Wearable Biomedical Devices Research Articles

An energy harvester from human vibrational kinetic energy for wearable biomedical devices

An electromagnetic kinetic energy harvester has been a topic of considerable interest over recent decades because it is suitable for harvesting human’s kinetic energy at low frequency with the high power density. A small, wearable and portable electromagnetic energy harvester was developed and aimed at applications such as extending the operating period of bio-medical devices through constant charging of batteries. The proposed harvester consists of a snake-shape polydimethylsiloxane cantilever, a coil and anNdFeB magnet enclosed in a polymer casing. Its resonant frequency is ~6.6 Hz and the peak-to-peak output voltage is ~10 mV when tested on a shaker with an acceleration of 0.3 g. When tested at 1.5 g to mimic the acceleration when a person walks, the peak-to-peak output voltage is ~40 mVpp. An unconventional method of voltage rectification has been demonstrated using the combination of a miniature transformer and capacitors to produce unipolar pulses that can be used to trickle charge a battery. Although still not a perfect rectification, nevertheless this method has the potential to replace a diode in the standard rectifier.

Innovative ICT solutions to improve treatment outcomes for depression: the ICT4Depression project.

Depression is expected to be the disorder with the highest disease burden in high-income countries by the year 2030. ICT4Depression (ICT4D) is a European FP7 project, which aims to contribute to the alleviation of this burden by making use of depression treatment and ICT innovations. In this project we developed an ICT-based system for use in primary care that aims to improve access as well as actual care delivery for depressed adults. Innovative technologies within the ICT4D system include 1) flexible self-help treatments for depression, 2) automatic assessment of the patient using mobile phone and web-based communication 3) wearable biomedical sensor devices for monitoring activities and electrophysiological indicators, 4) computational methods for reasoning about the state of a patient and the risk of relapse (reasoning engine) and 5) a flexible system architecture for monitoring and supporting people using continuous observations and feedback via mobile phone and the web. The general objective of the ICT4D project is to test the feasibility and acceptability of the ICT4D system within a pilot study in the Netherlands and in Sweden during 2012 and 2013.

UHaS: Ubiquitous Health-assistant System based on Wearable Biomedical Devices

New attractive trends for personal healthcare are caring himself/herself in the daily life without complicated manipulation. To go with the trends, a wearable device, which to be processed in the behind, is desirable and preferred. Therefore, we propose a ubiquitous health-assistant system (UHaS) based on wearable biomedical device as an intermediate route for healthcare to the daily life support. In this paper, we present implementation of four types of wearable device and binding middleware supporting dynamic plug-and-play of devices and applications. The main motivation for this work is trying to create and propagate a working environment of health-assistant system to the daily life by means of convenient devices and a collaborated software platform.

Effects of twisting and bending on the performance of a miniaturized truncated sinusoidal printed circuit antenna for wearable biomedical telemetry devices

In this paper, we present a miniaturized Truncated Sinusoidal Printed Circuit Antenna (TSPCA) consisting of a thin conductive film of copper mounted on a flexible substrate for wearable biomedical telemetry and smart clothes applications on the premises of health care and sport medicine facilities. The fundamental resonant mode of the proposed TSPCA is 611 MHz. The flat antenna operates over the frequency range from 608 to 614 MHz (−10 dB return-loss bandwidth of 1.7%) with a bore-sight gain of −29 dBi when operating in a free-space environment. The antenna size has been miniaturized to a 10 mm × 10 mm × 0.5 mm using a shorting plate on a substrate with a relative permittivity of 6.15 and loss tangent of 0.00134. The effects of twisting and bending on the performance of the TSPCA are investigated. It has been found that the maximum change in bore-sight gain, resonant frequency, and S 11, with respect to the flat case, is −8.5 dBi, 0.2%, and −4 dB, respectively, with respect to the flat case for bend angles ranging from −45° to 45°. Twisting of the antenna, on the other hand, in the range from −45° to 45° showed a maximum change of −16 dBi, 1%, and −17 dB in the bore-sight gain, resonant frequency, and S 11, respectively. The bandwidth remains virtually unaffected for both cases. The performance of the TSPCA is investigated when the antenna is mounted parallel to and at a distance of 0.5 mm from the arm, leg, thigh, and head. It has been found that maximum change in bore-sight gain, resonant frequency, and S 11 is −3.5 dBi, 2.5%, and −6.5 dB, respectively with respect to the isolated antenna.

Instrumented wearable belt for wireless health monitoring

The ability to monitor the health status of elderly patients or patients undergoing therapy at home enables significant advantages in terms of both cost and comfort of the subject. However, such non-clinical applications of biomedical signal monitoring require various improvements not only in terms of size and comfort of the acquisition systems, but also in terms of their power dissipation. The research activity is concerned with the development of a novel wearable biomedical signal sensor device for monitoring health conditions at home. The wearable monitoring system consists of two subsystems: firstly, a wearable data acquisition hardware, where the sensors for acquiring the biomedical parameters are integrated, and secondly, a remote monitoring station placed separately and connected to internet for telemedicine applications. The physiological parameters that are monitored with the proposed instrumented wearable belt are electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate (HR) derived from ECG signals by determining the R–R intervals, body temperature, respiratory rate, and three axis movement (acceleration and position) of the subject measured using an accelerometer. In order to design and construct the signal acquisition circuits efficiently and simply, modular design concept is adopted in this research. Three basic high quality and flexible modules for signal conditioning are designed and assembled together for satisfying each sensor. Human biomedical parameters can be registered and analyzed continuously during home work activities. Proper evaluation of those parameters would let immediately know about sudden health state changes, accidental injury or another menacing danger befalling patients at home.