Studying newborns in the first days of life prior to experiencing the world provides remarkable insights into the neurocognitive predispositions that humans are endowed with. First, it helps us to improve our current knowledge of the development of a typical brain. Secondly, it potentially opens new pathways for earlier diagnosis of several developmental neurocognitive disorders such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). While most studies investigating early cognition in the literature are purely behavioural, recently there has been an increasing number of neuroimaging studies in newborns and infants. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one of the most optimal neuroimaging technique to investigate neurocognitive functions in human newborns because it is non-invasive and quick and easy to mount on the head. Since EEG offers a versatile design with custom number of channels/electrodes, an ergonomic wearable solution could help study newborns outside clinical settings such as their homes. Compared to adult EEG, newborn EEG data are different in two main aspects: 1) In experimental designs investigating stimulus-related neural responses, collected data is extremely short in length due to the reduced attentional span of newborns; 2) Data is heavily contaminated with noise due to their uncontrollable movement artifacts. Since EEG processing methods for adults are not adapted to very short data length and usually deal with well-defined, stereotyped artifacts, they are unsuitable for newborn EEG. As a result, researchers manually clean the data, which is a subjective and time-consuming task. This thesis work is specifically dedicated to developing (semi-) automated novel signal processing methods for noise removal and for extracting reliable neural responses specific to this population. The solutions are proposed for both high-density EEG for traditional lab-based research and wearable EEG for clinical applications. To this end, this thesis, first, presents novel signal processing methods applied to newborn EEG: 1) Local Outlier Factor (LOF) for detecting and removing bad/noisy channels; 2) Artifacts Subspace Reconstruction (ASR) for detecting and removing or correcting bad/noisy segments. Then, based on these algorithms and other preprocessing functionalities, a robust preprocessing pipeline, Newborn EEG Artifact Removal (NEAR), is proposed. Notably, this is the first time LOF is explored for EEG bad channel detection, despite being a popular outlier detection technique in other kinds of data such as Electrocardiogram (ECG). Even if ASR is already an established artifact real algorithm originally developed for mobile adult EEG, this thesis explores the possibility of adapting ASR for short newborn EEG data, which is the first of its kind. NEAR is validated on simulated, real newborn, and infant EEG datasets. We used the SEREEGA toolbox to simulate neurologically plausible synthetic data and contaminated a certain number of channels and segments with artifacts commonly manifested in developmental EEG. We used newborn EEG data (n = 10, age range: 1 and 4 days) recorded in our lab based on a frequency-tagging paradigm. The chosen paradigm consists of visual stimuli to investigate the cortical bases of facelike pattern processing, and the results were published in 2019. To test NEAR performance on an older population with an event-related design (ERP) and with data recorded in another lab, we also evaluated NEAR on infant EEG data recorded on 9-months-old infants (n = 14) with an ERP paradigm. The experimental paradigm for these datasets consists of auditory stimulus to investigate the electrophysiological evidence for understanding maternal speech, and the results were published in 2012. Since authors of these independent studies employed manual artifact removal, the obtained neural responses serve as ground truth for validating NEAR’s artifact removal performance. For comparative evaluation, we considered the performance of two state-of-the-art pipelines designed for older infants. Results show that NEAR is successful in recovering the neural responses (specific to the EEG paradigm and the stimuli) compared to the other pipelines. In sum, this thesis presents a set of methods for artifact removal and extraction of stimulus-related neural responses specifically adapted to newborn and infant EEG data that will hopefully contribute to strengthening the reliability and reproducibility of developmental cognitive neuroscience studies, both in research laboratories and in clinical applications.

