Although current head imaging technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) are capable of providing accurate diagnosis of brain injuries such as stroke and brain tumour, they have several limitations including high cost, long scanning time, bulky and mostly stationary. On the other hand, radar-based microwave imaging technology can offer a low cost, non-invasive and non-ionisation method to complement these existing imaging techniques. Moreover, a compact and wearable device for microwave head imaging is required to facilitate frequent or real-time monitoring of a patient by providing more comfort to the patient. Therefore, a wearable head imaging device would be a significant advantage compared to the existing wideband microwave head sensing devices which typically utilise rigid antenna structure. Furthermore, the wearable device can be integrated into different microwave imaging setups such as real-time wearable head imaging systems, portable systems and conventional stationary imaging tools for use in hospitals and clinics. This thesis presents the design and development of wearable devices utilising flexible antenna arrays and compact radio frequency (RF) switching circuits for wideband microwave head imaging applications. The design and characterisation of sensing antennas using flexible materials for the wearable head imaging device are presented in the first stage of this study. There are two main variations of monopole antennas that have been developed in this research, namely trapezoidal and elliptical configurations. The antennas have been fabricated using different flexible substrate materials such as flexible FR-4, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and textile. Wideband performances of the antennas have been achieved by optimising their co-planar waveguide feeding line structures. Importantly, the efficiencies of the fabricated antennas have been tested using a realistic human head phantom by evaluating their impedance matching performances when operating in close proximity to the head phantom. The second stage of the study presents the development of wearable antenna arrays using the proposed flexible antennas. The first prototype has been built using an array of 12 flexible antennas and a conformal absorbing material backed with a conductive sheet to suppress the back lobe radiation of the monopole antennas. Additionally, the absorber also acts as a mounting base to hold the antennas where the wearable device can be comfortably worn like a hat during the measurement and monitoring processes. The effect of mutual coupling between adjacent antennas in the array has been investigated and optimised. However, the use of the absorbing material makes the device slightly rigid where it can only be fitted on a specific head size. Thus, a second prototype has been developed by using a head band to realise a stretchable configuration that can be mounted on different sizes of human heads. Furthermore, due to the stretchable characteristic of the prototype, the antennas can be firmly held in their positions when measurements are made. In addition, fully textile based sensing antennas are employed in this prototype making it perfectly suitable for monitoring purposes. Low cost and compact switching circuits to provide switching mechanism for the wearable antenna array are presented in the third stage of this study. The switching circuit is integrated with the antenna array to form a novel wearable microwave head imaging device eliminating the use of external bulky switching network. The switching circuit has been built using off-the-shelf components where it can be controlled wirelessly over Bluetooth connection. Then, a new integrated switching circuit prototype has been fabricated using 6-layer printed circuit board (PCB) technology. For the purpose of impedance matching for the radio-frequency (RF) routing lines on the circuit, a wideband Microstrip-to-Microstrip transition is utilised. The final stage of this study investigates the efficacy and sensitivity of the proposed wearable devices by performing experiments on developed realistic human head phantoms. Initially, a human head phantom has been fabricated using food-based ingredients such as tap water, sugar, salt, and agar. Subsequently, lamb's brains have been used to improve the head phantom employed in the experiments to better mimic the heterogeneous human brain. In terms of imaging process, an interpolation technique developed using experimental data has been proposed to assist the localisation of a haemorrhage stroke location using the confocal delay-and-sum algorithm. This new technique is able to provide sensible accuracy of the location of the blood clot inside the brain. The wearable antenna arrays using flexible antennas and their integrations with compact and low cost switching circuits reported in this thesis make valuable contribution to microwave head imaging field. It is expected that a low-cost, compact and wearable radar-based microwave head imaging can be fully realised in the future for wide range of applications including static scanning setup in hospitals, portable equipment in ambulances and as a standalone wearable head monitoring system for remote and real-time monitoring purposes.

