IcyHeart: Highly integrated ultra-low-power SoC solution for unobtrusive and energy efficient wireless cardiac monitoring

The objective of the IcyHeart project is to investigate and demonstrate a highly integrated and power-efficient microelectronic solution for remote monitoring of a subject’s electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. A complete System-on-a-Chip (SoC) is being developed that embarks on a single chip an ultralow- power signal acquisition front-end with analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) for ECG, a low-power digital signal processor (DSP) and a low-energy radio frequency (RF) transceiver. These features, for the first time, coexist on a single die. Energy efficient signal processing algorithms targeting ECG, and expandable to other bio-signals, are embedded and run on the on-chip DSP. The final IcyHeart product will consist of a tiny PCB embarking IcyHeart SoC and all the necessary discrete components and powering circuit. The outcome of the project is expected to generate high market value for the European SMEs developing novel cardio monitoring products in home and professional environments, and to create high societal impact for several categories of European citizens requiring miniature, comfortable and easy-to-use wireless tele-healthcare solutions

Smart Water Management for Irrigation Purposes: The SWSOIP Pproject

It seems that the future scenarios for water resources management are characterized by increasing demand and by the short-term unsustainability of many reservoirs in the Mediterranean basin. To address these scenarios, improved management of water resources was needed for water economy, and water recycling policies. Furthermore, agriculture characterized as the largest water user worldwide and the monitoring of the agriculture via remote sensing techniques is an enormous subject where it used for special scientific applications such as irrigation, precision farming, yield prediction, estimation of evapotranspiration etc. The main objective of this paper is to present the current situation of water resources in the Mediterranean region and present the methodology and main objectives of the SWSOIP project which aims to develop a smart watering system for the irrigation process based on the estimation of evapotranspiration using both in-situ data (spectroradiometric, LAI, CH and meteorological) and Sentinel satellite data

MuLVAT: a video annotation tool based on XML-dictionaries and shot clustering

Recent advances in digital video technology have resulted in an explosion of digital video data which are available through the Web or in private repositories. Efficient searching in these repositories created the need of semantic labeling of video data at various levels of granularity, i.e., movie, scene, shot, keyframe, video object, etc. Through multilevel labeling video content is appropriately indexed, allowing access from various modalities and for a variety of applications. However, despite the huge efforts for automatic video annotation human intervention is the only way for reliable semantic video annotation. Manual video annotation is an extremely laborious process and efficient tools developed for this purpose can make, in many cases, the true difference. In this paper we present a video annotation tool, which uses structured knowledge, in the form of XML dictionaries, combined with a hierarchical classification scheme to attach semantic labels to video segments at various level of granularity. Video segmentation is supported through the use of an efficient shot detection algorithm; while shots are combined into scenes through clustering with the aid of a Genetic Algorithm scheme. Finally, XML dictionary creation and editing tools are available during annotation allowing the user to always use the semantic label she/he wishes instead of the automatically created one

SmartEN - A research framework on Smart Management for Sustainable Human Environment

This paper presents a research framework which focuses on developing innovative technologies in the area of Smart Management for Sustainable Human Environment through the SmartEN Marie Curie ITN Network. Until now, research was mainly focused on the development of proactive risk-based approaches for civil infrastructure reliability and management with benefits in improved performance, safety and cost. Recently, a new generation of miniature wireless sensor platforms which utilize novel digital signal processing has emerged which can be exploited to reduce significantly uncertainties associated with the various predictive models directly affecting the quality of the decision making. These developments open up a completely novel area of multidisciplinary research towards the 'smart' management for a sustainable environment. SmartEN aims to push innovation in this area through the development of an ITN network focusing on the development and effective integration of emerging technologies targeting key application areas of current interest to Europe and internationally

POLYBIO: Multimodal Biometric Data Acquisition Platform and Security System

BIOID 2008,2008,Roskilde,Denmark)Biometrics is the automated method of recognizing a person based on a physiological or behavioural characteristic. Biometric technologies are becoming the foundation of an extensive array of highly secure identification and personal verification solutions. In the last few years there is increasing evidence that technologies based on multimodal biometrics can provide better identification results if proper fusion schemes are accommodated. In this work, we present a novel platform for multimodal biometric acquisition which combines voice, video, fingerprint and palm photo acquisition through an integrated device, and the preliminary fusion experiments on combining the acquired biometrics modalities. The results are encouraging and show clear improvement both in terms of False Acceptance Rate and False Rejection Rates compared to the corresponding single modality approaches. In the current report, fusion was accommodated at the output of the single modalities; however, fusion experimentation is ongoing and further fusion methodologies are under investigation

Wireless sensor technology for continuous health monitoring of structures

This paper gives an overview of continuous monitoring and local positioning principles for health monitoring of structures using wireless sensor networks, including recent results of the research project WiseSPOT (Novel wireless sensor nodes with smart antennas for localization of faults in structures). A novel approach for the development of a new generation of miniature low-powered wireless sensor nodes that will utilize advanced smart antenna technology for continuous monitoring, localization and tracking of events in is presented. Furthermore, the results of a first demonstrator of an optimized directional antenna add-on board are presented

The History Of Commandaria: Digital Journeys Back To Time

This paper is published in the 14th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia VSMM, 2008 Limassol Cyprus, October 20th-25th, 2008.Commandaria is considered one of the oldest types of wines and it has been ranked as one of the best wines of the last millennium. Production of Commandaria in Cyprus is associated with historical and political events that took place at the island, especially during the last millennium, hence studies related to Commandaria are heavily related to the culture and history of Cyprus. Unfortunately up to now the issue of preserving the history and traditions related to the production of Commandaria over the years did not receive adequate attention and as result the danger of losing important aspects of the relevant Cypriot cultural heritage is obvious. With our work we aim to develop an interactive system through which the history of the production of Commandaria at different areas in Cyprus and different time periods will be presented along with historical events that took place in the island and can be related with Commandaria production. As part of the project we will establish a multimedia digital library that will contain items related to the history and production of Commandaria in Cyprus. All multimedia database entries will be sorted according to various criteria, including the chronological period, the geographical location they refer to and the actual contents of the item, and could be searched via semantic-based queries with the aid of an ontology. In addition, an interactive application will be created where users will have the opportunity to explore the history of Commandaria in Cyprus at different geographical locations and different time periods. The final system will operate both as a web application and as a stand alone application in information kiosks. The system we plan to develop will be most useful for preserving traditions related to the production of Commandaria and support efforts of researchers who wish to explore the history of Commandaria and Cypriot culture as well as the great public for educational and entertainment purposes

SmartEN: A marie curie research framework for wireless sensor networks in smart management of the human environment

Even though there is significant research work performed in the fields of wireless sensor networks, civil infrastructure reliability and management, most of the work is fragmented and there is no significant activity in performing multidisciplinary structured research for developing integrated smart and dynamic systems for effective management of the built and natural environment. The aim of SmartEN is to push innovation through the development of a research training network that will focus on the development and effective integration of emerging technologies targeting key application areas of current interest to Europe and the world. Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering 2010

Wireless sensor technology for continuous health monitoring of structures

This paper gives an overview of continuous monitoring and local positioning principles for health monitoring of structures using wireless sensor networks, including recent results of the research project WiseSPOT (Novel wireless sensor nodes with smart antennas for localization of faults in structures). A novel approach for the development of a new generation of miniature low-powered wireless sensor nodes that will utilize advanced smart antenna technology for continuous monitoring, localization and tracking of events in is presented. Furthermore, the results of a first demonstrator of an optimized directional antenna add-on board are presented