A growing number of factors, including the costs, technological advancements, an ageing population, and medical errors are leading industrialised countries to invest in research on alternative solutions to improving their health care systems and increasing patients’ life quality. Personal Health System (PHS) solutions envision the use of information and communication technologies that enable a paradigm shift from the traditional hospital-centred healthcare delivery model toward a preventive and person-centred approach. PHS offers the means to follow patient health using wearable, portable or implantable systems that offer ubiquitous, unobtrusive bio-data acquisition, allowing remote access to patient status and treatment monitoring. Electrical Bioimpedance (EBI) technology is a non-invasive, quick and relatively affordable technique that can be used for assessing and monitoring different health conditions, e.g., body composition assessments for nutrition. EBI technology combined with state-of-the-art advances in sensor and textile technology are fostering the implementation of wearable bioimpedance monitors that use functional garments for the implementation of personalised healthcare applications. This research studies the development of a portable EBI spectrometer that can use dry textile electrodes for the assessment of body composition for the purposes of clinical uses. The portable bioimpedance monitor has been developed using the latest advances in system-on-chip technology for bioimpedance spectroscopy instrumentation. The obtained portable spectrometer has been validated against commercial spectrometer that performs total body composition assessment using functional textrode garments. The development of a portable Bioimpedance spectrometer using functional garments and dry textile electrodes for body composition assessment has been shown to be a feasible option. The availability of such measurement systems bring closer the real implementation of personalised healthcare systems. / <p>QC 20130405</p>

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Well-being is associated with comfort and health, and it represents wellness and quality of life. Sleep quality is an important index when evaluating a person’s well-being. KTH Live-in-lab performs Human-building interaction studies to explore the growing potential of how built environments, measured by Schneider Electric (SE), can influence humans and their well-being in their everyday lives. This thesis works as an explorative study of using the OURA ring to evaluate sleep quality for tenants living in KTH LiL. Specifically, this project aims to assess the quality of the data collected from the ring and SE sensors by using Total Data Quality Management (TDQM) and propose a Multilayer perceptron (MLP) model for predicting sleep scores. Results first showed that the OURA ring is an appropriate tool for evaluating sleep quality. Its data passed 11 TDQM’s dimensions, including accuracy, objectivity, relevancy, interpretability and understandability. Second, the OURA was able to capture the relationship between sleep quality and building’s temperature and humidity through its sleep scores. Results showed that higher sleep scores situated more around the suggested ideal ranges of temperature and humidity. However, some low sleep scores were also situated around these ideal ranges which suggests that an additional study needs to be conducted. Such a study would take in tenants’ feedback in order to distinguish sleep scores heavily affected by psychological and/or other factors rather than built environments. Third, we were able to create an MLP model to predict sleep scores based on temperature and humidity values as well as user-related information, like activity rate and total burn. The model had validation and training losses converging at 1.90-2.50. Those low loss rates suggest that the building's temperature and humidity along with information about tenants from the ring can be used to improve the sleep scores. This model can be extended into a recommendation model where buildings’ operators and tenants can benefit from. Buildings’ operators would get information and recommendations on how to properly administer their buildings to achieve higher well-being for their tenants. Also, tenants would get recommendations on how to increase their sleep scores and, ultimately, their sleep qualities and well-being. / Välbefinnande är förknippat med komfort och hälsa, och det representerar livskvalitet. Sömnkvalitet är ett viktigt index när man utvärderar människors välbefinnande. KTH Live-in-lab utför interaktionsstudier mellan Människor-Byggnader interaktion för att utforska den växande potentialen för hur byggda miljöer, mätt av Schneider Electric (SE), kan påverka människor och deras välbefinnande i vardagslivet. Denna avhandling fungerar som en explorativ studie av att använda OURA-ringen för att utvärdera sömnkvaliteten för hyresgäster som bor i KTH LiL. Specifikt syftar detta projekt till att bedöma kvaliteten på de data som samlats in från ring- och SE-sensorerna genom att använda Total Data Quality Management (TDQM) och föreslå en Multilayer perceptron (MLP) - modell för att förutsäga sömn resultat. Resultaten visade först att OURA-ringen är ett lämpligt verktyg för att utvärdera sömnkvaliteten. Dess data passerade 11 TDQMs dimensioner, inklusive noggrannhet, objektivitet, relevans, tolkbarhet och förståbarhet. För det andra kunde OURA fånga förhållandet mellan sömnkvalitet och byggnadens temperatur och fuktighet genom sina sömnvärden. Resultaten visade att högre sömn värden ligger mer runt de föreslagna ideala temperatur- och luftfuktighet områdena. Några låga sömn resultat låg dock också runt dessa ideala intervall, vilket tyder på att ytterligare en studie måste genomföras. En sådan studie skulle ta hyresgästernas återkoppling för att urskilja sömn poäng som påverkas starkt av psykologiska och / eller andra faktorer förutom de byggda miljöer. För det tredje kunde vi skapa en MLP-modell för att förutsäga sömn värden baserat på temperatur- och luftfuktighets värden samt använda relaterad information, som aktivitetsgrad och totalt bränn. Modellen hade validering och näringsförluster som konvergerade vid 1,90-2,50. Dessa låga förlust nivåer antyder att byggnadens temperatur och luftfuktighet tillsammans med information om hyresgäster från ringen kan användas för att förbättra sömn värdena. Denna modell kan utvidgas till en rekommendation modell där byggnadens operatörer och hyresgäster kan dra nytta av. Byggnadens operatörer skulle få information och rekommendationer om hur de ska förvalta sina byggnader på rätt sätt för att uppnå högre välbefinnande för sina hyresgäster. Hyresgästerna skulle också få rekommendationer om hur man ökar sina sömn värden och i slutändan deras sömnkvaliteten och välbefinnande.