近年來遠程醫療成為中國大陸大力推動的政策，其不僅被賦予催化分級醫療的角色，在照護產業應用上亦被寄予厚望。本研究透過穿戴式裝置的例子，說明遠程醫療的推動仍面臨諸多挑戰。中央政府透過組建醫療聯合體、跨省技術等試點政策，大力推動遠程醫療。地方醫院基於保護醫療收益，對於遠程醫療抱持著不配合的態度，地方政府之間的競爭亦加劇了這樣的發展，推動過程面臨了明顯的瓶頸。與遠程醫療最相近的產品應用，當屬穿戴式裝置，本研究指出在穿戴式裝置依然以地區醫院為母體，鮮少有跨不同事業單位的大規模串聯。從政策與產業兩大領域來看，遠程醫療要全面性推廣仍有一段路要走，然而中國大陸強力推動產業的決心仍值得吾人關注。 / In recent years, policy of telemedicine, proposed by Chinese mainland, played an important role in hierarchical medical system. The care industry has been highly expected. This study research data of the formation of medical treatment combination, interprovincial technology and other pilot policies which were proposed by central government with wearable device to describe the challenge of the promotion in telemedicine industry. In fact, local hospital keep an uncooperative attitude to develop remote medical care in order to protect the medical benefits. Furthermore, competitiveness between local governments made things worse. It is clear that the promotion of telemedicine is facing a bottleneck now. Wearable device, the closest product application in telemedicine industry, is used as keyword to search the data in dilemma of local hospitals. The result show that there is few small units across the large industry chain.From the policy and industry two major areas of view, comprehensive promotion of telemedicine is still a way to go, nonetheless, the Chinese mainland’s determination to promote the industry's is still worthy of my attention.

<p>Textiles have gained popularity in wearable products due to their potential for wearability, comfort, flexibility, breathability, and seamless fit to the human body. The growing demand for remote telehealth monitoring has led to advancements in the field of e-textiles. Various approaches, such as dip coating, screen printing, inkjet printing, and vapor deposition, are utilized to overcoat fabrics with active nanomaterials. However, practical deployment still faces challenges due to a lack of rapid prototyping for scalable and customizable e-textiles. To meet the requirements of large-scale batch production, high-resolution electrode line width, and long-term durability, new platform technologies have been established to convert existing textiles into multifunctional e-textiles. These studies have also revealed the process-structure-property relationships of various e-textiles.</p> <p>Chapter I overviews the recent results and current limitations of e-textiles in wearable sensing and display. Since people stay and work in various circumstances, continuous monitoring of physical, electrophysiological signals on skin in ambulatory manners is necessary to evaluate hazardous situation or chronicle symptoms. For these reasons, fabrication of smart e-textiles is crucial. In this chapter, various conductive materials, overcoating methods, and sensor structures for physical and electrophysiological sensors are reviewed. In addition, as a useful user communication tool with different sensor system, e-textile formats of displays are developed. The comprehensive e-textile displays from DC-driven to AC-driven are presented.</p> <p>Chapter II introduces a dual-regime spray technique that enables the direct writing of functional nanoparticles onto commercial 4-way stretchable textiles up to a meter scale with high-resolution mask-free patterning. The resulting e-textiles maintain the intrinsic properties of the fabric and can conform to various body shapes, enabling high-fidelity recording of physiological and electrophysiological signals under ambulatory conditions. Field tests have shown the potential of these e-textiles for minimally obtrusive remote telehealth monitoring of large animals.</p> <p>Chapter III presents an in-situ polymerization and patterning technique that utilizes the dual-regime spray method to synthesize conductive polymers directly onto commercial stretch textiles. The resulting e-textiles are utilized for strain sensors that conform closely to the human body, providing exceptional measurement accuracy and fidelity in capturing physical signals and motion detections.</p> <p>Conclusion section summarizes this dissertation with pointing out important results and discussions of each study. As an innovative additive manufacturing technology, dual-regime spray system, was established and developed to open new field in manufacture of e-textile. At last of this section, the potential research opportunities and perspectives are addressed. </p>

近年來越來越多虛實整合技術不斷地湧出，像是電影阿凡達或虛實互動型態的表演。這樣的表演會根據事先預錄好的虛擬角色進行演出，但要成功地演出需要演員們不斷的練習。另外,許多電影利用攝影機捕捉人體姿態來與虛擬角色互動，但此方法受限於燈光環境以及障礙物。 此篇論文運用穿戴式裝置與新一代無線網路藍芽4.0,提出即時追蹤技術套用於這類表演,可使得演出更加豐富並且能即興創作。然而，目前受限於穿戴式平台上的藍芽訊號強度更新頻率每秒只有5至10次且傳輸容量有限，所以本篇論文結合體態感測裝置輔助無線網路藍芽4.0,提升對穿戴者的即時追蹤能力。實驗結果與真實位置只有0.3至0.5秒的延遲時間,並在校內進行兩場互動式展演作驗證成果。未來期許可以將此技術運用於多人展演場，讓更多使用者可以互動體驗。 / Recently, more and more interactive performance technologies appear such as Avatar or virtual-character integrated art perform. Such performs are based on pre-made animations and physics simulations. However, this kind of shows need a lot of practice, and it is impossible that audience or performers play with or interact with the virtual characters. In addition, many moviemakers use high quality cameras to distinguish body postures. Although cameras can record anything with high precision, it is constrained on the light and obstacles of the environments. If we, somehow, can capture the motion of the performers in real time, then we are able to interact with virtual characters and make improvisation possible. This thesis aims to use the wearable sensors and the Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) of BLE to track in real-time. However, the update rate of RSSI is limited to 5~10 per second. This thesis proposed a tracking technique which combines with wearable motion sensors to assist BLE localization. The tracking lag can be reduced to only 0.3~0.5 seconds, and also real performance was experimented in the campus. In the future, we hope to use this technique on interactive performance with many people in different places.

