Wearable computing e body area network: Android e wristox2 come caso di studio

In questa tesi verranno affrontati due argomenti principali. Il primo sono le tecnologie wearable, comprendendo anche la notazione più generica di tecnologie bearable, che si stanno sempre più diffondendo negli ultimi anni; il secondo sono le BAN (Body Area Network), reti di sensori e dispositivi posti sul corpo umano, utilizzate per rendere possibile la comunicazione e l'interazione fra i device wearable. Si partirà da una trattazione di tipo generico degli argomenti, descrivendo l'architettura fisica delle tecnologie, con focalizzazione sull'aspetto informatico prevalentemente che su quello elettronico e telecomunicazionistico. Si parlerà degli attuali impieghi dei dispositivi e delle reti, e delle loro probabili evoluzioni future. Si introdurranno poi i protocolli di comunicazione principali e se ne analizzeranno le differenze, decretando se sia o meno conveniente puntare su uno o sull'altro rispetto alle esigenze di progetto. Verrà introdotto il sistema operativo Android, descrivendo la sua architettura e fornendo le informazioni basilari per comprendere al meglio il rapporto esistente con la tecnologia Bluetooth.

Applicazioni Wireless in Body Area Network

Negli ultimi dieci anni si è rinnovata l’esigenza di sviluppare nuove tecnologie legate alla telemedicina, specie a seguito dello sviluppo dei sistemi di telecomunicazione che consentono ad ogni persona di avere a disposizione sistemi portatili, come gli smartphone, sempre connessi e pronti a comunicare. Lo stesso sviluppo si è avuto all’interno dei sistemi sanitari in cui è diventato fondamentale informatizzare le attività ospedaliere per via del contesto demografico a cui si va incontro: invecchiamento della popolazione e aumento del numero di pazienti affetti da malattie croniche. Tutti questi aspetti portano all’attuazione di un cambiamento strategico. Le Body Area Network, fulcro di questo lavoro di tesi, rappresentano la risposta a questa necessità. Si spiegano l'architettura e le tecnologie abilitanti per la realizzazione di queste reti di sensori, gli standard di comunicazione tramite i quali avviene la trasmissione dei dati e come le reti si interfacciano con i pazienti e le strutture sanitarie. Si conclude con una panoramica sui sensori di una BAN e alcuni esempi in commercio.

Enhancement of a body area network to support smart health monitoring at the digital home

The deployment of home-based smart health services requires effective and reliable systems for personal and environmental data management. ooperation between Home Area Networks (HAN) and Body Area Networks (BAN) can provide smart systems with ad hoc reasoning information to support health care. This paper details the implementation of an architecture that integrates BAN, HAN and intelligent agents to manage physiological and environmental data to proactively detect risk situations at the digital home. The system monitors dynamic situations and timely adjusts its behavior to detect user risks concerning to health. Thus, this work provides a reasoning framework to infer appropriate solutions in cases of health risk episodes. Proposed smart health monitoring approach integrates complex reasoning according to home environment, user profile and physiological parameters defined by a scalable ontology. As a result, health care demands can be detected to activate adequate internal mechanisms and report public health services for requested actions.

Energy-efficient hybrid system for Wireless Body Area Network Applications

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) consist of a number of miniaturized wearable or implanted sensor nodes that are employed to monitor vital parameters of a patient over long duration of time. These sensors capture physiological data and wirelessly transfer the collected data to a local base station in order to be further processed. Almost all of these body sensors are expected to have low data-rate and to run on a battery. Since recharging or replacing the battery is not a simple task specifically in the case of implanted devices such as pacemakers, extending the lifetime of sensor nodes in WBANs is one of the greatest challenges. To achieve this goal, WBAN systems employ low-power communication transceivers and low duty cycle Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols. Although, currently used MAC protocols are able to reduce the energy consumption of devices for transmission and reception, yet they are still unable to offer an ultimate energy self-sustaining solution for low-power MAC protocols. This paper proposes to utilize energy harvesting technologies in low-power MAC protocols. This novel approach can further reduce energy consumption of devices in WBAN systems.

