Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "E:Engineering and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2021) | Viewed by 22142

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
Interests: nano communication; biomedical applications of millimeter and terahertz communication; wearable and flexible sensors; compact antenna design; RF design and radio propagation; antenna interaction with human body; implants; body centric wireless communication issues; wireless body sensor networks; non-invasive health care solutions; physical layer security for wearable/implant communication and multiple-input–multiple-output systems
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Guest Editor
Research Centre for Intelligent Healthcare, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
Interests: THz/RF sensing; radar technology; advanced signal processing; antennas and propagation; healthcare technology
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Guest Editor
School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisely, UK
Interests: artificial intelligence; affective computing; Internet-of-Things
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Interests: 5G and Beyond networks
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Micro/nano-scaled structures, materials and devices enable the continuous monitoring of human physical activities and behaviors, as well as physiological and biochemical parameters during daily life. The most commonly measured data include vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature, as well as blood oxygen saturation, posture, and physical activities through the use of an electrocardiogram (ECG), ballistocardiogram (BCG) and other devices. Potentially, wearable photo or video devices could provide additional clinical information. Wearable devices can be attached to shoes, eyeglasses, earrings, clothing, gloves and watches and may evolve to be skin-attachable devices. Sensors can be embedded into the environment, such as chairs, car seats and mattresses. Healthcare is undergoing a rapid transformation from traditional hospital and specialist focused approach to a distributed patient-centric approach. Advances in several technologies fuel this rapid transformation of healthcare vertically. Among the various technologies, communication technologies have enabled us to deliver personalized and remote healthcare services.

This Special Issues invites original scientific and research articles on state-of-the-art remote patient monitoring in a safe and secure intelligent healthcare sector. Additionally, the focus of this Special Issue is to invite article/reviews in the area of cybersecurity in digital healthcare. The core idea is to provide an opportunity to academics, researchers and industry professionals to showcase their current developments and set future directions.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Micro/nano-scaled structures, materials, devices for intelligent healthcare;
  • Beyond 5G communication for intelligent healthcare;
  • Wearable sensors, devices, or techniques for physiological monitoring;
  • Wearable sensors health applications;
  • E-textiles and clothing-based wearables;
  • Wearable-based virtual and augmented reality;
  • Human-wearable interaction methods, designs, and evaluation;
  • Data fusion for hand–eye coordination;
  • Wireless implants;
  • Body-centric communications;
  • Implant communication;
  • Software defined radios for vital signs monitoring;
  • Disease detection based on handwriting using deep learning;
  • Identifying disorders using eye movements;
  • Heart rate monitoring techniques using machine learning;
  • Gait analysis using wireless sensing;
  • Emotional state identification based on social media (Facebook/Instagram, etc.);
  • Ai technique in digital healthcare;
  • Facial recognition for symptom detection;
  • Cybersecurity in digital healthcare;
  • Privacy preserved machine learning in healthcare;
  • Robust and secure deep learning in healthcare;
  • Use cases of blockchain in remote healthcare;
  • Chaos-based cyber-secure health data management systems;
  • Patient data privacy and security;
  • Data authentication in healthcare domain.

Dr. Qammer Hussain Abbasi
Dr. Syed Aziz Shah
Prof. Naeem Ramzan
Prof. Muhammad Ali Imran
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • micro/nano-scaled structures, materials, devices for healthcare
  • 5G sensing for remote patient monitoring
  • wireless sensing system in intelligent healthcare

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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3 pages, 153 KiB  
Editorial
Editorial for the Special Issue on Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies
by Syed Aziz Shah, Naeem Ramzan, Muhammad Ali Imran and Qammer Hussain Abbasi
Micromachines 2021, 12(9), 1028; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12091028 - 27 Aug 2021
Viewed by 1569
Abstract
Micro-/nano-scaled structures, materials, and devices enable the continuous monitoring of human physical activities and behaviors, as well as physiological and biochemical parameters during daily life [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