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[pt] Dores no pé e joelho estão relacionadas com patologias ortopédicas e lesões nos membros inferiores. Desde a corrida de rua até o treinamento funcional CrossFit, estas dores e lesões estão correlacionadas com a distribuição iregular da pressão plantar e o posicionamento inadequado do joelho durante a prática física de longo prazo, e podem levar a lesões ortopédicas graves se o padrão de movimento não for corrigido. Portanto, o monitoramento da distribuição da pressão plantar do pé e das características espaciais e temporais das irregularidades no posicionamento dos pés e joelhos são de extrema importância para a prevenção de lesões. Este trabalho propõe uma plataforma, composta de uma rede de sensores vestíveis e um classificador de Reconhecimento de Atividade Humana (HAR), para fornecer feedback em tempo real de exercícios funcionais, visando auxiliar educadores físicos a reduzir a probabilidade de lesões durante o treinamento. Realizamos um experimento com 12 voluntários diversos para construir um classificador HAR com aproximadamente de 87 porcento de precisão geral na classificação, e um segundo experimento para validar nosso modelo de avaliação física. Por fim, realizamos uma entrevista semi estruturada para avaliar questões de usabilidade e experiência do usuário da plataforma proposta.Visando uma pesquisa replicável, fornecemos informações completas sobre o hardware e o código fonte do sistema, e disponibilizamos o conjunto de dados do experimento. / [en] Foot and knee pain fave been associated with numerous orthopedic pathologies and injuries of the lower limbs. From street running to CrossFitTM functional training, these common pains and injuries correlate highly with unevenly distributed plantar pressure and knee positioning during long-term physical practice and can lead to severe orthopedic injuries if the movement pattern is not amended. Therefore, the monitoring of foot plantar pressure distribution and the spatial and temporal characteristics of foot and knee positioning abnomalities is of utmost importance for injury prevention. This work proposes a platform, composed af an lot wearable body sensor network and a Human Activity Recognition (HAR), to provide realtime feedback of functional exercises, aiming to enhace physical educators capability to mitigate the probability of injuries during training. We conducted an experiment with 12 diverse volunteers to build a HAR classifier that achieved about 87 percent overall classification accuracy, and a second experiment to validate our physical evaluation model. Finally, we performed a semi-structured interview to evaluate usability and user experience issues regarding the proposed platform. Aiming at a replicable research, we provide full hardware information, system source code and a public domain dataset.