BANMAC: an opportunistic MAC protocol for reliable communications in body area networks

We consider reliable communications in Body Area Networks (BAN), where a set of nodes placed on human body are connected using wireless links. In order to keep the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) as low as possible for health safety reasons, these networks operate in low transmit power regime, which however, is known to be error prone. It has been observed that the fluctuations of the Received Signal Strength (RSS) at the nodes of a BAN on a moving person show certain regularities and that the magnitude of these fluctuations are significant (5 - 20 dB). In this paper, we present BANMAC, a MAC protocol that monitors and predicts the channel fluctuations and schedules transmissions opportunistically when the RSS is likely to be higher. The MAC protocol is capable of providing differentiated service and resolves co-channel interference in the event of multiple co-located BANs in a vicinity. We report the design and implementation details of BANMAC integrated with the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol stack. We present experimental data which show that the packet loss rate (PLR) of BANMAC is significantly lower as compared to that of the IEEE 802.15.4 MAC. For comparable PLR, the power consumption of BANMAC is also significantly lower than that of the IEEE 802.15.4. For co-located networks, the convergence time to find a conflict-free channel allocation was approximately 1 s for the centralized coordination mechanism and was approximately 4 s for the distributed coordination mechanism.

Opportunistic packet scheduling in body area networks

Significant research efforts are being devoted to Body Area Networks (BAN) due to their potential for revolutionizing healthcare practices. Energy-efficiency and communication reliability are critically important for these networks. In an experimental study with three different mote platforms, we show that changes in human body shadowing as well as those in the relative distance and orientation of nodes caused by the common human body movements can result in significant fluctuations in the received signal strength within a BAN. Furthermore, regular movements, such as walking, typically manifest in approximately periodic variations in signal strength. We present an algorithm that predicts the signal strength peaks and evaluate it on real-world data. We present the design of an opportunistic MAC protocol, named BANMAC, that takes advantage of the periodic fluctuations of the signal strength to achieve high reliability even with low transmission power.

Comparison of low-power wireless communication technologies for wearable health-monitoring applications

Health monitoring technologies such as Body Area Network (BAN) systems has gathered a lot of attention during the past few years. Largely encouraged by the rapid increase in the cost of healthcare services and driven by the latest technological advances in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and wireless communications. BAN technology comprises of a network of body worn or implanted sensors that continuously capture and measure the vital parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure, glucose levels and movement. The collected data must be transferred to a local base station in order to be further processed. Thus, wireless connectivity plays a vital role in such systems. However, wireless connectivity comes at a cost of increased power usage, mainly due to the high energy consumption during data transmission. Unfortunately, battery-operated devices are unable to operate for ultra-long duration of time and are expected to be recharged or replaced once they run out of energy. This is not a simple task especially in the case of implanted devices such as pacemakers. Therefore, prolonging the network lifetime in BAN systems is one of the greatest challenges. In order to achieve this goal, BAN systems take advantage of low-power in-body and on-body/off-body wireless communication technologies. This paper compares some of the existing and emerging low-power communication protocols that can potentially be employed to support the rapid development and deployment of BAN systems.

Cloud-assisted body area networks: state-of-the-art and future challenges

Body area networks (BANs) are emerging as enabling technology for many human-centered application domains such as health-care, sport, fitness, wellness, ergonomics, emergency, safety, security, and sociality. A BAN, which basically consists of wireless wearable sensor nodes usually coordinated by a static or mobile device, is mainly exploited to monitor single assisted livings. Data generated by a BAN can be processed in real-time by the BAN coordinator and/or transmitted to a server-side for online/offline processing and long-term storing. A network of BANs worn by a community of people produces large amount of contextual data that require a scalable and efficient approach for elaboration and storage. Cloud computing can provide a flexible storage and processing infrastructure to perform both online and offline analysis of body sensor data streams. In this paper, we motivate the introduction of Cloud-assisted BANs along with the main challenges that need to be addressed for their development and management. The current state-of-the-art is overviewed and framed according to the main requirements for effective Cloud-assisted BAN architectures. Finally, relevant open research issues in terms of efficiency, scalability, security, interoperability, prototyping, dynamic deployment and management, are discussed.

A survey on wireless body area networks for eHealthcare systems in residential environments

The progress in wearable and implanted health monitoring technologies has strong potential to alter the future of healthcare services by enabling ubiquitous monitoring of patients. A typical health monitoring system consists of a network of wearable or implanted sensors that constantly monitor physiological parameters. Collected data are relayed using existing wireless communication protocols to the base station for additional processing. This article provides researchers with information to compare the existing low-power communication technologies that can potentially support the rapid development and deployment of WBAN systems, and mainly focuses on remote monitoring of elderly or chronically ill patients in residential environments.