大多數的已開發國家都逐漸成為高齡化社會；同時，可以幫助高齡族群的科技發明變得越來越流行和重要。本研究提出一個以穿戴式裝置為基礎的服務系統，不只專注在健康，也重視正向情緒、投入程度、人際關係、人生意義和成就感（PERMA，幸福模型）。本系統的目標是透過以活動為基礎的介入，促進幸福價值；亦即透過整合服務系統內的所有資源以提供個人化的活動介入給戰後嬰兒潮族群，並整合子系統的最佳化機制以得到整體的價值最大化。 因為幸福被定義為一種多維度的觀念，為了衡量並評價幸福，我們使用一個以影子價格為基礎的計算矩陣來比較各個活動介入的價值。透過幸福價值最大化，本研究試著幫助戰後嬰兒潮族群成功的在地老化。本研究初探性的結果指出，此系統被證實是有效的，且活動介入有能力增加使用者感受的幸福價值，介入品質和高齡幸福評價被發現有高度關聯性。 / Most of the societies of developed countries are becoming “aging population society”. Technologies that help baby boomers stay healthy become more popular and essential. We propose a wearable-device-based service system that focused not only on vitality but also positive emotion, engagement, relationship, meaning and accomplishment (PERMA as well-being model). Since the system aims at improving well-being value through activity-based interventions, it is necessary to integrate all the resources within the service system and provide the most appropriate personalized interventions with most expected value to the baby boomers. The system generates those interventions through greedy approach, which means they are generated by local mechanism first and combine them to get the global optimality. In order to measure well-being, which is definitely a multi-dimensional concept, we use an evaluation matrix based on shadow price to compare the value between each intervention, i.e. activities. By the well-being valuation and maximization, we try to make the baby boomers live a successful aging. Our exploratory evaluations show that the system is justified to be effective and activity-based interventions are able to increase baby boomers’ perceived value. The correlation between intervention quality and senior well-being valuation is found along with other findings.

L’évolution de la technologie, nonobstant ses apports, peut enfreindre certains de nos droits fondamentaux puisqu’elle se développe plus rapidement que ces derniers. Ce mémoire vise à relever les défis que les technologies intelligentes peuvent poser tant sur la santé des communautés que sur les droits fondamentaux. La thèse porte sur les contraintes juridiques, présentes et à venir, notamment sur le droit à la vie privée à travers le développement et l’usage des technologies intelligentes qui captent notre information personnelle en lien avec la santé. Plus précisément, ce travail analyse si les bénéfices de l’accès à notre information à travers les technologies intelligentes en vue d’améliorer la santé et la sécurité des populations surpassent les conséquences juridiques. Ce travail explore, entre autres, le potentiel des technologies intelligentes, leurs avantages individuels et collectifs, notamment en matière de santé publique, et les violations des droits de l’Homme que leur usage peut générer. Mais encore, il présente des innovations technologiques qui permettent d’améliorer les systèmes de santé étatiques afin d’être en mesure de mieux réagir aux futures épidémies, notamment au niveau international, comme à l’OMS. Ces données, suivies des autres complications possibles du fait d’un usage accru des technologies intelligentes qui restreignent notre vie privée, permettront de conclure si une telle intrusion peut être justifiée dans une société libre et démocratique. Finalement, ce travail regarde les limites de l’acceptabilité sociale de l’intrusion dans la vie privée en échange à de meilleures conditions de santé afin que les organes étatiques et supraétatiques puissent prendre des décisions éclairées, sans que les droits constitutionnels soient violés. Ce travail permettra de comprendre les enjeux que notre système judiciaire inévitablement devra surmonter en proposant des stratégies visant la prévention des maladies et autres problèmes de santé à travers l’usage des technologies intelligentes. Une des solutions principales proposées est la création de bases de données nationale et internationale à l’OMS qui captent les données des appareils intelligents portables. / The evolution of technology, notwithstanding its benefits, can negatively impact some of our fundamental rights as it develops faster than the latter. Indeed, this thesis aims to meet challenges generated by smart technologies and the impact they can have on the health of communities as well as on our fundamental rights. This thesis focuses on the legal constraints, present and to come, including the right to privacy, through the development and use of smart technologies that seize our personal health information. More specifically, this work seeks to analyze whether the benefits of accessing our information through smart technologies to improve the health and safety of populations outweigh the legal consequences. This work explores the potential of smart technologies, the interest in using them individually and collectively, especially in the public health sector, and the human rights violations their use can generate. Moreover, it looks at technological innovations that help improve State health systems to be able to better respond to future epidemics, particularly at the international level, such as at the WHO. These data, followed by other possible complications due to the increased use of intelligent technologies that restrict our privacy, will allow us to conclude whether such an intrusion in our right to privacy can be justified in a free and democratic society. Finally, this work examines the limits of the social acceptability of the invasion of privacy in exchange for better health conditions so that States and supra-State bodies can make informed decisions, without violating constitutional rights. This work will help us understand the issues that our judicial system will inevitably face while proposing strategies for the prevention of diseases and other health problems through the use of smart technologies. One of the main proposed solutions is the creation of a national and international database at the WHO generated by the data of smart health devices.

