The presented work considers a CDMA-based Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) where multiple biosensors communicate simultaneously to a central node in an asynchronous fashion. The asynchronous nature of the WBAN introduces Multiple Access Interference (MAI). To combat this problem, presented is a methodology that uses a set of cyclically orthogonal spreading codes extracted from the Walsh-Hadamard matrix. When using the Cyclic Orthogonal Walsh-Hadamard Codes (COWHC) as spreading codes in the CDMA-based WBAN, the cyclic orthogonality property helps mitigate MAI amongst the on-body sensors. Presented is an ideal communication system that is most effective at mitigating MAI in proactive WBANs. The work illustrates the system optimality and effectiveness at mitigating MAI by studying the sensitivity to packet-loss through simulating the link Bit Error Rate (BER) performance. It is shown that the proposed design with COWHC, a Rayleigh flat-fading channel, BPSK modulation and a conventional receiver produce optimum MAI mitigation.

Submitted by Marlene Santos (marlene.bc.ufg@gmail.com) on 2014-12-03T17:40:18Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Roberto Vito Rodrigues Filho - 2013.pdf: 5032081 bytes, checksum: 38e74b2094416a7b86dc95fcf2ace961 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2014-12-04T14:50:02Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Roberto Vito Rodrigues Filho - 2013.pdf: 5032081 bytes, checksum: 38e74b2094416a7b86dc95fcf2ace961 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-04T14:50:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Roberto Vito Rodrigues Filho - 2013.pdf: 5032081 bytes, checksum: 38e74b2094416a7b86dc95fcf2ace961 (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-21 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Body Sensor Networks (BSN) are a technology used to supply individual’s vital signs to ubiquitous and pervasive systems. This systems applied to the healthcare area uses BSN to monitor patient’s vital signs remotely, that is without them being in a hospital environment. This technology applied as a base to this application assists healthcare professional to remotely monitor patients, which contribute to solve healthcare services problems. One of those problems is the crowded treatments centers. The usage of BSN, by conditioning remote monitoring, can colaborate to reduce the patients’ needs to consistently go to hospitals, thus contributing to reduce the number of patients in those environments. Given this tecnology potential comes the need to develop good quality applications. However, considering an analysis of BSN projects applied to the healthcare field, the usage of inadequated hardware platforms are noticed. Therefore aiming to make the development of this type of applications easier, it is proposed a simulator specific for BSN applied to the healthcare field. Hence, this work’s goal is to show this application simulator through the usage of a simulated hardware platform which takes intoconsiderationhealthcare demands to provide a test environment. / As Redes de Sensores do Corpo Humano (RSCH) são uma tecnologia utilizada para o fornecimento de sinais vitais de um indivíduo para sistemas pervasivos. Esses sistemas aplicados à área da saúde utilizam as RSCH para o monitoramento de sinais vitais de um paciente de forma remota, sem que o mesmo tenha que estar em um ambiente hospitalar. Essa tecnologia usada como base dessas aplicações, auxiliam os profissionais da saúde no monitoramento de pacientes à distância, ajudando a resolver problemas na prestação de serviço de saúde. Um desses problemas é a lotação dos centros de atendimento. A utilização das RSCH, por condicionar o monitoramento remoto, colabora na redução da necessidadeconstantedaidadopacienteaoshospitais,contribuindoassimcomaredução da lotação nesses ambientes. Com o potencial dessa tecnologia surge a necessidade de desenvolver aplicações de qualidade. Entretanto, considerando uma análise dos projetos de RSCH aplicados à área da saúde, nota-se a realização de testes em ambientes e plataformas de hardware inadequados. Dessa forma, visando facilitar o desenvolvimento deaplicaçõesnestaárea,épropostoumsimuladorespecíficoparaRSCHaplicadasàárea dasaúde.Assim,oobjetivodestetrabalhoémostraressesimuladordeaplicaçõesatravés da utilização de uma plataforma simulada de hardware, a qual leva em consideração as demandas da área médica, para prover um ambiente de testes.