Development of miniaturized antennas and adaptive tuning solutions for body sensor network applications

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are currently having a revolutionary impact in rapidly emerging wearable applications such as health and fitness monitoring amongst many others. These types of Body Sensor Network (BSN) applications require highly integrated wireless sensor devices for use in a wearable configuration, to monitor various physiological parameters of the user. These new requirements are currently posing significant design challenges from an antenna perspective. This work addresses several design challenges relating to antenna design for these types of applications. In this thesis, a review of current antenna solutions for WSN applications is first presented, investigating both commercial and academic solutions. Key design challenges are then identified relating to antenna size and performance. A detailed investigation of the effects of the human body on antenna impedance characteristics is then presented. A first-generation antenna tuning system is then developed. This system enables the antenna impedance to be tuned adaptively in the presence of the human body. Three new antenna designs are also presented. A compact, low-cost 433 MHz antenna design is first reported and the effects of the human body on the impedance of the antenna are investigated. A tunable version of this antenna is then developed, using a higher performance, second-generation tuner that is integrated within the antenna element itself, enabling autonomous tuning in the presence of the human body. Finally, a compact sized, dual-band antenna is reported that covers both the 433 MHz and 2.45 GHz bands to provide improved quality of service (QoS) in WSN applications. To date, state-of-the-art WSN devices are relatively simple in design with limited antenna options available, especially for the lower UHF bands. In addition, current devices have no capability to deal with changing antenna environments such as in wearable BSN applications. This thesis presents several contributions that advance the state-of-the-art in this area, relating to the design of miniaturized WSN antennas and the development of antenna tuning solutions for BSN applications.

Cross-cultural adaptation, validation and reliability of the Body Area Scale for Brazilian adolescents

The aim of this study was to translate, validate and verify the reliability of the Body Area Scale (BAS). Participants were 386 teenagers, enrolled in a private school. Translation into Portuguese was conducted. The instrument was evaluated for internal consistency and construct validation analysis. Reproducibility was evaluated using the Wilcoxon test and the coefficient of interclass correlation. The BAS demonstrated good values for internal consistency (0.90 and 0.88) and was able to discriminate boys and girls according to nutritional state (p = 0.020 and p = 0.026, respectively). BAS scores correlated with adolescents' BMI (r = 0.14, p = 0.055; r = 0.23, p = 0.001) and WC (r =0.13, p = 0.083; r = 0.22, 0.002). Reliability was confirmed by the coefficient of inter-class correlation (0.35, p < 0.001; 0.60, p < 0.001) for boys and girls, respectively. The instrument performed well in terms of understanding and time of completion. BAS was successfully translated into Portuguese and presented good validity when applied to adolescents.

Outermost european regions of the atlantic area network

This paper is part of the results from the project "Implementation Strategies and Development of an Open and Distance Education System for the University of the Azores" funded by the European Social Fund. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/2327

Cloud-assisted Wireless Body Area Networks

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a promising technology for medical and non-medical applications. WBANs consist of a number of miniaturized, portable, and autonomous sensor nodes that are used for long-term health monitoring of patients. These sensor nodes continuously collect information of patients, which are used for ubiquitous health monitoring. In addition, WBANs may be used for managing catastrophic events and increasing the effectiveness and performance of rescue forces. The huge amount of data collected by WBAN nodes demands scalable, on-demand, powerful, and secure storage and processing infrastructure. Cloud computing is expected to play a significant role in achieving the aforementioned objectives. The cloud computing environment links different devices ranging from miniaturized sensor nodes to high-performance supercomputers for delivering people-centric and context-centric services to the individuals and industries. The possible integration of WBANs with cloud computing (WBAN-cloud) will introduce viable and hybrid platform that must be able to process the huge amount of data collected from multiple WBANs. This WBAN-cloud will enable users (including physicians and nurses) to globally access the processing and storage infrastructure at competitive costs. Because WBANs forward useful and life-critical information to the cloud – which may operate in distributed and hostile environments, novel security mechanisms are required to prevent malicious interactions to the storage infrastructure. Both the cloud providers and the users must take strong security measures to protect the storage infrastructure.

A distributed platform for the volunteer execution of workflows on a local area network

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Computer Science