Bluetooth Devices Research Articles

Flexible organic TFT bio-signal amplifier using reliable chip component assembly process with conductive adhesive.

This paper presents a flexible organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) amplifier for bio-signal monitoring and presents the chip component assembly process. Using a conductive adhesive and a chip mounter, the chip components are mounted on a flexible film substrate, which has OTFT circuits. This study first investigates the assembly technique reliability for chip components on the flexible substrate. This study also specifically examines heart pulse wave monitoring conducted using the proposed flexible amplifier circuit and a flexible piezoelectric film. We connected the amplifier to a bluetooth device for a wearable device demonstration.

Implementation of Railway Track Crack Detection and Protection

In this world people uses various types of transportation system to travel from one place to another place. Mostly they give importance to public transportation for safer journey. At the same time the transport departments check out the safety measures implemented in them. The proposed system is suitable for railways transportation to identify the cracks in the railway tracks earlier and prevent the accidents. In this paper to use crack detection sensor, this will be placed in the train engine. By this, if some crack is detected on the track the train starts to slow and stop at respective point automatically and exact place of crack would be given to control room. Secondly the next cause of accidents is prevented from two trains opposite in same track by using the same sensors fitted in the engine, if the sensor senses the same signal from opposite train then it automatically applies the brake and stops the train at certain distance. The derailment causes several loses in railway accidents. The proposed system introduces Bluetooth based technology, to prevent the trains accident. The Bluetooth device is installed at each front end of the locomotive. If the train starts to derail, automatically signal is breaked and an alert is given to engine driver and on the other emergency brake is applied automatically. The main aim of the work is to avoid the train accidents without manual power.

An RFID Based Smartphone Proximity Absence Alert System

We present the design, implementation, and evaluation of an RFID-based cellphone anti-lost and anti-theft measure. The cellphone owner is given an audio-visual alert at the very instant of the lost event, and the cellphone deduces the fact that it is away from its owner and executes the safety measures. This is realized by equipping the cellphone with a low-power RFID Reader and tagging the owner with a passive RFID token to determine a private space around him, which spans within 2-10 feet. We prototype an RFID Reader from discrete components under $60 which can transmit 30 dBm with $-$ 78 dBm sensitivity, and can also serve as an educational tool for academic learning. Our system works on automatic, timed, or accelerometer based thresholds. We interface our system with Samsung Galaxy Note2 and develop an Android User Interface. We carry out extensive indoor and outdoor experiments under static and dynamic scenarios to ascertain the Frontal and Angular ranges, energy and power consumption, and memory and computational overheads. Our salient contribution is a twofold probing scheme—a duty cycle approach that economizes battery overhead, mitigates false alarms and scans the tag for multiple times by leveraging the interrogation time and power. We argue that though our design is costly in power budget, it is highly economical on battery energy because of short interrogation cycles. We show that for 17 tag interrogations from 20-24 dBm, our scheme consumes 72.1 to 52.4 percent lower energy than a single Bluetooth device scan. For a fully embedded design, we propose System-on-Chip RFID solutions. We foresee our endeavor as a viable proximity absence detection scheme for short range applications and scenarios.

A novel smart navigation system for intramedullary nailing in orthopedic surgery.

This paper proposes a novel smart surgical navigation system for intramedullary nailing in orthopedic surgery. Using a handle-integrated laser guidance module, the system can target a drill insertion point onto skin, indicating an accurate target position to perpendicularly access an invisible distal hole. The proposed handle-integration-based fixation of the laser guidance module precisely defines the relative position of the module with respect to the distal hole. Consequently, unlike conventional systems, the proposed system can indicate the target insertion point without any help from bulky and costly external position-tracking equipment that is usually required for compensating disturbances generated by external impacts. After insertion, a correct drilling direction toward the distal hole is guided by real-time drilling angle measurement modules–one integrated with the nail handle and the other with the drill body. Each module contains a 9-axis inertial sensor and a Bluetooth communication device. These two modules work together to provide real-time drilling angle data, allowing calculation of the directional error toward the center of the distal hole in real time. The proposed system removes the need for fluoroscopy and provides a compact and cost-effective solution compared with conventional systems.

