19 research outputs found
Beacon-based opportunistic scheduling in wireless body area network
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are one of the key technologies that support the development of digital health care, which has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Compared with general Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), WBANs have more stringent requirements on reliability and energy efficiency. Though WBANs are applied within limited transmission range, the on-body channel condition can be very challenging because of blocking or absorbing of signal. In this paper, we are looking into the design of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols and propose an opportunistic scheduling scheme by applying heuristic scheduling and dynamic superframe length adjustment to improve the system performance. The simulations have been supplemented to show the advantages of the proposed solutions in outage rate performance, compared with existing solutions
Topology design and cross-layer optimization for wireless body sensor networks
Wireless Body Sensor Networks play a crucial role in digital health care nowadays. Due to the size limitation on the sensor nodes and the life critical characteristics of the signals, there are stringent requirements on network’s reliability and energy efficiency. In this article, we propose a mathematical optimization problem that jointly considers network topology design and cross-layer optimization in WBSNs. We introduce multilevel primal and dual decomposition methods and manage to solve the proposed non-convex mixed-integer optimization problem. A solution with fast convergence rate based on binary search is provided. Simulation results have been supplemented to show that our proposed method yields much better performance than existing solutions
Intelligent Knee Sleeves: A Real-time Multimodal Dataset for 3D Lower Body Motion Estimation Using Smart Textile
The kinematics of human movements and locomotion are closely linked to the
activation and contractions of muscles. To investigate this, we present a
multimodal dataset with benchmarks collected using a novel pair of Intelligent
Knee Sleeves (Texavie MarsWear Knee Sleeves) for human pose estimation. Our
system utilizes synchronized datasets that comprise time-series data from the
Knee Sleeves and the corresponding ground truth labels from the visualized
motion capture camera system. We employ these to generate 3D human models
solely based on the wearable data of individuals performing different
activities. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this camera-free system and
machine learning algorithms in the assessment of various movements and
exercises, including extension to unseen exercises and individuals. The results
show an average error of 7.21 degrees across all eight lower body joints when
compared to the ground truth, indicating the effectiveness and reliability of
the Knee Sleeve system for the prediction of different lower body joints beyond
the knees. The results enable human pose estimation in a seamless manner
without being limited by visual occlusion or the field of view of cameras. Our
results show the potential of multimodal wearable sensing in a variety of
applications from home fitness to sports, healthcare, and physical
rehabilitation focusing on pose and movement estimation.Comment: Accepted by Thirty-seventh Conference on Neural Information
Processing Systems (Neurips) D&B Trac
Novel Flexible Wearable Sensor Materials and Signal Processing for Vital Sign and Human Activity Monitoring
Advances in flexible electronic materials and smart textile, along with broad availability of smart phones, cloud and wireless systems have empowered the wearable technologies for significant impact on future of digital and personalized healthcare as well as consumer electronics. However, challenges related to lack of accuracy, reliability, high power consumption, rigid or bulky form factor and difficulty in interpretation of data have limited their wide-scale application in these potential areas. As an important solution to these challenges, we present latest advances in novel flexible electronic materials and sensors that enable comfortable and conformable body interaction and potential for invisible integration within daily apparel. Advances in novel flexible materials and sensors are described for wearable monitoring of human vital signs including, body temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate, muscle movements and activity. We then present advances in signal processing focusing on motion and noise artifact removal, data mining and aspects of sensor fusion relevant to future clinical applications of wearable technology.Applied Science, Faculty ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, Department ofMaterials Engineering, Department ofReviewedFacult
Effects of interlayer properties on the performance of tandem organic solar cells with low and high band gap polymers
Breathable Dry Silver/Silver Chloride Electronic Textile Electrodes for Electrodermal Activity Monitoring
The focus of this study is to design and integrate silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl) electronic textile (e-textile) electrodes into different textile substrates to evaluate their ability to monitor electrodermal activity (EDA). Ag/AgCl e-textiles were stitched into woven textiles of cotton, nylon, and polyester to function as EDA monitoring electrodes. EDA stimulus responses detected by dry e-textile electrodes at various locations on the hand were compared to the EDA signals collected by dry solid Ag/AgCl electrodes. 4-h EDA data with e-textile and clinically conventional rigid electrodes were compared in relation to skin surface temperature. The woven cotton textile substrate with e-textile electrodes (0.12 cm² surface area, 0.40 cm distance) was the optimal material to detect the EDA stimulus responses with the highest average Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.913 ± 0.041 when placed on the distal phalanx of the middle finger. In addition, differences with EDA waveforms recorded on various fingers were observed. Trends of long-term measurements showed that skin surface temperature affected EDA signals recorded by non-breathable electrodes more than when e-textile electrodes were used. The effective design criteria outlined for e-textile electrodes can promote the development of comfortable and unobtrusive EDA monitoring systems, which can help improve our knowledge of the human neurological system.Applied Science, Faculty ofElectrical and Computer Engineering, Department ofMaterials Engineering, Department ofReviewedFacult
Screen-Printed Textile-Based Electrochemical Biosensor for Noninvasive Monitoring of Glucose in Sweat
Wearable sweat biosensors for noninvasive monitoring of health parameters have attracted significant attention. Having these biosensors embedded in textile substrates can provide a convenient experience due to their soft and flexible nature that conforms to the skin, creating good contact for long-term use. These biosensors can be easily integrated with everyday clothing by using textile fabrication processes to enhance affordable and scalable manufacturing. Herein, a flexible electrochemical glucose sensor that can be screen-printed onto a textile substrate has been demonstrated. The screen-printed textile-based glucose biosensor achieved a linear response in the range of 20–1000 µM of glucose concentration and high sensitivity (18.41 µA mM−1 cm−2, R2 = 0.996). In addition, the biosensors show high selectivity toward glucose among other interfering analytes and excellent stability over 30 days of storage. The developed textile-based biosensor can serve as a platform for monitoring bio analytes in sweat, and it is expected to impact the next generation of wearable devices.Applied Science, Faculty ofNon UBCElectrical and Computer Engineering, Department ofMaterials Engineering, Department ofReviewedFacultyResearche
Roll-to-roll fabrication of silver/silver chloride coated yarns for dry electrodes and applications in biosignal monitoring
Abstract This work presents a continuous roll-to-roll electrochemical coating system for producing silver/silver chloride (Ag/AgCl)-coated yarns, and their application in e-textile electrodes for biosignal monitoring. Ag/AgCl is one of the most preferred electrode materials as an interface between the conductive backbone of an electrode and skin. E-textile Ag/AgCl-coated multi-filament nylon yarns offer stable, flexible, and breathable alternatives to standard rigid or flexible film-based Ag/AgCl electrodes. The developed system allows for highly controlled process parameters to achieve stable and uniform AgCl film deposition on Ag-coated nylon yarns. The electrical, electrochemical properties, and morphology of the coated yarns were characterized. Dry electrodes were fabricated and could measure electrocardiogram (ECG) signals with comparable performance to standard gel electrodes. Ag/AgCl e-textile electrodes demonstrated high stability, with low average polarization potential (1.22 mV/min) compared with Ag-coated electrodes (3.79 mV/min), low impedance (below 2 MΩ, 0.1–150 Hz), and are excellent candidates for heart rate detection and monitoring