10 pages, 2915 KiB  
Communication
A Fiber Ring Laser Sensor with a Side Polished Evanescent Enhanced Fiber for Highly Sensitive Temperature Measurement
by Weihao Lin, Yibin Liu, Liyang Shao and Mang I. Vai
Micromachines 2021, 12(5), 586; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12050586 - 20 May 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2354
Abstract
We demonstrate a highly sensitive and practical fiber-based temperature sensor system. The sensor is constructed based on a fiber ring laser (FRL) as well as a side-polished fiber filled with isopropanol. The laser cavity of the sensing part fiber is polished by the [...] Read more.
We demonstrate a highly sensitive and practical fiber-based temperature sensor system. The sensor is constructed based on a fiber ring laser (FRL) as well as a side-polished fiber filled with isopropanol. The laser cavity of the sensing part fiber is polished by the wheel fiber polishing system with residual thickness (RT) is selected to detect the temperature in the FRL. Thanks to the high thermo-optic coefficient of isopropanol, the sensitivity of the proposed temperature sensor could be effectively improved by filling isopropanol in the cost-less side polished single mode fiber. Refractive index (RI) of isopropanol changes with the surrounding temperature variation allowing high-sensitivity temperature sensing. Experimental results demonstrate that the side polished fiber can efficiently excite high-order cladding modes which enhance the modular interference increase the interaction between the evanescent wave and the isopropanol. Besides, the results show that the sensitivity can be as high as 2 nm/°C in the temperature range of 25–35 °C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies)
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17 pages, 8807 KiB  
Article
Design and Evaluation of a Flexible Dual-Band Meander Line Monopole Antenna for On- and Off-Body Healthcare Applications
by Shahid M Ali, Cheab Sovuthy, Sima Noghanian, Zulfiqur Ali, Qammer H. Abbasi, Muhammad A. Imran, Tale Saeidi and Soeung Socheatra
Micromachines 2021, 12(5), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12050475 - 22 Apr 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3424
Abstract
The human body is an extremely challenging environment for wearable antennas due to the complex antenna-body coupling effects. In this article, a compact flexible dual-band planar meander line monopole antenna (MMA) with a truncated ground plane made of multiple layers of standard off-the-shelf [...] Read more.
The human body is an extremely challenging environment for wearable antennas due to the complex antenna-body coupling effects. In this article, a compact flexible dual-band planar meander line monopole antenna (MMA) with a truncated ground plane made of multiple layers of standard off-the-shelf materials is evaluated to validate its performance when worn by different subjects to help the designers who are shaping future complex on-/off-body wireless devices. The antenna was fabricated, and the measured results agreed well with those from the simulations. As a reference, in free-space, the antenna provided omnidirectional radiation patterns (ORP), with a wide impedance bandwidth of 1282.4 (450.5) MHz with a maximum gain of 3.03 dBi (4.85 dBi) in the lower (upper) bands. The impedance bandwidth could reach up to 688.9 MHz (500.9 MHz) and 1261.7 MHz (524.2 MHz) with the gain of 3.80 dBi (4.67 dBi) and 3.00 dBi (4.55 dBi), respectively, on the human chest and arm. The stability in results shows that this flexible antenna is sufficiently robust against the variations introduced by the human body. A maximum measured shift of 0.5 and 100 MHz in the wide impedance matching and resonance frequency was observed in both bands, respectively, while an optimal gap between the antenna and human body was maintained. This stability of the working frequency provides robustness against various conditions including bending, movement, and relatively large fabrication tolerances. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies)
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16 pages, 9142 KiB  
Article
Full Ground Ultra-Wideband Wearable Textile Antenna for Breast Cancer and Wireless Body Area Network Applications
by Sarmad Nozad Mahmood, Asnor Juraiza Ishak, Tale Saeidi, Azura Che Soh, Ali Jalal, Muhammad Ali Imran and Qammer H. Abbasi
Micromachines 2021, 12(3), 322; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12030322 - 19 Mar 2021
Cited by 60 | Viewed by 5095
Abstract
Wireless body area network (WBAN) applications have broad utility in monitoring patient health and transmitting the data wirelessly. WBAN can greatly benefit from wearable antennas. Wearable antennas provide comfort and continuity of the monitoring of the patient. Therefore, they must be comfortable, flexible, [...] Read more.