Security threats in Bluetooth technology

Bluetooth allows connecting mobile devices in short range in order to transfer files/videos. It is now a popular means of short range wireless communication. Although Bluetooth is acceptably reliable, there are still some weaknesses in this protocol. Bluetooth is vulnerable to several threats. Since these threats are seldom reported, people are not much aware of them. Existing surveys on Bluetooth security outline only a few threats without much illustration and categorization. In this paper, we have performed a comprehensive survey to identify major security threats in Bluetooth communication and presented them with illustrations. Although Bluetooth device manufacturers are doing their part to keep the technology secure, the users should also be aware of these security threats and take a minimum level of precaution. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive survey of existing threats in Bluetooth technology and suggest probable solutions.

Bluetooth スキャナの指向性と設置位置を考慮した MAC アドレスの検知確率推定モデル

Bluetooth スキャナの指向性と設置位置を考慮した MAC アドレスの検知確率推定モデル

Application of TMS320VC5509A in Bluetooth Transmission

Bluetooth technology is the global wireless standard enabling the Internet of Things (IoT), it was created as an open standard to allow connectivity and collaboration between disparate products and industries. In recent years, many applications of Bluetooth devices have brought great convenience to the users of electronic devices. In this article, first, the Bluetooth protocol is used to connect Bluetooth transmission kit ICETEKBLE, TMS320VC5509A and the mobile phone. Next, completed the software design By using CCS compiling environment and assembly language. Then, control light on development board by Bluetooth of mobile phone. Finally, through this research to explore the application of TMS320VC5509A in the Bluetooth transmission.

Performance Measurement of a Bluetooth-based Floating Car Observer

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) developed a traffic monitoring approach, called DYNAMIC, which combines the advantages of Floating Car Data (FCD) and Floating Observer Data (FOD) principles. DYNAMIC is based on detections which are made by floating traffic observers using wireless radio-based technologies such as Bluetooth while passing other traffic objects (vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians). For the evaluation of the performance of DYNAMIC it is crucial to know how likely it is that a detectable traffic object (i.e. with Bluetooth device on board) within the detection range will be monitored. The major point to answer this question is the inquiry process which sets up the connection between Bluetooth devices and which can take up to several seconds. Given the possibly high speed of the vehicles and the relatively small detection range this poses a major problem to this detection mechanism. Within the paper an analytical model of the time it takes an observer to discover traffic objects nearby is introduced. Therefore, the device discovery process will be described as an exponential distribution, that is, the number of detections based on Bluetooth is a sequence of independent respectively seen or not seen trials each of which occurs with a certain probability. This follows from the assumption that the number of vehicles equipped with Bluetooth devices and the number of observer vehicles within the network is small, so that the chances to encounter are statistically independent events. To evaluate the analytical model, simulations as well as laboratory and field experiments with Bluetooth receivers and senders were conducted to measure detection rates as a function of inquiry times. On that base the performance is analysed using measures as the penetration rate, the encounter rate as well as the detection and redetection rate. By introducing a theoretical model, it is possible to describe the detection process as an exponential distribution and to determine its specific properties such as the encounter rate of Bluetooth-FCO and detectable traffic objects. The results of the field measurement indicate a good accordance to the simulation model results. Still the functions look different enough to require some further adaptions of the parameters. Since broader field test (e.g. with a higher amount of observing vehicles) are difficult to conduct due to economic reasons, the simulation offers a wide range of possible further research studies.

Performance Evaluation of the Data Transfer Modes in Bluetooth 5

The Bluetooth 5 specification, which introduces new core features such as advertising extensions, additional physical layer transmission modes, and an enhanced frequency hopping scheme, was released in December 2016. As a first step to a complete technology evaluation for Bluetooth 5, this manuscript assesses the performance of the advertising extension feature, compared to the connection-oriented and advertising data transfer approaches available in previous Bluetooth releases. Service ratio, communication delays, and battery lifetime of a network of Bluetooth devices are evaluated by means of computer simulations, considering a home automation use case with a realistic deployment and varying traffic loads. The results show that advertising extension guarantees good performance in terms of all considered indicators, although it suffers from higher losses compared to connections for low traffic loads, and longer delays compared to legacy advertising. Such tradeoffs can be exploited for standardization of future Bluetooth specifications.

