Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-12T17:38:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Felipe Cubas Schulz.pdf: 4229454 bytes, checksum: cd3b6e0665b2e8aa21c05c4e5922388d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-08-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Recently, automation systems have been widely investigated. Nowadays, they are present in our lives when shopping, banking, working at home or office. Technology innovations have been increased and embedded into medical and biological equipments, where patients can be better monitored for treatment and diagnosis. These allow precise and ergonomic equipments be designed, especially when using wireless sensor networks. It is developed in this work a biomedical signal acquisition system by suing a wireless sensor network and the Zigbee technology for communication. It was implemented a system for acquiring and processing biomedical data by using commercial sensor modules for wireless communication to a host computer. Also, it was developed a graphical interface in order to manage the sensors of the network and to display the acquired signals to the user. This work has integrated there types of sensors, such as blood oxygenation, heart rate and body temperature. The sensors were chosen due to their easy accessibility and by the fact these type of signals are the most monitored in medicine. Performance tests of sensors network were made to investigate the transmission, reception and data visualization, as well as the communication distance. Also, signal acquisitions were performed in 3 healthy volunteers aged 28, 25 and 65 and the results were compared with the signals acquired by commercial equipments. The results showed that the performance of the blood oxygenation sensor was similar for the three volunteers when compared to the commercial systems. On the other hand, the measured heartbeat by the proposed system showed a greater variation. The body temperature sensor showed reliable readings with a maximum error of approximately 2%. The communication distance of the network was approximately 13 meters in an environment with walls and without the use of routers. It can be concluded that the use of Zigbee sensor network for monitoring bioelectrical signals can be easily implemented and embedded to medical equipments due to its great flexibility when compared to systems which use wired technologies. / A automação de sistemas vem se disseminando muito nos últimos anos, estando presente em nosso dia a dia quando fazemos compras, vamos ao banco ou mesmo estando em nossas casas ou trabalho. Neste contexto vem crescendo o número de oportunidades de se inserir novas tecnologias e automação também na área da medicina, onde o monitoramento de pacientes torna diagnósticos mais fáceis, precisos e ergonômicos, principalmente quando utilizamos redes de transmissão de dados sem fios. Neste trabalho foi desenvolvido um sistema de aquisição de sinais biomédicos sem fio em uma rede de sensores utilizando comunicação Zigbee. Foi implementado uma plataforma de aquisição e processamento de dados biomédicos, utilizando módulos sensores de comunicação sem fio com um computador. Também, um software foi desenvolvido para gerenciar os dispositivos presentes na rede e visualizar os sinais adquiridos ao usuário. Este trabalho integrou sensores de oxigenação do sangue, batimentos cardíacos e temperatura corporal, os quais foram escolhidos por serem considerados sinais vitais de fácil acesso. Testes de desempenho da rede de sensores foram realizados a fim de verificar a transmissão, recepção e visualização dos dados, bem como a distância de comunicação. Também, aquisição de sinais foram realizados em 3 voluntários saudáveis com idades de 28, 25 e 65 anos e os resultados foram comparados com os sinais adquiridos por equipamentos comerciais. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que o sensor de oxigenação do sangue apresentou desempenho similar para os 3 voluntários quando comparados ao sistema comercial. O sensor de batimentos cardíacos apresentou maior variação entre os valores médios pelo sistema proposto. O sensor de temperatura corporal apresentou leituras com um erro sistêmico de aproximadamente 2%. A utilização do protocolo de comunicação Zigbee em uma rede de sensores biomédicos permitiu o monitoramento contínuo de pacientes com maior flexibilidade de uso quando comparado a sistemas convencionais com tecnologias com fios. O alcance da rede chegou a aproximadamente 13 metros em um ambiente com paredes, sem o uso de roteadores. Outros sinais podem ser facilmente adicionados ao sistema e monitorados pela rede de sensores.

