scholarly journals Wearable Detection of Trunk Flexions: Capacitive Elastomeric Sensors Compared to Inertial Sensors

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (16) ◽  
pp. 5453
Author(s):  
Gabriele Frediani ◽  
Leonardo Bocchi ◽  
Federica Vannetti ◽  
Giovanni Zonfrillo ◽  
Federico Carpi
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Monitoring ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Dielectric Elastomers ◽  
Capacitive Sensors ◽  
Wireless System ◽  
Alternative Technology ◽  
Human Kinematics ◽  
Effective Technology

Continuous monitoring of flexions of the trunk via wearable sensors could help various types of workers to reduce risks associated with incorrect postures and movements. Stretchable piezo-capacitive elastomeric sensors based on dielectric elastomers have recently been described as a wearable, lightweight and cost-effective technology to monitor human kinematics. Their stretching causes an increase of capacitance, which can be related to angular movements. Here, we describe a wearable wireless system to detect flexions of the trunk, based on such sensors. In particular, we present: (i) a comparison of different calibration strategies for the capacitive sensors, using either an accelerometer or a gyroscope as an inclinometer; (ii) a comparison of the capacitive sensors’ performance with those of the accelerometer and gyroscope; to that aim, the three types of sensors were evaluated relative to stereophotogrammetry. Compared to the gyroscope, the capacitive sensors showed a higher accuracy. Compared to the accelerometer, their performance was lower when used as quasi-static inclinometers but also higher in case of highly dynamic accelerations. This makes the capacitive sensors attractive as a complementary, rather than alternative, technology to inertial sensors.

scholarly journals Monitoring Flexions and Torsions of the Trunk via Gyroscope-Calibrated Capacitive Elastomeric Wearable Sensors

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (20) ◽  
pp. 6706
Author(s):  
Gabriele Frediani ◽  
Federica Vannetti ◽  
Leonardo Bocchi ◽  
Giovanni Zonfrillo ◽  
Federico Carpi
Keyword(s):  
Root Mean Square Error ◽  
Motion Capture ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Capacitive Sensors ◽  
Mean Square ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Wireless System ◽  
Compliant Electrodes

Reliable, easy-to-use, and cost-effective wearable sensors are desirable for continuous measurements of flexions and torsions of the trunk, in order to assess risks and prevent injuries related to body movements in various contexts. Piezo-capacitive stretch sensors, made of dielectric elastomer membranes coated with compliant electrodes, have recently been described as a wearable, lightweight and low-cost technology to monitor body kinematics. An increase of their capacitance upon stretching can be used to sense angular movements. Here, we report on a wearable wireless system that, using two sensing stripes arranged on shoulder straps, can detect flexions and torsions of the trunk, following a simple and fast calibration with a conventional tri-axial gyroscope on board. The piezo-capacitive sensors avoid the errors that would be introduced by continuous sensing with a gyroscope, due to its typical drift. Relative to stereophotogrammetry (non-wearable standard system for motion capture), pure flexions and pure torsions could be detected by the piezo-capacitive sensors with a root mean square error of ~8° and ~12°, respectively, whilst for flexion and torsion components in compound movements, the error was ~13° and ~15°, respectively.

3D printing in pharmacy

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-60
Author(s):  
Yuliya Prozherina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Drug Market ◽  
Dosage Forms ◽  
Fixed Dose ◽  
Major Step ◽  
Combination Drugs ◽  
Effective Technology ◽  
Dose Combination ◽  
Research Stage

3D printing of drugs is an innovative and cost-effective technology, which is a major step towards personalized medicine. This technology can be used for the development of controlled-release drugs; fixed-dose combination drugs, as well as for the creation of orodispersible dosage forms. The global 3D drug market is still largely at the research stage, but its rapid growth is expected in the coming decade [1].

scholarly journals Sprouting of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench): Effect of Drying Treatment on Protein and Starch Features

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mia Marchini ◽  
Alessandra Marti ◽  
Claudia Folli ◽  
Barbara Prandi ◽  
Tommaso Ganino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
High Exposure ◽  
Effective Technology ◽  
Drying Treatment ◽  
Higher Temperature ◽  
Lower Temperature ◽  
The One ◽  
Drying Conditions ◽  
Sorghum Bicolor L

The nutritional and physicochemical properties of sorghum proteins and starch make the use of this cereal for food production challenging. Sprouting is a cost-effective technology to improve the nutritional and functional profile of grains. Two drying treatments were used after sorghum sprouting to investigate whether the drying phase could improve the protein and starch functionalities. Results showed that the drying treatment at lower temperature/longer time (40 °C for 12 h) extended the enzymatic activity that started during sprouting compared to the one performed at higher temperature/shorter time (50 °C for 6 h). An increased protein hydrolysis and water- and oil-holding capacity were found in the flour obtained by the former treatment. Higher protein matrix hydrolysis caused high exposure of starch to enzymes, thus increasing its digestibility, while worsening the technological functionality. Overall, modulating drying conditions could represent a further way, in addition to sprouting, to improve sorghum flour’s nutritional profile.