An Analysis of the Detection Probability of MAC Address from a Moving Bluetooth Device

Abstract: Traffic monitoring using Bluetooth MAC addresses has been intensively studied for a decade. Nevertheless, estimation of Origin-Destination volume is still challenging, because of the unstable nature of the detection. With the aim to reveal the factors affecting the detection probability of MAC addresses from moving Bluetooth device, this study conducted a series of driving tests to collect detection samples under various scenarios. The data was then utilised to develop a Logistic Regression Model to estimate detection probability considering the installation positions of the scanner and the driving speed of the experiment car. The results agreed on the contribution of distance and angle between the scanner and the car, as well as the car speed, as reported in preceding studies. This study further identified the contribution of driving direction, and height and timeout duration of the scanner. The proposed model successfully estimated the detection probability with reasonable accuracy.

Accuracy of BLE systems in the H&S improvement aspects in construction

Abstract Health and safety is one of the most important issue when it comes to the construction industry. At all stages of construction workers are at risk of accidents and serious injury. There are many solutions that tries to address the problems of H&S on the construction sites with different level of their complexity. One of the technology that can be successfully used to improve this part is BLE beacons technology. This technology has been improved recently and provides variety of convenience services. Authors of this work decided to examine Bluetooth devices and performed range test on the devices received from one of the European Beacon producers. Beacons are based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) which is a medium ranged transmission standard aiming for cheaper devices with longer lasting batteries. The main purpose of this article is to present the result of the tests performed in the open area for the purpose of future precise use at the construction site in improving general level of H&S and propose recommendations for further use of BLE devices in construction industry.

A Design and Implementation of Control Application for Arduino Prime Smart Car

In this paper, we design and implement an Application based on android platform, which can control arduino Prime Smart Car using Bluetooth communication. This Application consist of Bluetooth communication module, manual mode module, and line-tracer mode module. In the Bluetooth communication module, it checks the on/off status of Smartphone Bluetooth. If Bluetooth status is off, it activates Bluetooth, selects the corresponding device from Bluetooth device list, and connects with a pair. In order to reduce coding time, we implements Bluetooth communication using inherited class from android Bluetooth package. In the manual mode module, it implements six direction moving button and stop button, which can control arduino Prime Smart Car. In the line-tracer mode module, it implements Prime Smart Car with self-driving function using TCRT5000 sensor. And moving button and stop button is disabled.

Minimizing Heatstroke Incidents for Young Children Left inside Vehicle

The number of children dying because of heatstroke after being left in the car is worrying. From 1998, there are about 618 children have died in the United State of America (USA) because of heatstroke. It was the leading cause of fatalities in non-crash incident in USA. The same situation also arises in other countries. Life stress is being identified as among the factor that lead to this incident. In this paper, we proposed the used of Android Apps with an Estimote Beacon, a bluetooth device, to warn parents or guardians about their children being left in the car. An alarm will be raised after the parent leaves their children at prespecified range to avoid any risk of heatstroke from occurring.

Fundamental characteristics of Wi‑Fi and wireless local area network re‐identification for transportation

Many transportation agencies use re-identification technologies to identify vehicles at multiple points along the roadway as a way to measure travel times and congestion. Examples of these technologies include license plate readers, toll tag transponders, and media access control (MAC) address scanners for Bluetooth devices. Recent advancements have allowed for the detection of unique MAC addresses from Wi‑Fi and wireless local area network enabled devices. This study represents one of the first attempts to measure the fundamental characteristics of Wi‑Fi re-identification technology as it applies to transportation data collection. Wi‑Fi sampling rates, re-identification rates, range, transmission success rates, and probability of discovery of sensors and mobile devices were measured, and a model of probability of detection is presented. Field tests found that mobile phones routinely experienced significant time gaps between Wi‑Fi transmissions. The study recommends that Wi‑Fi sensors be deployed at low-volume, low-speed roadways, with sensors positioned near intersections where vehicles are likely to slow or stop. Due to Wi‑Fi's relatively low probability of discovery, the technology may produce poor results in applications that require re-identifying vehicles over multiple consecutive sensors.

