful single Adaptive aircraft flight control systems have been designed for the U.S. Air Force in Wright Laboratories unmanned research vehicle, Lambda [1]. Previously researcher focused on structured uncertainties associated with controller for the flight conditions theoretically. The development of simulationbased design on flight control system response, opened a new dimension for researcher to design physical flight controller for plant parameter uncertainties. At the beginning, our research was to investigates the possibility of developing the QFT combined with Adaptive controller to control a single pitch angle that meets flying quality conditions of automatic flight control. Finally, we successfully designed the hybrid controller that is QFT based adaptive controller for all the three angles

Assessment of conversion methods to acquire 1-minute integration time rain intensity statistic

This paper presents some preliminary findings of assessments carried out pertaining to the applicability of rain intensity conversion methods. Five conversion methods were identified in this study namely the ITU-R, Segal, Burgeuno, Chebil-Rahman and Khairolanuar et al. 1 year of rain intensity data were acquired from the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) and utilized in the investigation. The research methodology involves productions of annual rain intensity cumulative distributions at 1-minute integration time using mentioned conversion methods. Predicted values established by ITU-R are used as benchmark. The values are then compared with values acquired using other conversion methods; in order to validate the applicability and effectiveness of each method. Based on the evaluation, it can be observed that the Khairolanuar et al. method seems to be a befitting conversion method and capable of generating values with smallest percentage difference

Web based water turbidity monitoring and automated filtration system: IoT application in water management

Water supplied to residential areas is prone to contaminants due to pipe residues and silt, and therefore resulted in cloudiness, unfavorable taste, and odor in water. Turbidity, a measure of water cloudiness, is one of the important factors for assessing water quality. This paper proposes a low-cost turbidity system based on a light detection unit to measure the cloudiness in water. The automated system uses Intel Galileo 2 as the microprocessor and a server for a web-based monitoring system. The turbidity detection unit consists of a Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) inside a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe. Turbidity readings were recorded for two different positionings; 90° and 180° between the detector (LDR) and the incident light (LED). Once the turbidity level reached a threshold level, the system will trigger the filtration process to clean the water. The voltage output captured from the designed system versus total suspended solid (TSS) in sample water is graphed and analyzed in two different conditions; in total darkness and in the present of ambient light. This paper also discusses and compares the results from the above-mentioned conditions when the system is submerged in still and flowing water. It was found that the trends of the plotted graph decline when the total suspended solid increased for both 90° and 180° detector turbidimeter in all conditions which imitate the trends of a commercial turbidimeter. By taking the consideration of the above findings, the design can be recommended for a low-cost real-time web-based monitoring system of the water quality in an IOT environment