Tesis por compendio / [EN] The main objective of this thesis is the development of new sensors and actuators using Printed Electronics technology. For this, conductive, semiconductor and dielectric polymeric materials are used on flexible and/or elastic substrates. By means of suitable designs and application processes, it is possible to manufacture sensors capable of interacting with the environment. In this way, specific sensing functionalities can be incorporated into the substrates, such as textile fabrics. Additionally, it is necessary to include electronic systems capable of processing the data obtained, as well as its registration. In the development of these sensors and actuators, the physical properties of the different materials are precisely combined. For this, multilayer structures are designed where the properties of some materials interact with those of others. The result is a sensor capable of capturing physical variations of the environment, and convert them into signals that can be processed, and finally transformed into data. On the one hand, a tactile sensor printed on textile substrate for 2D gesture recognition was developed. This sensor consists of a matrix composed of small capacitive sensors based on a capacitor type structure. These sensors were designed in such a way that, if a finger or other object with capacitive properties, gets close enough, its behaviour varies, and it can be measured. The small sensors are arranged in this matrix as in a grid. Each sensor has a position that is determined by a row and a column. The capacity of each small sensor is periodically measured in order to assess whether significant variations have been produced. For this, it is necessary to convert the sensor capacity into a value that is subsequently digitally processed. On the other hand, to improve the effectiveness in the use of the developed 2D touch sensors, the way of incorporating an actuator system was studied. Thereby, the user receives feedback that the order or action was recognized. To achieve this, the capacitive sensor grid was complemented with an electroluminescent screen printed as well. The final prototype offers a solution that combines a 2D tactile sensor with an electroluminescent actuator on a printed textile substrate. Next, the development of a 3D gesture sensor was carried out using a combination of sensors also printed on textile substrate. In this type of 3D sensor, a signal is sent generating an electric field on the sensors. This is done using a transmission electrode located very close to them. The generated field is received by the reception sensors and converted to electrical signals. For this, the sensors are based on electrodes that act as receivers. If a person places their hands within the emission area, a disturbance of the electric field lines is created. This is due to the deviation of the lines to ground using the intrinsic conductivity of the human body. This disturbance affects the signals received by the electrodes. Variations captured by all electrodes are processed together and can determine the position and movement of the hand on the sensor surface. Finally, the development of an improved 3D gesture sensor was carried out. As in the previous development, the sensor allows contactless gesture detection, but increasing the detection range. In addition to printed electronic technology, two other textile manufacturing technologies were evaluated. / [ES] La presente tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo fundamental el desarrollo de nuevos sensores y actuadores empleando la tecnología electrónica impresa, también conocida como Printed Electronics. Para ello, se emplean materiales poliméricos conductores, semiconductores y dieléctricos sobre sustratos flexibles y/o elásticos. Por medio de diseños y procesos de aplicación adecuados, es posible fabricar sensores capaces de interactuar con el entorno. De este modo, se pueden incorporar a los sustratos, como puedan ser tejidos textiles, funcionalidades específicas de medición del entorno y de respuesta ante cambios de este. Adicionalmente, es necesario incluir sistemas electrónicos, capaces de realizar el procesado de los datos obtenidos, así como de su registro. En el desarrollo de estos sensores y actuadores se combinan las propiedades físicas de los diferentes materiales de forma precisa. Para ello, se diseñan estructuras multicapa donde las propiedades de unos materiales interaccionan con las de los demás. El resultado es un sensor capaz de captar variaciones físicas del entorno, y convertirlas en señales que pueden ser procesadas y transformadas finalmente en datos. Por una parte, se ha desarrollado un sensor táctil impreso sobre sustrato textil para reconocimiento de gestos en 2D. Este sensor se compone de una matriz formada por pequeños sensores capacitivos basados en estructura de tipo condensador. Estos se han diseñado de forma que, si un dedo u otro objeto con propiedades capacitivas se aproxima suficientemente, su comportamiento varía, pudiendo ser medido. Los pequeños sensores están ordenados en dicha matriz como en una cuadrícula. Cada sensor tiene una posición que viene determinada por una fila y por una columna. Periódicamente se mide la capacidad de cada pequeño sensor con el fin de evaluar si ha sufrido variaciones significativas. Para ello es necesario convertir la capacidad del sensor en un valor que posteriormente es procesado digitalmente. Por otro lado, con el fin de mejorar la efectividad en el uso de los sensores táctiles 2D desarrollados, se ha estudiado el modo de incorporar un sistema actuador. De esta forma, el usuario