Evaluating distracted driving behaviors in parents of children in suburban and rural areas of Alabama

Distracting driving is considered a dangerous epidemic in teenage drivers and adult drivers nationwide. Cell phone use, such as talking and texting is one of the most common driving distractions among adult and teenage drivers. Using the model of a previously published study from New Haven, Connecticut, we sought to investigate the driving behaviors of parents while transporting their children in Alabama. A comparison study was conducted of 150 participants from suburban (n = 86) and rural (n = 64) clinics in Alabama. Participants were recruited to complete a survey regarding their cell phone usage while driving with children. The inclusion criteria were having children younger than 18 years, a valid driver's license, and cell phone and English speaking. The survey consisted of 10 questions focusing on parental driving behaviors. Following the survey, an educational intervention was provided. A Z test proportions was used to compare the responses. Ninety percent of the suburban parents reported cell phone use while driving their children as compared with 86% of the rural parents. A significant difference was found between suburban parents and rural parents for cell phone use in speaker mode (Z = 3.35; p < 0.001; 95% confidence interval, 13-45), reading and sending texts while driving (Z = 4.1; p < 0.001; 95% CI, 19-51), and surfing the Internet (Z = 4.9; p < 0.001; 95% CI, 25-57). There was no statistical significance noted for the following: use of Bluetooth device, talking on the cell phone when parked/at red light, and texting while parked/at red light. Cell phone use among parents while transporting children is common in the state of Alabama. Parents living in suburban areas use cell phones in the speaker mode, read and send text messages, and surf the Web more often when compared with parents in rural areas. Further research on how to best implement injury prevention interventions should be done to target high-risk areas with distracted driving behaviors. Epidemiologic study, level III.

Piconet construction and restructuring mechanisms for interference avoiding in bluetooth PANs

Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) are two of the most popular communication standards that define physical and MAC layers for wireless transmissions and operate on 2.4GHz industrial scientific medical (ISM) band. To avoid the rich interference existed in ISM band, Bluetooth adopts a time-slotted frequency-hopping spread-spectrum scheme, preventing the Bluetooth device communication from being interfered for a long time on specific channel. However, the coexistence of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in the neighborhood degrades the performance of both networks because the two wireless technologies cannot negotiate with each other. To improve the throughput of a given piconet, this paper presents two interference aware approaches. First, an interference aware piconet establishment mechanism, called IAPE, is proposed to consider the frequencies occupied by Wi-Fi and then minimize the interference from Wi-Fi transmissions, when Bluetooth and Wi-Fi coexist in the same space. To further improve the throughput of the constructed piconet, an interference aware piconet restructuring mechanism, called IAPR, is proposed. Performance study reveals that the proposed IAPE and IAPR approaches further reduce the interference between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and thereby save the energy of Bluetooth device, improving the throughput of Bluetooth personal area networks (PANs).

An Efficient Route Maintenance Protocol for Dynamic Bluetooth Networks

Bluetooth is a widespread technology for small wireless networks that permits Bluetooth devices to construct a multi-hop network called scatternet. Routing in multi-hop dynamic Bluetooth network, where a number of masters and bridges exist creates technical hitches. It is observed that frequent link disconnections and a new route construction consume extra system resources that degrade the whole network performance. Therefore, in this paper an Efficient Route Maintenance Protocol for Dynamic Bluetooth Networks (ERMP) is proposed that repairs the weak routing paths based on the prediction of weak links and weak devices. The ERMP predicts the weak links through the signal strength and weak devices through low energy levels. During the main route construction, routing masters and bridges keep the information of the Fall Back Devices (FBDs) for route maintenance. On the prediction of a weak link, the ERMP activates an alternate link, on the other hand, for a weak device it activates the FBD. The proposed ERMP is compared with some existing closely related protocols, and the simulation results show that the proposed ERMP successfully recovers the weak paths and improves the system performance.

