Water Soluble Flexible and Wearable Electronic Devices: A Review

Electronic devices that are biodegradable, water-soluble and flexible and are fabricated using biodegradable materials are of great importance due to their potential application in biomedical implants, personal healthcare etc. Moreover, despite the swift growth of Semiconductor technologies and considering a device's shell life of two years, the subject of electronic waste (E-waste) disposal has become a major issue. Transient electronics is a rapidly expanding field that solves the issue of E-waste by destroying the device after usage. The device disintegration can be caused by a multitude of triggering events, an example is that the device totally dissolves and/or disintegrates when submerged in water. This technology enables us to utilise electronic devices for a set amount of time before quickly destroying them, lowering E-waste significantly. This review will highlight the recent advancement in water-soluble flexible electronic devices with more focus on functional materials (water insoluble), fabrication strategies and transiency understanding with special importance on areas where these devices exhibit potential application in flexible and wearable electronic devices which includes FETs, photodetectors, memristors and sensors for personal healthcare monitoring.

IoT based on secure personal healthcare using RFID technology and steganography

Internet of things (IoT) makes it attainable for connecting different various smart objects together with the internet. The evolutionary medical model towards medicine can be boosted by IoT with involving sensors such as environmental sensors inside the internal environment of a small room with a specific purpose of monitoring of person's health with a kind of assistance which can be remotely controlled. RF identification (RFID) technology is smart enough to provide personal healthcare providing part of the IoT physical layer through low-cost sensors. Recently researchers have shown more IoT applications in the health service department using RFID technology which also increases real-time data collection. IoT platform which is used in the following research is Blynk and RFID technology for the user's better health analyses and security purposes by developing a two-level secured platform to store the acquired data in the database using RFID and Steganography. Steganography technique is used to make the user data more secure than ever. There were certain privacy concerns which are resolved using this technique. Smart healthcare medical box is designed using SolidWorks health measuring sensors that have been used in the prototype to analyze real-time data.

Neuromorphic Devices for Bionic Sensing and Perception

Neuromorphic devices that can emulate the bionic sensory and perceptual functions of neural systems have great applications in personal healthcare monitoring, neuro-prosthetics, and human–machine interfaces. In order to realize bionic sensing and perception, it’s crucial to prepare neuromorphic devices with the function of perceiving environment in real-time. Up to now, lots of efforts have been made in the incorporation of the bio-inspired sensing and neuromorphic engineering in the booming artificial intelligence industry. In this review, we first introduce neuromorphic devices based on diverse materials and mechanisms. Then we summarize the progress made in the emulation of biological sensing and perception systems. Finally, the challenges and opportunities in these fields are also discussed.

Serious games for Parkinson’s Disease management as implemented in PROPHETIC platform

In this paper, we describe the serious games, integrated into PROPHETIC which is an innovating personal healthcare service for a holistic remote management of Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. The main objective of the three developed serious games is to allow health professionals to remotely monitor and appraise the overall physical status of their patients. The significant benefits for the patients, making use of this platform, is the improvement of their engagement, empowerment and, consequently, the provision of education about their condition and its management. The design of the serious games was based on the clinical needs derived from the literature and their primary target is to assess and record specific physical capabilities of the patient. All the games scores and the recorded parameters are gathered and also presented to the clinicians, offering them a precise overview of the patient’s motor status and the possibility to modify the therapeutic plan, if required.

Smart Wearable Sensors Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Personal Healthcare Monitoring

Accurate monitoring of motion and sleep states is critical for human health assessment, especially for a healthy life, early diagnosis of diseases, and medical care. In this work, a smart wearable sensor (SWS) based on a dual-channel triboelectric nanogenerator was presented for a real-time health monitoring system. The SWS can be worn on wrists, ankles, shoes, or other parts of the body and cloth, converting mechanical triggers into electrical output. By analyzing these signals, the SWS can precisely and constantly monitor and distinguish various motion states, including stepping, walking, running, and jumping. Based on the SWS, a fall-down alarm system and a sleep quality assessment system were constructed to provide personal healthcare monitoring and alert family members or doctors via communication devices. It is important for the healthy growth of the young and special patient groups, as well as for the health monitoring and medical care of the elderly and recovered patients. This work aimed to broaden the paths for remote biological movement status analysis and provide diversified perspectives for true-time and long-term health monitoring, simultaneously.