Le vieillissement de la population est un phénomène mondial qui s'accompagne d'une augmentation du nombre de patients atteints de maladies chroniques, ce qui oblige à repenser le système de santé en amenant le suivi de santé et les soins au domicile et dans la cité.En considérant que l'activité est un signe visible de l'état de santé, cette thèse cherche à proposer un moyen technologique pour le suivi des activités de plusieurs personnes dans un living lab composé d'un appartement et de la cité qui l'entoure.En effet, le maintien d'une activité physique soutenue, et en particulier d'une activité sociale fait partie intégrante de la bonne santé d'une personne, il doit donc être étudié au même titre que les capacités à effectuer les activités de la vie quotidienne.Cette étude a permis la mise en place d'une plateforme de conception collaborative et de test grandeur nature autour de la santé à domicile et dans la cité : le living lab de l'INL.Ce dernier a été le théâtre de premières expérimentations permettant de valider la capacité du living lab à la fois de fusionner des données d'activité venant d'un ensemble de capteurs hétérogènes, mais également d'évoluer en intégrant des nouvelles technologies et services.Les scénarios collaboratifs étudiés permettent une première approche de l'analyse de la collaboration par la détection des présences simultanées de plusieurs personnes dans la même pièce. Ces résultats préliminaires sont encourageants et seront complétés lors de captures d'activité plus fines et incluant plus de capteurs dans les mois à venir / The ageing of the population is a global phenomenon which comes with an increase of the amount of patients suffering from chronic diseases. It forces to rethink the healthcare by bringing health monitoring and care at home and in the city.Considering the activity as a visible indication of the health status, this thesis seeks to provide technological means to monitor several people's activities in a living lab composed of an apartment and the city around.Indeed, maintaining substantial physical activity, in particular social activity accounts fo an important part of a person's good health status. Hence, it must be studied as well as the ability to perform the activities of daily living.This study enabled the implementation of a platform for collaborative design and full-scale experimentation concerning healthcare at home and in the city: the INL living lab.The latest was the theatre of some first experimentations which highlighted the living lab ability to perform activity data fusion from a set of heterogeneous sensors, and also to evolve by integrating new technologies and services.The studied collaborative scenarios enable a first approach of the collaboration analysis by detecting the simultaneous presence of several people in the same room. These preliminary results are encouraging and will be completed by more precise measurements which will include more sensors in the coming months

The aim of the thesis is to design a web services architecture that shall support the automatic determination of a personalised sensor-system, which is embedded in smart garments, and which shall be used in self-care in order to allow a profane user to record himself a personal electrocardiogram (ECG), at anytime and anywhere. The main challenge consists in the intelligent and dynamic orchestration of context-aware business services that supply the user with an optimal personalised solution, while mastering the system's complexity: context dependent user and system interactions, knowledge extraction from subject-specific vital signs, services reconfiguration automation. The solution to this challenge is to create an Ambient Intelligence which goes beyond Ubiquitous Computing and is capable to replace an expert by proposing an Intelligent Assistance to any citizen. We propose a methodology expressed in terms of Data and Model driven Service Oriented Architecture (DM-SOA), which provides a framework for the production of context-aware intelligent business services. This architecture supports the automation of sophisticated and personalised expert activities, which apply professional knowledge to process an individual case. The proposed solution is based on a new dynamic business process modelling approach and in its implementation via automatically reconfigurable services. It consists in setting-up an intelligent environment based on a business process ontology of context-aware concepts and on related context handling rules for services orchestration. A core-ontology has been designed to support the automation of expert activities related to decision-making. The soundness of the method and of the underlying decision-making techniques has been demonstrated in the cardiology domain for selecting the most adequate subject-specific sensor-system, characterised by its ability to yield for an ECG signal of similar diagnostic content than a standard 12-lead ECG. We propose the design of a new three modalities sensor-system prototype as a response to the need of sensor-systems used on demand in self-care situations and ensuring diagnostic quality signals recordings. This prototype has been tested on a set of healthy volunteers presenting various characteristics in age, sex and morphology. In this context, Ambient Intelligence is demonstrated as an ensemble of professional quality services ready to use by profane users. These services are accessible pervasively, trough the objects people work with / wear on / use each day, and provide an appropriate guidance to the non-competent users. Such an Ambient Intelligence approach strongly supports the vision of an Information Society which corresponds to the long-term goal of the EU Information Society Technologies Research Programme that aims to ease knowledge access. The future healthcare will benefit from this approach and will significantly improve patient care.