Wireless body area network (WBAN) applications have broad utility in monitoring patient health and transmitting the data wirelessly. WBAN can greatly benefit from wearable antennas. Wearable antennas provide comfort and continuity of the monitoring of the patient. Therefore, they must be comfortable, flexible, and operate without excessive degradation near the body. Most wearable antennas use a truncated ground, which increases specific absorption rate (SAR) undesirably. A full ground ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna is proposed and utilized here to attain a broad bandwidth while keeping SAR in the acceptable range based on both 1 g and 10 g standards. It is designed on a denim substrate with a dielectric constant of 1.4 and thickness of 0.7 mm alongside the ShieldIt conductive textile. The antenna is fed using a ground coplanar waveguide (GCPW) through a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) transition. This transition creates a perfect match while reducing SAR. In addition, the proposed antenna has a bandwidth (BW) of 7–28 GHz, maximum directive gain of 10.5 dBi and maximum radiation efficiency of 96%, with small dimensions of 60 × 50 × 0.7 mm3. The good antenna’s performance while it is placed on the breast shows that it is a good candidate for both breast cancer imaging and WBAN. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies)
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24 pages, 20190 KiB  
Article
High Gain Triple-Band Metamaterial-Based Antipodal Vivaldi MIMO Antenna for 5G Communications
by Tale Saeidi, Idris Ismail, Sima Noghanian, Adam R. H. Alhawari, Qammer H. Abbasi, Muhammad Ali Imran, M. Y. Zeain and Shahid M. Ali
Micromachines 2021, 12(3), 250; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12030250 - 28 Feb 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3587
Abstract
This paper presents a miniaturized dual-polarized Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna with high isolation. The antenna meets the constraints of sub-6 GHz 5G and the smartphones’ X-band communications. A vertically polarized modified antipodal Vivaldi antenna and a horizontally polarized spiral antenna are [...] Read more.
This paper presents a miniaturized dual-polarized Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna with high isolation. The antenna meets the constraints of sub-6 GHz 5G and the smartphones’ X-band communications. A vertically polarized modified antipodal Vivaldi antenna and a horizontally polarized spiral antenna are designed and integrated, and then their performance is investigated. Three frequency bands of 3.8 GHz, 5.2 GHz, and 8.0 GHz are considered, and the proposed dual-polarized antenna is studied. High isolation of greater than 20 dB is obtained after integration of metamaterial elements, and without applying any other decoupling methods. The proposed triple-band metamaterial-based antenna has 1.6 GHz bandwidth (BW) (2.9 GHz–4.5 GHz), 13.5 dBi gain, and 98% radiation efficiency at 3.8 GHz. At 5.2 GHz it provides 1.2 GHz BW, 9.5 dBi gain, and 96% radiation efficiency. At 8.0 GHz it has 1 GHz BW, 6.75 dBi gain, and 92% radiation efficiency. Four antenna elements (with eight ports) were laid out orthogonally at the four corners of a mobile printed circuit board (PCB) to be utilized as a MIMO antenna for 5G communications. The performance of the MIMO antenna is examined and reported. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies)
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9 pages, 2561 KiB  
Article
Portable Device for Quick Detection of Viable Bacteria in Water
by Yu-Hsiang Liao, Karthickraj Muthuramalingam, Kuo-Hao Tung, Ho-Hsien Chuan, Ko-Yuan Liang, Chen-Peng Hsu and Chao-Min Cheng
Micromachines 2020, 11(12), 1079; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11121079 - 04 Dec 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4715
Abstract
(1) Background: Access to clean water is a very important factor for human life. However, pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water often cause diseases, and convenient/inexpensive testing methods are urgently needed. (2) Methods: The reagent contains 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and phenazine methosulfate (PMS) and [...] Read more.
(1) Background: Access to clean water is a very important factor for human life. However, pathogenic microorganisms in drinking water often cause diseases, and convenient/inexpensive testing methods are urgently needed. (2) Methods: The reagent contains 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and phenazine methosulfate (PMS) and can react with succinate dehydrogenase within bacterial cell membranes to produce visible purple crystals. The colorimetric change of the reagent after reaction can be measured by a sensor (AS7262). (3) Results: Compared with traditional methods, our device is simple to operate and can provide rapid (i.e., 5 min) semi-quantitative results regarding the concentration of bacteria within a test sample. (4) Conclusions: This easy-to-use device, which employs MTT-PMS reagents, can be regarded as a potential and portable tool for rapid water quality determination. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Security and Sensing Devices for Healthcare Technologies)
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