Le réseau de capteurs porté est une technologie d’avenir prometteuse à multiple domaines d’application allant du médical à l’interface homme machine. Le projet BoWI a pour ambition d’évaluer la possibilité d’élaborer un réseau de capteurs utilisable au quotidien dans un large spectre d’applications et ergonomiquement acceptable pour le grand public. Cela induit la nécessité de concevoir un nœud de réseau ultra basse consommation pour à la fois convenir à une utilisation prolongée et sans encombrement pour le porteur. La solution retenue est de concevoir un nœud capable de travailler avec une énergie comparable à ce que l’état de l’art de la récolte d’énergie est capable de fournir. Une solution ASIC est privilégiée afin de tenir les contraintes d’intégration et de basse consommation. La conception de l’architecture dédiée a nécessité une étude préalable à plusieurs niveaux. Celle-ci comprend un état de l’art de la récolte d’énergie afin de fixer un objectif de budget énergie/puissance de notre système. Une étude des usages du système a été nécessaire notamment pour la reconnaissance postures afin de déterminer les cas d’applications types. Cette étude a conduit au développement d’algorithmes permettant de répondre aux applications choisies tout en s’assurant de la viabilité de leurs implantations. Le budget énergie fixé est un objectif de 100µW. Les applications choisies sont la reconnaissance de posture, la reconnaissance de geste et la capture de mouvement. Les solutions algorithmiques choisis sont une fusion de données de capteurs inertiels par Filtre de Kalman étendu (EKF) et l’ajout d’une classification par analyse en composante principale. La solution retenue pour obtenir des résultats d’implémentation est la synthèse de haut niveau qui permet un développement rapide. Les résultats de l’implantation matérielle sont dominés principalement par l’EKF. À la suite de l’étude, il apparait qu’il est possible avec une technologie 28nm d’atteindre les objectifs de budget énergie pour la partie algorithme. Une évaluation de la gestion haut niveau de tous les composants du nœud est également effectuée afin de donner une estimation plus précise des performances du système dans un cas d’application réel. Une contribution supplémentaire est obtenue avec l’ajout de la détection d’activité qui permet de prédire la charge de calcul nécessaire et d’adapter dynamiquement l’utilisation des ressources de traitement et des capteurs afin d’optimiser l’énergie en fonction de l’activité / Wireless Body Sensor Network (WBSN) is a promising technology that can be used in a lot of application domains from health care to Human Machine Interface (HMI). The BoWI project ambition is to evaluate and design a WBSN that can be used in various applications with daily usage and accessible to the public. This necessitates to design a ultra-low power node that reach a day of use without discomfort for the user. The elected solution is to design a node that operates with the power budget similar to what can be provided by the state of the art of the energy harvesting. An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) solution is privileged in order to meet the integration and low power constraints. Designing the dedicated architecture required a preliminary study at several level which are: a state of the art of the energy harvesting in order to determine the objective of energy/power budget of our system, A study of the usage of the system to determine and select typical application cases. A study of the algorithms to address the selected applications while considering the implementation viability of the solutions. The power budget objective is set to 100µW. The application selected are the posture recognition, the gesture recognition and the motion capture. The algorithmic solution proposed are a data-fusion based on an Extended Kalman FIlter (EKF) with the addition of a classification using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The implementation tool used to design the architecture is an High Level Synthesis (HLS) solution. Implementation results mainly focus on the EKF since this is by far the most power consuming digital part of the system. Using a 28nm technology the power budget objective can be reached for the algorithmic part. A study of the top level management of all components of the node is done in order to estimate performances of the system in real application case. This is possible using an activity detection which dynamically estimates the computing load required and then save a maximum of energy while the node is still.