Le travail présenté ici porte sur la réalisation d’un matériau polymère piézoélectrique destiné à être l’élément sensible d’un capteur de déformation de tissus biologiques. Cela comprend notamment l’étude de l’assouplissement du copolymère P(VDF-TrFE) nécessaire pour se rapprocher des propriétés mécaniques d’une artère, sans dégrader son coefficient piézoélectrique. Des films de P(VDF-TrFE) plastifiés avec du phtalate de diéthyle (DEP) ont été réalisés selon différents protocoles incluant enduction ou spin-coating et polarisation sous haute tension pour activer les propriétés ferroélectriques. Selon les conditions d’élaboration, deux structures distinctes de films ont été obtenues avec des propriétés physiques propres à chacune. Dans le premier type de film, l’étude de la morphologie et des courbes d’hystérésis polarisation-champ électrique a permis de mettre en évidence une nouvelle structuration du matériau, avec la démixtion du plastifiant dans la matrice. Le champ coercitif est dans ce cas fortement abaissé ce qui permet une réduction de la haute tension de polarisation nécessaire allant jusqu’à 40%, même lorsque que le film ne contient plus que 50wt% de P(VDF-TrFE). Le second type de film, obtenu après recuit à plus basse température, présente au contraire une structure quasi homogène et des propriétés proches d’une loi de mélange. Le champ coercitif reste comparable à celui du P(VDF-TrFE) pur mais la flexibilité du matériau est fortement accrue. L’étude des propriétés mécaniques a montré que le plastifiant peut réduire le module de Young du copolymère à 40MPa avec 30wt% de DEP dans le film. De surcroit la polarisation rémanente et le coefficient piézoélectrique sont également renforcés. Des tests in vitro et in vivo, réalisés sur des artères, de capteurs basés sur ces derniers films ont démontré le haut potentiel du matériau à détecter des déformations de tissus mous et à fonctionner aux fréquences biologiques humaines / The work presented here focuses on the preparation of a piezoelectric polymer material aimed to be the sensitive element of a strain sensor of biological tissues. This includes the study of the softening of the copolymer P(VDF-TrFE) necessary to be close of the mechanical properties of an artery, without reducing the piezoelectric coefficient. Plasticized P(VDF-TrFE) films with diethyl phthalate (DEP) were made according to different protocols including doctor blade technique or spin-coating and polarization under high voltage to activate the ferroelectric properties. Depending on the preparation conditions, two distinct structures were obtained with physical properties specific to each of them. For the first type of film, the study of the morphology and the hysteresis loops polarization-electric field showed a new structure of the material, with a demixing of the plasticizer in the matrix. In this case, the coercive field is strongly reduced which allows a decrease of the required high polarization voltage up to 40%, even if the film only contains 50wt% of P(VDF-TrFE). The second type of film, obtained after an annealing at lower temperature, has an almost homogeneous structure and properties close to a mixing law. The coercive field remains comparable to that of the pure P(VDF-TrFE) but the flexibility of the material is greatly increased. The study of the mechanical properties showed that the plasticizer can reduce the Young modulus to 40MPa for 30wt% of DEP in the film. In addition, the remanent polarization and the piezoelectric coefficient are also reinforced. In vitro and in vivo experiments, performed on arteries, of sensors based on these films demonstrated the high potential of the material to detect the strain of soft tissues and to function at biologic human frequencies

Biomedical applications offer an exciting growth opportunity for wireless sensor networks. However, radio frequency communication is problematic in hospital environments that are susceptible to interference in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands. Also, RF is inherently insecure as eavesdroppers can easily pick up signals. The Intra-Body Network (IBNet) proposes a novel communication model for biomedical sensor networks. It seeks the convenience of wireless communication while avoiding interference and privacy concerns associated with RF. IBNet's solution is to utilize a subject's own body tissue as a transmission medium. Assuming that transmissions are contained within the body, IBNet solves otherwise complex problems of privacy and interference. Unfortunately, transmitting through the same medium in which we sense creates a new type of conflict; it is possible that one sensor's network transmission might corrupt an adjacent sensor's sample data. We present Body Language, a set of protocols that arbitrate IBNet's sampling/communication conflict while providing basic services such as dynamic node discovery, network configuration, quality of service, and sensor sample collection. Body Language seeks to provide these services and solve IBNet's unique communication challenges while minimizing hardware resource requirements and hence sensor node cost. In order to prove Body Language feasibility, we created an IBNet prototype environment where the protocols were demonstrated on real hardware and in real time. The prototype also offers important insight into the Body Language's computational resource requirements. Our results show that Body Language provides all services required by IBNet and it does so with a very modest footprint.

