A CNN based Multifaceted Signal Processing Framework for Heart Rate Proctoring Using Millimeter Wave Radar Ballistocardiography

The recent pandemic has refocused the medical world's attention on the diagnostic techniques associated with cardiovascular disease. Heart rate provides a real-time snapshot of cardiovascular health. A more precise heart rate reading provides a better understanding of cardiac muscle activity. Although many existing diagnostic techniques are approaching the limits of perfection, there remains potential for further development. In this paper, we propose MIBINET, a convolutional neural network for real-time proctoring of heart rate via inter-beat-interval (IBI) from millimeter wave (mm-wave) radar ballistocardiography signals. This network can be used in hospitals, homes, and passenger vehicles due to its lightweight and contactless properties. It employs classical signal processing prior to fitting the data into the network. Although MIBINET is primarily designed to work on mm-wave signals, it is found equally effective on signals of various modalities such as PCG, ECG, and PPG. Extensive experimental results and a thorough comparison with the current state-of-the-art on mm-wave signals demonstrate the viability and versatility of the proposed methodology. Keywords: Cardiovascular disease, contactless measurement, heart rate, IBI, mm-wave radar, neural networkComment: 13 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to Elsevier's Array Journa

A Digitally Assisted Tunable High Pass Filter Based on Flexible a-IGZO TFTs for Biomedical Applications

This paper presents a digitally assisted tunable high pass filter for biomedical applications, implemented using unipolar a-IGZO TFTs manufactured on a flexible substrate. The proposed system is based on a master-slave approach. It takes advantage of the signal attenuation experienced in a high pass filter when a reference sinusoidal signal with a frequency lower than the cut off frequency is applied. The signal attenuation is monitored and a feedback loop automatically controls the small-signal resistance in the master and slave filters to obtain a specific signal attenuation, which in turn sets the passband frequency of the high pass filter. The presented approach is not only useful for setting a sub Hz cut off frequency but it is shown to be effective in counteracting parameter and supply voltage variations. The method presented in the paper can be also applied to Silicon biomedical circuits

Evaluation of kernel elongation ratio and aroma association in global popular aromatic rice cultivars in tropical environment

Aroma and cooked kernel elongation are the most important quality traits of aromatic rice, which differentiate the highly valued aromatic rice from the other rice types. Previous studies on genetic analysis have shown that genes/QTLs for these two traits are linked. In the present study, it tried to evaluate the expression of aroma, kernel elongation and their association in 55 fine rice genotypes in the tropical environment of Malaysia. Highest percentage of elongation ratio was observed in Genotype E2 followed by E11, Gharib, E6, E26, E34, E35, E36, E19, E20 and E27. Aroma was observed in 34 rice genotypes and 10 were identified as superior. They are E11, Sadri, Gharib, E7, Kasturi, Rambir Basmati, E21, E13, E24, and Rato Basmati. Positive correlation (r = 0.59, p <= 0.05)) was observed between aroma and kernel elongation in these selected 10 genotypes. Three of them had strong aroma (score 4) and there genotypes were E11, Sadri and Garib. We observed that the outstanding 10 genotypes for aroma and highest kernel elongation ratio are not the same except for two of the genotypes (Garib and E11). Aroma concentration was significantly different in highest kernel elongation ratio performance of 10 genotypes. Similar results were also observed in top 10 aroma performing genotypes and their kernel elongation ratio also varied among each other. In addition, out of 55 aromatic genotypes 17 did not have any aroma; comparatively low kernel elongation ratio was also observed in many of the genotypes. This investigation indicated that association of aroma and kernel elongation ratio can be highly influenced by tropical environment. However, since two genotypes (Garib and E11) perform their normal aromatic and Kernel elongation ratio and aromatic expression are even in tropical Malaysian Environment, It can be concluded that this expression might be as a result of the influence of dominant nature of some associated genes

A flexible ECG patch compatible with NFC RF communication

With the advent of the internet of things, flexible wearable devices are gaining significant research interest, as they are unobtrusive, comfortable to wear and can support continuous observation of physiological signals, helping to monitor wellness or diagnose diseases. Amorphous Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (a-IGZO) Thin Film Transistors (TFTs) fabricated on flexible substrates are an attractive option to build such bio-signal monitoring systems due to their flexibility, conformability to the human body, and low cost. This paper presents a flexible electrocardiogram (ECG) patch implemented on foil with self-aligned IGZO TFTs, which is capable to acquire the ECG signals, amplify them and convert them to a sequence of bits. The analogue frontend has a measured input-referred noise of 8 μVrms in the 1–100 Hz band. The system achieves experimentally 67.4 dB CMRR, 58.9 dB PSRR, and 16.5 MΩ input impedance at 50 Hz while using 1 kHz chopping. The signal from the electrodes is transformed to a 105.9-kb/s Manchester-encoded serial bit stream which could be sent wirelessly to a smart phone via Near Field Communication (NFC) for further elaboration. Power consumption is 15.4 mW for the digital and 280 μW for the analogue part. This contribution shows the fundamental steps to demonstrate intelligent plasters for biomedical applications based on flexible electronics providing an NFC-compatible digital output bit stream

A low power time domain ECG interface based on flexible a-IGZO TFTs

\u3cp\u3eThis work presents a low power ECG interface for wearable applications, based on unipolar a-IGZO TFTs manufactured on a flexible substrate. The interface consists of a cascaded diode-connected load preamplifier followed by a reset integrator, which is used to convert the voltage signal to a pulse-width modulated (PWM) representation. The output is thus provided as a binary PWM waveform, which can be conveniently sent to a reader device using wireless communication and can be further converted to a digital representation using a simple counter. The flicker noise and the offset are eliminated using an approach similar to correlated double sampling. An input chopper is exploited to alternate the connection between the inputs of the preamplifier for each sample. The output signal is then extracted by subtracting two consecutive samples after conversion to the digital domain. In this way offset and low-frequency noise, which are correlated between the two samples, are effectively cancelled.\u3c/p\u3