Wireless personal area networks have emerged as an important communication infrastructure in areas such as at-home healthcare and home automation, independent living and assistive technology, as well as sports and wellness. Wireless personal area networks, including body sensor networks, are becoming more mature and are considered to be a realistic alternative as communication infrastructure for demanding services. However, to transmit data from e.g., an ECG in wireless networks is also a challenge, especially if multiple sensors compete for access. Contention-based networks offer simplicity and utilization advantages, but the drawback is lack of predictable performance. Recipients of data sent in wireless sensor networks need to know whether they can trust the information or not. Performance measurements, monitoring and control is of crucial importance for medical and healthcare applications in wireless sensor networks. This thesis focuses on development, prototype implementation and evaluation of a performance management system with performance and admission control for wireless sensor networks. Furthermore, an implementation of a new method to compensate for clock drift between multiple wireless sensor nodes is also shown. Errors in time synchronization between nodes in Bluetooth networks, resulting in inadequate data fusion, are also analysed. / <p>QC 20120529</p>

Body sensor networking is a rapidly growing technology. Today wearable sensors are used to measure and monitor e.g. pulse, temperature, skin conductance, heart activity, and movement (through GPS or inertial measurement units). Mobile phones can act as coordinating nodes in wireless personal area networks used in home automation, healthcare, sport and wellness e.g. to measure pulse and distance. Integration of data from multiple sources sensors (data fusion) means that data from each sensor node needs to be associated with data from other sensor nodes sampled at approximately the same time. Accurate methods for time synchronization are therefore a necessary prerequisite for reliable data fusion. This thesis studies time synchronization problems in Bluetooth piconets between multiple wireless sensor nodes connected to a mobile phone that acts as coordinating node. Three different algorithms to enable correct data fusion have been developed, implemented and evaluated. The first is a single clock solution that synchronizes multiple wireless sensor nodes based solely on the mobile phone’s clock. The other two algorithms synchronize the clocks in sensor nodes to the clock in the coordinating node. / <p>QC 20130605</p>

Radio frequency (RF) communication, although most popular, is unsuitable for environments involving aqueous and animal/plant tissue media, cluttered environments (e.g., small regions with many radios), applications requiring extremely low power consumption, etc. For such environments, magnetic induction (MI) communication appears to be a viable new technology. It has many desirable properties for propagation in challenging environments. In this thesis, we have experimentally explored the use of Magnetic Induction (MI) based communications for communication through the body. Such communication modalities are essential for wireless communication between implanted therapeutic devices. RF is known to work poorly in this environment due to primarily an ionized aqueous propagation media. We have built a custom experimental testbed using magnetic coils and performed simulations of intrabody propagation for MI based communication using the Sim4Life package. Ultrasound (US) communications have been explored extensively for intra-body environments, and we compare MI against US as well. We experimentally showed that ultrasonic coupling (USC) works better than magnetic resonance coupling (MRC) for transmission through the body at 8 MHz frequency, as USC generates more power than MRC. We have also experimentally compared MR coupling against other forms of intra-body communication, such as galvanic and capacitive. We have done a deep in-depth study of in/on body simulation. According to those studies, the simulations work quite well, and yield a percentage error in the power received for USC as 3-4 %, while for MRC, as 4-5 %. The orientation of USC and MRC sensors causes only 1-2 % error, which doesn't have much impact. / Computer and Information Science