L'objectif de cette thèse est de concevoir une architecture de services Web pour la dé-termination automatique d’un système de capteurs personnalisé, embarqué sous forme de vêtement intelligent dédié au self-care, afin de permettre à tout utilisateur profane d'enregistrer lui-même son propre électrocardiogramme (ECG), à tout moment et n’importe où. Le défi principal réside dans l'orchestration intelligente et dynamique de services métiers en fonction du contexte, pour qu’ils fournissent à l'utilisateur une solution personnalisée optimale tout en maîtrisant la complexité inhérente à la dépendance au contexte des interactions homme-machine, à l'extraction des connaissances des signes vitaux spécifiques à un sujet, et à l'automatisation de la reconfiguration des services. Une solution à ce défi est de créer une intelligence ambiante qui étend la notion d'informatique ubiquitaire et est capable d’offrir à l’instar d’un expert du domaine, une assistance intelligente personnalisée à tout citoyen. Nous proposons une méthodologie de construction d'une architecture DM-SOA orientée-services, dirigée à la fois par les données et par des modèles, pour la production de services métiers intelligents et tenant compte du contexte. Cette architecture permet l’automatisation d’activités sophistiquées et personnalisées qu’un expert mettrait en œuvre pour le traitement d’un cas individuel, à partir de ses connaissances professionnelles. La solution proposée est basée sur une nouvelle approche de modélisation dynamique de processus métiers, et l’implémentation de services reconfigurables automatiquement. Elle consiste à mettre en œuvre un environnement intelligent fondé sur une ontologie de processus métiers des concepts du domaine et de son contexte, et sur une base de règles pour l'orchestration contextuelle des services. Pour valider le bien-fondé de notre approche, nous avons proposé une ontologie pour l’automatisation de processus d’aide à la décision et nous l’avons évaluée dans le domaine de la cardiologie, en l’appliquant au problème de la sélection la plus adéquate possible d’un système de positionnement d’électrodes, spécifique à chaque individu, et capable de fournir un signal ECG de contenu diagnostique similaire à celui d'un ECG standard à 12 dérivations. Pour répondre aux besoins en situation de self-care tout en préservant la qualité diagnostique des signaux enregistrés à la demande, nous proposons la réalisation d’un nouveau système prototype de capture ECG-3D à trois modalités. Ce prototype a été testé sur huit jeunes adultes volontaires sains (4 hommes et 4 femmes) présentant diverses caractéristiques morphologiques. L'intelligence ambiante est fournie par un ensemble de services de qualité professionnelle, prêts à l’emploi par des utilisateurs profanes. Ces services peuvent être accessibles au travail, n’importe où, via des moyens classiquement utilisés chaque jour, et fournissent une aide appropriée aux utilisateurs non-compétents. / The aim of the thesis is to design a web services architecture that shall support the automatic determination of a personalised sensor-system, which is embedded in smart garments, and which shall be used in self-care in order to allow a profane user to record himself a personal electrocardiogram (ECG), at anytime and anywhere. The main challenge consists in the intelligent and dynamic orchestration of context-aware business services that supply the user with an optimal personalised solution, while mastering the system’s complexity: context dependent user and system interactions, knowledge extraction from subject-specific vital signs, services reconfiguration automation. The solution to this challenge is to create an Ambient Intelligence which goes beyond Ubiquitous Computing and is capable to replace an expert by proposing an Intelligent Assistance to any citizen. We propose a methodology expressed in terms of Data and Model driven Service Oriented Architecture (DM-SOA), which provides a framework for the production of context-aware intelligent business services. This architecture supports the automation of sophisticated and personalised expert activities, which apply professional knowledge to process an individual case. The proposed solution is based on a new dynamic business process modelling approach and in its implementation via automatically reconfigurable services. It consists in setting-up an intelligent environment based on a business process ontology of context-aware concepts and on related context handling rules for services orchestration. A core-ontology has been designed to support the automation of expert activities related to decision-making. The soundness of the method and of the underlying decision-making techniques has been demonstrated in the cardiology domain for selecting the most adequate subject-specific sensor-system, characterised by its ability to yield for an ECG signal of similar diagnostic content than a standard 12-lead ECG. We propose the design of a new three modalities sensor-system prototype as a response to the need of sensor-systems used on demand in self-care situations and ensuring diagnostic quality signals recordings. This prototype has been tested on a set of healthy volunteers presenting various characteristics in age, sex and morphology. In this context, Ambient Intelligence is demonstrated as an ensemble of professional quality services ready to use by profane users. These services are accessible pervasively, trough the objects people work with / wear on / use each day, and provide an appropriate guidance to the non-competent users. Such an Ambient Intelligence approach strongly supports the vision of an Information Society which corresponds to the long-term goal of the EU Information Society Technologies Research Programme that aims to ease knowledge access. The future healthcare will benefit from this approach and will significantly improve patient care.