No description available.

[pt] Os dispositivos vestíveis de saúde, como ferramenta tecnológica, podem contribuir para o diagnóstico e tratamento de doenças, permitir o acompanhamento de pacientes à distância e otimizar a utilização de recursos na indústria da saúde. Este estudo propõe um modelo integrativo de aceitação de tecnologia para avaliar os fatores determinantes da adoção dispositivos vestíveis de saúde pelos consumidores, alinhando construtos oriundos do modelo de aceitação de tecnologia com outros construtos, como prontidão tecnológica, confiança e autoeficácia. Os dados obtidos nos questionários de pesquisa de 424 consumidores, analisados por meio da modelagem de equações estruturais, indicam relações significativas entre os construtos avaliados, tendo sido observada uma particular relevância nos efeitos da utilidade percebida, antecedida pela confiança e prontidão tecnológica, sobre a atitude e a intenção de uso dos dispositivos vestíveis de saúde. Portanto, os resultados desta pesquisa sugerem que o modelo proposto representa um avanço na compreensão dos fatores que influenciam a atitude geral de adoção pela população da tecnologia dos dispositivos vestíveis de saúde. / [en] Wearable health devices, as a technological tool, may contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases, besides allowing a remote monitoring of patients and optimizing the use of resources in the health industry. This study proposes an integrative model of technology acceptance to assess the determining factors for the adoption of wearable health devices by users, aligning constructs from the technology acceptance model with other constructs, such as technological readiness, assurance and self-efficacy. The data obtained from the survey questionnaires of 424 consumers, which were analyzed through structural equation modelling, indicate significant relationships between the evaluated constructs. Particular relevance was observed in the effects of perceived usefulness, preceded by assurance and technological readiness, on attitude and intention to use wearable health devices. Therefore, the results of this research suggest that the proposed model represents an advance in the understanding of the factors that influence the general attitude of the population to adopt the use of the technology of wearable health devices.

A comprehensive background is herein presented for lumbar skin strain and its effect on skin adhered wearable (SAW) products. A background of the development of computational models of the interaction of skin and novel SAWs being researched is also presented. These include products involving the use of high deflection strain gauges to measure skin strain during functional movements (FMs) as a method to address the complicated phenotyping of the etiological causes of low back pain (LBP). The background concludes with the mathematical calculation of the principal skin strain magnitudes and orientations using retroreflective marker coordinate data in a motion capture lab setting and the potential role of principal skin strain on the post-operative management of wounds to accelerate healing and minimize infection and scarring. The mechanics response of lumbar skin among 30 participants was measured during various FMs, for which high strain movements (Flexion, Flexion right/left, Sit To Stand) exhibited principal strain magnitudes repeatedly above 50% while others (Rotation right/left, Lateral Bending right/left, Extension, and Extension right/left) exhibited magnitudes repeatedly below 50%. Principal strain orientation was presented in easily visualizable mappings that demonstrated minimal variability both within and between participants for a given FM. Principal strain rates were measured, ranging between 25% and 151% per second among movements. The mechanics response of lumbar skin was again measured for a single participant, albeit this time between bare skin and skin with a SAW; which in this example was kinesiology tape with a high deflection nanocomposite strain gauge. Results indicated very significant skin restriction during Flexion, for which a macroscopic skin strain of 65% was reduced to 22% because of the KT tape and additionally down to 13% because of the addition of the sensor (on top of the KT tape). A FEM was created based off this scenario, for which it was shown that the mechanical properties of skin in vitro are insufficient in representing the mechanical response of skin due to its stiffness. This was hypothesized to be due to the increased hydration (lower stiffness) of in vivo skin, for which high deformation stiffness in the literature is not available. The thesis is concluded with future research directions that would benefit the design of SAWs where high deformation is considered. Future research directions are also discussed regarding post-operative wound healing and the potential role of repeated skin strains, such as concerning scarring and infection.

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.