Em meio a diversas interações midiáticas oriundas do desenvolvimento tecnológico no século XXI, percebemos que a música pode desbravar novos caminhos e conexões em áreas ainda pouco exploradas, como na interdisciplinaridade com o esporte. Este trabalho tem como foco a concepção de um sistema de criação musical interativo controlado por performance coreográfica esportiva, onde o atleta, além de interagir com o processo criativo e com a própria música durante sua performance coreográfica, possa também alterar sua estrutura e redefinir parâmetros de condução e geração sonora. Através de um sensor de movimento o atleta atua em tempo real reorganizando a execução de materiais sonoros previamente elaborados e manipulando processadores de efeito e de dinâmica. Uma composição modular interativa foi realizada para testar o sistema, adotando-se uma estrutura musical modular em tonalidades. Atribuindo ao atleta funções antes exclusivas do nicho profissional do intérprete e/ou compositor musical, o sistema desenvolvido oferece o acesso a processos de criação musical a uma população que não necessariamente detém conhecimento sobre as ferramentas tradicionais de composição musical. Os resultados exploram novas formas de mediações e abrem fronteiras de aplicações intocadas, bem como novos nichos de trabalho para o profissional da música nas áreas de criação, produção e performance. / In the midst of several media interactions that came from technological development in the 21st century, we realized that music can break new ground and connections in areas that are still little explored, such as in interdisciplinarity with sports. This work focuses on the conception of an interactive musical creation system controlled by a choreographic performance, in which the athlete, in addition to interacting with the creative process and with the music itself during its choreographic performance, can also alter its structure and redefine parameters of conduction and sound generation. Through a motion sensor the athlete acts in real time reorganizing the execution of previously elaborated sound materials and manipulating processors of effect and dynamics. An interactive modular composition was performed to test the system, adopting a modular musical structure in shades. By providing the athlete with functions previously unique to the professional niche of the performer and / or music composer, the developed system offers access to music creation processes for a population that does not necessarily have knowledge about traditional musical composition tools. The results explore new forms of mediation and open boundaries of untouched applications, as well as new work niches for the music professional in the areas of creation, production and performance.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:05:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4452.pdf: 7806002 bytes, checksum: 03f3df43afda775ba6b11c313093d1d5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-06-13 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / The physical inactivity has been indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the main risk factors for the incidence of Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (CNCDs). Millions of deaths in the world are a result of these diseases, and this number has increased each year. In an attempt to change this scenario WHO has stimulated regular practice of physical activities, because they play an important role in preventing CNCDs. In Brazil, these activities are performed by health units which generate a large amount of data that need treatment. To deal with this problem we developed UCEMEPA, an environment that employs Ubiquitous Computing technologies and wireless communication networks, in order to monitor remotely and evaluate participants of physical activity groups in real-time. This environment automatically collects physiologic data, and provides indicators which will support and direct public policies for promoting physical activity. In this sense, UCEMEPA will contribute for the promotion of health and quality of life, and for the conduction of longitudinal studies aiming to establish correlations between the practice of physical activity and CNCDs prevention. / A inatividade física tem sido apontada pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS) como um dos principais fatores de risco comportamentais responsáveis pela incidência de Doenças Crônicas Não Transmissíveis (DCNTs). Milhões de mortes no mundo são decorrentes dessas doenças e esse número vem aumentando a cada ano. Na tentativa de reverter esse quadro a OMS vem estimulando as práticas regulares de atividade física, já que estas possuem um importante papel na prevenção de DCNTs. No Brasil a promoção dessas atividades é realizada por unidades regionalizadas de saúde e geram uma grande quantidade de dados que carecem de processamento e tratamento. Em resposta a esse problema nós desenvolvemos o ACUMAAF, um ambiente que emprega tecnologias emergentes da Computação Ubíqua e redes de comunicação sem fio para monitorar e avaliar, em tempo real e a distância, participantes de grupos de atividade física. Esse ambiente coleta dados fisiológicos de forma automática e coletiva e tem como objetivo possibilitar a geração de indicadores capazes de apoiar e nortear políticas públicas de promoção de atividade física. O ACUMAAF é um ambiente computacional com contribuições para a promoção da saúde, para a promoção da qualidade de vida da população e para a realização de estudos longitudinais objetivando relacionar atividade física e a prevenção de DCNTs.