Several sensor technologies have been developed and experimented over the last few decades to cater various needs of medical diagnostics. Among these, fiber optic sensors, in particular, Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) based sensors have attracted considerable attention due to their inherent advantages such electrical passiveness, immunity to Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI), chemical inertness, etc. The present research work focuses on design, development and validation of FBG sensor based devices for measurement of certain healthcare parameters in the context of foot function/gait cycle, cardiac and breathing activity, nostril dominance, hand grip/wrist angle force function, etc. The experimental work presented here emphasizes on the effectiveness and competitiveness of the FBG devices developed, in comparison with standard tools such as Accelerometer, Load cell, Electronic Stethoscope, Electromyogram and Dynamometer. In the field of human balance, stability and geriatrics, two independent FBG devices namely, Fiber Bragg Grating based Stability Assessment Device (FBGSAD) and Optical Sensor Ground Reaction Force measurement Platform (OSGRFP) have been designed, developed and experimented for postural stability assessment and gait analysis respectively. The result of these studies have significant implications in understanding of the mechanism of plantar strain distribution, identifying issues in gait cycles, detecting foot function discrepancies, identifying individuals who are susceptible to falls and to qualify subjects for balance and stability. In the field of ergonomic assessment, Fiber Braggs Grating based Hand Grip Device (FBGHGD) is designed and developed for the measurement of hand grip force which helps in the understanding of several important biomechanical aspects such as neuromuscular system function, overall upper-limb strength, vertebral fracture, skeletal muscle function, prediction of disability, incapacity, mortality and bone mass density (forearm, skeletal sites, spine, hip etc.). Further as an extension of this work, the FBGHGD is used for measurement of force generated by the wrist in different positions of the flexion and extension which relates to the wrist muscle activity and its enactment. In the field of cardiac activity monitoring, a novel, in-vivo, non-invasive and portable device named Fiber Bragg Grating based Heart Beat Device (FBGHBD) is developed for the simultaneous measurement of respiratory and cardiac activities. The work involves designing FBGHBD, validating its performance against traditional diagnostic systems like electronic stethoscope, exploration of its clinical relevance and the usage of FBGHBD in studies involving normal persons and patients with myocardial infarction. The unique design of FBGHBD provides critical information such as nascent morphology of cardiac and breathing activity, heart rate variability, heart beat rhythm, etc., which can assist in early clinical diagnosis of many conditions associated to heart and lung malfunctioning. Further, the scope of this work extends towards evaluating several signal processing algorithms and demonstrating a suitable signal processing architecture for real-time extraction of heart beat and respiratory rates along with its nascent morphologies for critical health care application. In the area of breath monitoring, a Nostril Pressure and Temperature Device (NPTD) is designed and developed which aims at simultaneous, accurate and real-time measurement of nostril air flow pressure and temperature to aid in clinical diagnosis of nasal dysfunction and associated nose disorders. The results of NPTD can offer certain vital features like breathing pattern, respiratory rate, changes in individual nostril temperature/pressure, nostrils dominance, body core temperature etc., which can assist in early clinical diagnosis of breathing problems associated with heart, brain and lung malfunctioning. Since the research work in this thesis involve experiments engaging human subjects, necessary approvals from the ethical committee is obtained before the experiments and required ethical procedures are followed during all the experimental trials.