Features and usability assessment of a patient-centered mobile application (HeartMapp) for self-management of heart failure

BackgroundMobile health technologies have emerged as a way to actively engage patients in their healthcare decision-making process. One who is well informed and motivated is thought to engage in self-management activities. Thus, the conceptual framework included “information, motivation, and behavioral change” model, with patient engagement as a mediator in the development and assessment of a mobile health application “HeartMapp” for chronic heart failure (CHF) self-management. PurposeTo describe the development and features of the HeartMapp and preliminary assessment of the usability of HeartMapp. MethodA descriptive survey design was employed. A total of 37 participants (25 patients with CHF and 12 health care workers) navigated the HeartMapp and completed self-confidence and usability questionnaires. ResultsMore than half of the patients used mobile phones to obtain health information. Patients reported moderate self-confidence (mean 26.60±12.18) in using HeartMapp. One in five patients reported a lack of confidence in using the chest-worn Bluetooth device. The observational data indicated that all patients completed the task of navigating the HeartMapp with little or no help. The health care members (n=12) demonstrated high confidence in recommending HeartMapp to patients (mean 4.58±0.67) and in utilizing data from HeartMapp for clinical decision making (mean 4.50±0.67). The self-confidence and usability questionnaires showed good reliability in this sample. ConclusionHaving access to CHF symptom monitoring and education readily available in a mobile app may motivate individuals to engage in the prescribed self-management skills to ultimately attain desired outcomes, which warrants further exploration.

Objective and perceptual comparisons of two bluetooth hearing aid assistive devices

Purpose: With the advent of Bluetooth technology, many of the assistive listening devices for hearing have become manufacturer specific, with little objective information about the performance provided.Method: Thirty native English-speaking adults (mean age 29.8) with normal hearing were tested pseudo-randomly with two major hearing aid manufacturers’ proprietary Bluetooth connectivity devices paired to the accompanying manufacturer’s specific hearing aids. Sentence recognition performance was objectively measured for each system with signals transmitted via a land-line to the same iPhone in two conditions.Results: There was a significant effect of participant’s performance according to listening condition. There was no significant effect between device manufacturers according to listening condition, but there was a significant effect in participant’s perception of “quality of sound”.Conclusions: Despite differences in signal transmission for each devise, when worn by participants both the systems performed equally. In fact, participants expressed personal preferences for specific technology that was largely due to their perceived quality of sound while listening to recorded signals. While further research is necessary to investigate other measures of benefit for Bluetooth connectivity devices, preliminary data suggest that in order to ensure comfort and compatibility, not only should objective measures of the patient benefit be completed, but also assessing the patient’s perception of benefit is equally important.Implications for RehabilitationAll professionals who work with individuals with hearing loss, become aware of the differences in the multiple choices for assistive technology readily available for hearing loss.With the ever growing dispensing of Bluetooth connectivity devices coupled to hearing aids, there is an increased burden to determine whether performance differences could exist between manufacturers.There is a growing need to investigate other measures of benefit for Bluetooth hearing aid connectivity devices that not only include objective measures, but also patient perception of benefit.

FPGA Implementation by using XBee Transceiver

Objective: Generally there are numerous approaches to give security information that is being imparted. However, what if the security is assured irrespective of the hackers are from the noise. The Information Security is essential concern towards each communication system. Methods/Analysis: XBee is a PAN technology based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. Unlike Bluetooth or wireless USB devices, XBee devices have the ability to form a mesh network between nodes. Meshing is a type of daisy chaining from one device to another. Finding: This technique allows the short range of an individual node to be expanded and multiplied, covering a much larger area. This paper describes a design of desired security for data communication by designing standard algorithm for encryption and decryption. The process occur in this module was based on encryption and decryption. The source information is generated by a bit file and this will be encrypted and is sent to destination through XBee modules. The receiving system will check the data and decrypt according to a specific algorithm and displays on the LED. Applications/Improvement: The present algorithm is implemented in Verilog HD Land simulated using Xilinx ISE simulator tool. The design is implemented on Xilinx Spartan-3 EFPGA development board. This project has applications in encoding and decoding operations for security purposes.