recibe una retroalimentación indicando que la orden o acción ha sido reconocida. Para ello, se ha complementado la matriz de sensores capacitivos con una pantalla electroluminiscente también impresa. El resultado final ofrece una solución que combina un sensor táctil 2D con un actuador electroluminiscente realizado mediante impresión electrónica sobre sustrato textil. Posteriormente, se ha llevado a cabo el desarrollo de un sensor de gestos 3D empleando una combinación de sensores impresos también sobre sustrato textil. En este tipo de sensor 3D, se envía una señal que genera un campo eléctrico sobre los sensores impresos. Esto se lleva a cabo mediante un electrodo de transmisión situado muy cerca de ellos. El campo generado es recibido por los sensores y convertido a señales eléctricas. Para ello, los sensores se basan en electrodos que actúan de receptores. Si una persona coloca su mano dentro del área de emisión, se crea una perturbación de las líneas de los campos eléctricos. Esto es debido a la desviación de las líneas de campo a tierra utilizando la conductividad intrínseca del cuerpo humano. Esta perturbación cambia/afecta a las señales recibidas por los electrodos. Las variaciones captadas por todos los electrodos son procesadas de forma conjunta pudiendo determinar la posición y el movimiento de la mano sobre la superficie del sensor. Finalmente, se ha llevado a cabo el desarrollo de un sensor de gestos 3D mejorado. Al igual que el desarrollo anterior, permite la detección de gestos sin necesidad de contacto, pero incrementando la distancia de alcance. Además de la tecnología de impresión electrónica, se ha evaluado el empleo de otras dos tecnologías de fabricación textil. / [CA] La present tesi doctoral té com a objectiu fonamental el desenvolupament de nous sensors i actuadors fent servir la tecnologia de electrònica impresa, també coneguda com Printed Electronics. Es va fer us de materials polimèrics conductors, semiconductors i dielèctrics sobre substrats flexibles i/o elàstics. Per mitjà de dissenys i processos d'aplicació adequats, és possible fabricar sensors capaços d'interactuar amb l'entorn. D'aquesta manera, es poden incorporar als substrats, com ara teixits tèxtils, funcionalitats específiques de mesurament de l'entorn i de resposta davant canvis d'aquest. Addicionalment, és necessari incloure sistemes electrònics, capaços de realitzar el processament de les dades obtingudes, així com del seu registre. En el desenvolupament d'aquests sensors i actuadors es combinen les propietats físiques dels diferents materials de forma precisa. Cal dissenyar estructures multicapa on les propietats d'uns materials interaccionen amb les de la resta. manera El resultat es un sensor capaç de captar variacions físiques de l'entorn, i convertirles en senyals que poden ser processades i convertides en dades. D'una banda, s'ha desenvolupat un sensor tàctil imprès sobre substrat tèxtil per a reconeixement de gestos en 2D. Aquest sensor es compon d'una matriu formada amb petits sensors capacitius basats en una estructura de tipus condensador. Aquests s'han dissenyat de manera que, si un dit o un altre objecte amb propietats capacitives s'aproxima prou, el seu comportament varia, podent ser mesurat. Els petits sensors estan ordenats en aquesta matriu com en una quadrícula. Cada sensor té una posició que ve determinada per una fila i per una columna. Periòdicament es mesura la capacitat de cada petit sensor per tal d'avaluar si ha sofert variacions significatives. Per a això cal convertir la capacitat del sensor a un valor que posteriorment és processat digitalment. D'altra banda, per tal de millorar l'efectivitat en l'ús dels sensors tàctils 2D desenvolupats, s'ha estudiat la manera d'incorporar un sistema actuador. D'aquesta forma, l'usuari rep una retroalimentació indicant que l'ordre o acció ha estat reconeguda. Per a això, s'ha complementat la matriu de sensors capacitius amb una pantalla electroluminescent també impresa. El resultat final ofereix una solució que combina un sensor tàctil 2D amb un actuador electroluminescent realitzat mitjançant impressió electrònica sobre substrat tèxtil. Posteriorment, s'ha dut a terme el desenvolupament d'un sensor de gestos 3D emprant una combinació d'un mínim de sensors impresos també sobre substrat tèxtil. En aquest tipus de sensor 3D, s'envia un senyal que genera un camp elèctric sobre els sensors impresos. Això es porta a terme mitjançant un elèctrode de transmissió situat molt a proper a ells. El camp generat és rebut pels sensors i convertit a senyals elèctrics. Per això, els sensors es basen en elèctrodes que actuen de receptors. Si una persona col·loca la seva mà dins de l'àrea d'emissió, es crea una pertorbació de les línies dels camps elèctrics. Això és a causa de la desviació de les línies de camp a terra utilitzant la conductivitat intrínseca de el cos humà. Aquesta pertorbació afecta als senyals rebudes pels elèctrodes. Les variacions captades per tots els elèctrodes són processades de manera conjunta per determinar la posició i el moviment de la mà sobre la superfície del sensor. Finalment, s'ha dut a terme el desenvolupament d'un sensor de gestos 3D millorat. A l'igual que el desenvolupament anterior, permet la detecció de gestos sense necessitat de contacte, però incrementant la distància d'abast. A més a més de la tecnologia d'impressió electrònica, s'ha avaluat emprar altres dues tecnologies de fabricació tèxtil. / Ferri Pascual, J. (2020). Tactile and Touchless Sensors Printed on Flexible Textile Substrates for Gesture Recognition [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/153075 / Compendio