Global rise in life expectancy has resulted in an increased demand for affordable healthcare and monitoring services. The advent of miniature and low–power sensor technologies coupled with the emergence of the Internet–of–Things has paved the way towards affordable health monitoring tools in wearable platforms. However, ensuring power–efficient operation, data accuracy and user comfort are critical for such wearable systems. This thesis focuses on the development of accurate and computationally efficient algorithms and low–cost, unobtrusive devices with potential predictive capability for monitoring mobility and cardiac health in a wearable platform. A three–stage complementary filter–based approach is developed to realize a computationally efficient method to estimate sensor orientation in real–time. A gradient descent–based approach is used to estimate the gyroscope integration drift, which is subsequently subtracted from the integrated gyroscope data to get the sensor orientation. This predominantly gyroscope–based orientation estimation approach is least affected by external acceleration and magnetic disturbances. A two–stage complementary filter–based efficient sensor fusion algorithm is developed for real–time monitoring of lower–limb joints that estimates the IMU inclinations in the first stage and uses a gradient descent–based approach in the second stage to estimate the joint angles. The proposed method estimates joint angles primarily from the gyroscope measurements without incorporating the magnetic field measurement, rendering the estimated angles least affected by any external acceleration and insensitive to magnetic disturbances. An IMU–based simple, low–cost and computationally efficient gait–analyzer is developed to track the course of an individual's gait health in a continuous fashion. Continuous monitoring of gait patterns can potentially enable detecting musculoskeletal or neurodegenerative diseases at the early onset. The proposed gait analyzer identifies an anomalous gait with moderate to high accuracy by evaluating the gait features with respect to the baseline clusters corresponding to an individual’s healthy peer group. The adoption of a computationally efficient signal analysis technique renders the analyzer suitable for systems with limited processing capabilities. A flexible dry capacitive electrode and a wireless ECG monitoring system with automatic anomaly detection capability are developed. The flexible capacitive electrode reduces motion artifacts and enables sensing bio–potential over a dielectric material such as cotton cloth. The virtual ground of the electrode allows for obtaining single–lead ECG using two electrodes only. ECG measurements obtained over different types of textile materials and in presence of body movements show comparable performance to other reported ECG monitoring systems. An algorithm is developed separately as a potential extension of the software to realize automatic identification of Atrial Fibrillation from short single–lead ECGs. The association between human gait and cardiac activities is studied. The gait is measured using wearable IMUs and the cardiac activity is measured with a single–lead handheld ECG monitor. Some key cardiac parameters, such as heart rate and heart rate variability and physical parameters, such as age and BMI show good association with gait asymmetry and gait variation. These associations between gait and heart can be useful in realizing low–cost in–home personal monitoring tool for early detecting CVD–related changes in gait features before the CVD symptoms are manifested. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Wearable health monitoring systems can be a viable solution to meet the increased demand for affordable healthcare and monitoring services. However, such systems need to be energy–efficient, accurate and ergonomic to enable long–term monitoring of health reliably while preserving user comfort. In this thesis, we develop efficient algorithms to obtain real–time estimates of on–body sensors' orientation, gait parameters such as stride length, and gait velocity and lower–limb joint angles. Furthermore, we develop a simple, low–cost and computationally efficient gait–analyzer using miniature and low–power inertial motion units to track the health of human gait in a continuous fashion. In addition, we design flexible, dry capacitive electrodes and use them to develop a portable single–lead electrocardiogram (ECG) device. The flexible design ensures better conformity of the electrode to the skin, resulting in better signal quality. The capacitive nature allows for obtaining ECG signals over insulating materials such as cloth, thereby potentially enabling a comfortable means of long–term cardiac health monitoring at home. Besides, we implement an automatic anomaly detection algorithm that detects Atrial Fibrillation with good accuracy from short single–lead ECGs. Finally, we investigate the association between gait and cardiac activities. We observe that some important cardiac signs, such as heart rate and heart rate variability and physical parameters, such as age and BMI show good association with gait asymmetry and gait variation.