Wearable sensors bring new benefits to continuous medical monitoring, real time physical activity assessment, baby monitoring and industrial applications

Sensor Review ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bloss
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Continuous Monitoring ◽  
Medical Condition ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Medical Monitoring ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Doctor's Office ◽  
Monitoring Technologies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the recent advancements in the development of wearable sensors which can continuously monitor critical medical, assess athletic activity, watch babies and serve industrial applications. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an in-depth review of a number of developments in wearable sensing and monitoring technologies for medical, athletic and industrial applications. Researchers and companies around the world were contacted to discuss their direction and progress in this field of medical condition and industrial monitoring, as well as discussions with medical personnel on the perceived benefits of such technology. Findings – Dramatic progress is being made in continuous monitoring of many important body functions that indicate critical medical conditions that can be life-threatening, contribute to blindness or access activity. In the industrial arena, wearable devices bring remote monitoring to a new level. Practical implications – Doctors will be able to replace one-off tests with continuous monitoring that provides a much better continuous real-time “view” into the patient’s conditions. Wearable monitors will help provide much better medical care in the future. Industrial managers and others will be able to monitor and supervise remotely. Originality/value – An expert insight into advancements in medical condition monitoring that replaces the one-time “finger prick” type testing only performed in the doctor’s office. It is also a look at how wearable monitoring is greatly improved and serving athletics, the industry and parents.

scholarly journals Wearable Sensors Integrated with Virtual Reality: A Self-Guided Healthcare System Measuring Shoulder Joint Mobility for Frozen Shoulder

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianjun Cui ◽  
Shih-Ching Yeh ◽  
Si-Huei Lee
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Shoulder Joint ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Frozen Shoulder ◽  
Joint Mobility ◽  
Joint Movement ◽  
Rehabilitation Process ◽  
Shoulder Condition ◽  
At Home

Frozen shoulder is a common clinical shoulder condition. Measuring the degree of shoulder joint movement is crucial to the rehabilitation process. Such measurements can be used to evaluate the severity of patients’ condition, establish rehabilitation goals and appropriate activity difficulty levels, and understand the effects of rehabilitation. Currently, measurements of the shoulder joint movement degree are typically conducted by therapists using a protractor. However, along with the growth of telerehabilitation, measuring the shoulder joint mobility on patients’ own at home will be needed. In this study, wireless inertial sensors were combined with the virtual reality interactive technology to provide an innovative shoulder joint mobility self-measurement system that can enable patients to measure their performance of four shoulder joint movements on their own at home. Pilot clinical trials were conducted with 25 patients to confirm the feasibility of the system. In addition, the results of correlation and differential analyses compared with the results of traditional measurement methods exhibited a high correlation, verifying the accuracy of the proposed system. Moreover, according to interviews with patients, they are confident in their ability to measure shoulder joint mobility themselves.

scholarly journals Classification of Human Daily Activities Using Ensemble Methods Based on Smartphone Inertial Sensors

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 4132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ku Ku Abd. Rahim ◽  
I. Elamvazuthi ◽  
Lila Izhar ◽  
Genci Capi
Keyword(s):  
Activity Recognition ◽  
Inertial Sensors ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Ensemble Methods ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Random Subspace ◽  
Ensemble Classifiers ◽  
Accuracy Rate