The growth of sensors and sensing technologies have made significant impact in our day-to-day life. The five principle sensory organs of our body should perform effectively, so that we can lead a good healthy life. Apart from these natural sensors, there are man-made sensors that helps us to cope with diseases, organ failure etc. and enable us to lead a normal life. In recent years, with the prevalence of new kind of diseases, the need for new type of biomedical sensors is becoming very important. As a result, sensors used for biomedical applications have become an emerging technology and rapidly growing field of research. The aim of the present thesis work is to use the piezoelectric property of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) film for the development of biomedical sensor and studying its application for human respiration/breathing related abnormalities. PVDF nasal sensor was designed in cantilever configuration and detailed theoretical analysis of the same was performed. Based on theoretical and experimental results, the PVDF nasal sensor dimensions were optimized. Suitable signal conditioning circuitry was designed and a measurement system for biomedical application was developed. The developed PVDF nasal sensor was calibrated using MEMS low-pressure sensor. The PVDF nasal sensor system has been applied in different biomedical applications namely, (i) to monitor human respiration pattern, (ii) to identify different Respiration Rates (RR), (iii) to evaluate Deviated Nasal Septum (DNS) in comparison with other objective method and, (vi) to clinically investigate nasal obstruction in comparison with subjective method. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 This chapter gives a general introduction about biomedical sensors, piezoelectric sensing principle and PVDF polymer films along with the relevant literature survey. The brief introduction as well as literature survey of techniques used to monitor human respiration and to measure nasal obstruction is also included in this chapter. Chapter 2 This chapter gives details about the design of the PVDF nasal sensor in the cantilever configuration for sensing nasal airflow along with the relevant theoretical equations. Also, the details on the optimization of the PVDF nasal sensor dimensions based on the theoretical and experimental analysis are presented. Chapter 3 This chapter reports the designing of the necessary signal conditioning hardware along with the data acquisition unit for the PVDF nasal sensor. The signal conditioning hardware unit made consists of charge amplifier, low-pass filter and an amplifier. Besides, a complete measurement system for biomedical application was developed using PVDF nasal sensor and its merits and demerits were discussed. Chapter 4 In this chapter, an experimental set-up for measuring human respiration/breathing pressure using water U-tube manometer has been described. Also, the calibration procedure followed for the developed PVDF nasal sensor using a Micro Electro Mechanical Systems(MEMS) low pressure sensor is reported. Apart from these, the details on the measurement of deflection of the PVDF cantilever sensing element using laser displacement setup are provided. In addition, the PVDF nasal sensor was also calibrated for various air flow rates. At the end, a study has been reported on optimizing the position the PVDF nasal sensor with respect to human nose. Chapter 5 This chapter is divided into two sections, Section 5.1: This section describes the applicability of the PVDF nasal sensor using its piezoelectric property to monitor the human respiration pattern of each nostril simultaneously. The results of the PVDF nasal sensor have also been evaluated by comparing with Respiratory Inductive Plethysmograph(RIP) technique in normal subjects. Section 5.2: In this section, PVDF nasal sensor, RIP and Nasal Prongs (NP) techniques were used to measure the RR of healthy adults. The aim here was to evaluate the presently developed PVDF nasal sensor for identifying different RR compared to „Gold standard‟ RIP and NP methods. Chapter 6 This chapter is divided into two sections. Section 6.1: This section reports about the utilization of the developed PVDF nasal sensor for clinical application on the patient population. For this purpose, the performance of the PVDF nasal sensor measurements has been compared with the Peak Nasal Inspiratory Flow(PNIF) objective technique and visual analog scale (VAS). Section 6.2: This section describes about the use of PVDF nasal sensor system to measure nasal obstruction caused due to DNS objectively. Further, the results of the PVDF nasal sensor were compared with subjective techniques namely, VAS and clinician scale in patients and control group. Chapter 7 This chapter is composed of two sections. Section 7.1: This section summarizes the salient features of the work presented in this thesis. Section 7.2: This section reports a scope for carrying out further work.