Increasing interest in analyzing human gait using various wearable sensors, which is known as Human Activity Recognition (HAR), can be found in recent research. Sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes are widely used in HAR. Recently, high interest has been shown in the use of wearable sensors in numerous applications such as rehabilitation, computer games, animation, filmmaking, and biomechanics. In this paper, classification of human daily activities using Ensemble Methods based on data acquired from smartphone inertial sensors involving about 30 subjects with six different activities is discussed. The six daily activities are walking, walking upstairs, walking downstairs, sitting, standing and lying. It involved three stages of activity recognition; namely, data signal processing (filtering and segmentation), feature extraction and classification. Five types of ensemble classifiers utilized are Bagging, Adaboost, Rotation forest, Ensembles of nested dichotomies (END) and Random subspace. These ensemble classifiers employed Support vector machine (SVM) and Random forest (RF) as the base learners of the ensemble classifiers. The data classification is evaluated with the holdout and 10-fold cross-validation evaluation methods. The performance of each human daily activity was measured in terms of precision, recall, F-measure, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. In addition, the performance is also measured based on the comparison of overall accuracy rate of classification between different ensemble classifiers and base learners. It was observed that overall, SVM produced better accuracy rate with 99.22% compared to RF with 97.91% based on a random subspace ensemble classifier.

scholarly journals Experimental Characterization of Inkjet-Printed Stretchable Circuits for Wearable Sensor Applications

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 3476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jumana Abu-Khalaf ◽  
Razan Saraireh ◽  
Saleh Eisa ◽  
Ala’aldeen Al-Halhouli
Keyword(s):  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Experimental Characterization ◽  
Wearable Sensor ◽  
Successful Development ◽  
Sensor Applications ◽  
Cost Effective Method ◽  
Stretchable Circuits ◽  
Nanoparticle Ink

This paper introduces a cost-effective method for the fabrication of stretchable circuits on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using inkjet printing of silver nanoparticle ink. The fabrication method, presented here, allows for the development of fully stretchable and wearable sensors. Inkjet-printed sinusoidal and horseshoe patterns are experimentally characterized in terms of the effect of their geometry on stretchability, while maintaining adequate electrical conductivity. The optimal fabricated circuit, with a horseshoe pattern at an angle of 45°, is capable of undergoing an axial stretch up to a strain of 25% with a resistance under 800 Ω. The conductivity of the circuit is fully reversible once it is returned to its pre-stretching state. The circuit could also undergo up to 3000 stretching cycles without exhibiting a significant change in its conductivity. In addition, the successful development of a novel inkjet-printed fully stretchable and wearable version of the conventional pulse oximeter is demonstrated. Finally, the resulting sensor is evaluated in comparison to its commercially available counterpart.

scholarly journals Unsupervised Hierarchical Clustering Approach for Tourism Market Segmentation Based on Crowdsourced Mobile Phone Data

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 2972 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Rodríguez ◽  
Ivana Semanjski ◽  
Sidharta Gautama ◽  
Nico Van de Weghe ◽  
Daniel Ochoa
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Clustering ◽  
Market Segmentation ◽  
Wearable Sensors ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Mobile Phone Data ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Tourism Management ◽  
Clustering Approach ◽  
Spatio Temporal

Understanding tourism related behavior and traveling patterns is an essential element of transportation system planning and tourism management at tourism destinations. Traditionally, tourism market segmentation is conducted to recognize tourist’s profiles for which personalized services can be provided. Today, the availability of wearable sensors, such as smartphones, holds the potential to tackle data collection problems of paper-based surveys and deliver relevant mobility data in a timely and cost-effective way. In this paper, we develop and implement a hierarchical clustering approach for smartphone geo-localized data to detect meaningful tourism related market segments. For these segments, we provide detailed insights into their characteristics and related mobility behavior. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated on a use case in the Province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. We collected data from 1505 users during five months using the Zeeland app. The proposed approach resulted in two major clusters and four sub-clusters which we were able to interpret based on their spatio-temporal patterns and the recurrence of their visiting patterns to the region.

Flipchip Bonding of Si Chip on Flexible PEN Foil using Novel Electronic 100 μm Pitch Fan-out Circuitry

2007 ◽  
Vol 1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen van den Brand ◽  
Erik Veninga ◽  
Roel Kusters ◽  
Tomas Podprocky ◽  
Andreas Dietzel
Keyword(s):  
Thick Film ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
High Density ◽  
Polyethylene Naphthalate ◽  
Electronic Circuitry ◽  
Effective Technology

AbstractA novel, cost effective technology to manufacture high density embedded electronic circuitry is demonstrated. The process consists of laser photoablation of the circuitry into a substrate through a mask and subsequent filling using a polymer thick film paste. Because the volume of the substrate is used it is possible to make thick and thereby highly conductive lines using low cost materials and processes. The process is demonstrated for a fan out circuitry in 100 µm thick polyethylene naphthalate (PEN). The fan out circuitry has linewidths of 50 µm and line spacings of 100 µm. The usability of the circuitry is demonstrated by the successful flipchip bonding of a thinned Si daisy chain dummy chip with 176 IO's.

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