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20 pages, 1862 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Theoretical Aspects of Resting-State Cardiomyocyte Communication for Multi-Nodal Nano-Actuator Pacemakers

by Pengfei Lu, Mladen Veletić, Jacob Bergsland and Ilangko Balasingham

Sensors 2020, 20(10), 2792; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102792 - 14 May 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2931

The heart consists of billions of cardiac muscle cells—cardiomyocytes—that work in a coordinated fashion to supply oxygen and nutrients to the body. Inter-connected specialized cardiomyocytes form signaling channels through which the electrical signals are propagated throughout the heart, controlling the heart’s beat to [...] Read more.

The heart consists of billions of cardiac muscle cells—cardiomyocytes—that work in a coordinated fashion to supply oxygen and nutrients to the body. Inter-connected specialized cardiomyocytes form signaling channels through which the electrical signals are propagated throughout the heart, controlling the heart’s beat to beat function of the other cardiac cells. In this paper, we study to what extent it is possible to use ordinary cardiomyocytes as communication channels between components of a recently proposed multi-nodal leadless pacemaker, to transmit data encoded in subthreshold membrane potentials. We analyze signal propagation in the cardiac infrastructure considering noise in the communication channel by performing numerical simulations based on the Luo-Rudy computational model. The Luo-Rudy model is an action potential model but describes the potential changes with time including membrane potential and action potential stages, separated by the thresholding mechanism. Demonstrating system performance, we show that cardiomyocytes can be used to establish an artificial communication system where data are reliably transmitted between 10 s of cells. The proposed subthreshold cardiac communication lays the foundation for a new intra-cardiac communication technique. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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16 pages, 2031 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Performance Evaluation of RTS/CTS Scheme in Beacon-Enabled IEEE 802.15.6 MAC Protocol for Wireless Body Area Networks

by Sana Ullah , Mohammad Mehedi Hassan, M. Shamim Hossain and Abdulhameed Alelaiwi

Sensors 2020, 20(8), 2368; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20082368 - 22 Apr 2020

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2960

Abstract

The IEEE 802.15.6 standard has the potential to provide cost-effective and unobtrusive medical services to individuals with chronic health conditions. It is a low-power standard developed for wireless body area networks and enables wireless communication inside or near a human body. This standard [...] Read more.

The IEEE 802.15.6 standard has the potential to provide cost-effective and unobtrusive medical services to individuals with chronic health conditions. It is a low-power standard developed for wireless body area networks and enables wireless communication inside or near a human body. This standard utilizes a Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) protocol to improve network performance under different channel access priorities. However, the CSMA/CA proposed in the IEEE 802.15.6 standard has poor throughput performance and link reliability when some of the nodes deployed on a human body are hidden from each other. We employ the RTS/CTS scheme to solve hidden node problems in IEEE 802.15.6 networks over a lossy channel. To improve performance of the RTS/CTS scheme, we adjust transmission power levels of the nodes according to transmission failures. We estimate throughput and energy consumption of the proposed model by differentiating several parameters, such as contention window size, values of bit error ratios, number of nodes in different priority classes. The performance results are obtained through analytical approximations and simulations. We observe that the proposed model significantly improves performance of the IEEE 802.15.6 CSMA/CA by resolving hidden node problems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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18 pages, 710 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN)-Based Telemedicine for Emergency Care

by Latha R and Vetrivelan P

Sensors 2020, 20(7), 2153; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072153 - 10 Apr 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5175

Abstract

This paper is a collection of telemedicine techniques used by wireless body area networks (WBANs) for emergency conditions. Furthermore, Bayes’ theorem is proposed for predicting emergency conditions. With prior knowledge, the posterior probability can be found along with the observed evidence. The probability [...] Read more.

This paper is a collection of telemedicine techniques used by wireless body area networks (WBANs) for emergency conditions. Furthermore, Bayes’ theorem is proposed for predicting emergency conditions. With prior knowledge, the posterior probability can be found along with the observed evidence. The probability of sending emergency messages can be determined using Bayes’ theorem with the likelihood evidence. It can be viewed as medical decision-making, since diagnosis conditions such as emergency monitoring, delay-sensitive monitoring, and general monitoring are analyzed with its network characteristics, including data rate, cost, packet loss rate, latency, and jitter. This paper explains the network model with 16 variables, with one describing immediate consultation, as well as another three describing emergency monitoring, delay-sensitive monitoring, and general monitoring. The remaining 12 variables are observations related to latency, cost, packet loss rate, data rate, and jitter. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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23 pages, 2899 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mutual Authentication Protocol for D2D Communications in a Cloud-Based E-Health System

by Ana Paula G. Lopes and Paulo R. L. Gondim

Sensors 2020, 20(7), 2072; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072072 - 07 Apr 2020

Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4058

Abstract

The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) predicts several new applications, some of which are designed to be incorporated into e-health systems, and some technologies, like cloud computing and device-to-device communication (D2D), are promising for use in the support of resource-constrained devices [...] Read more.

The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) predicts several new applications, some of which are designed to be incorporated into e-health systems, and some technologies, like cloud computing and device-to-device communication (D2D), are promising for use in the support of resource-constrained devices employed in Mobile-health (m-health) and Telecare Medicine Information Systems (TMIS). In a scenario with billions of devices predicted for the IoT, it is essential to avoid performance and security problems, among others. Security is fundamental for the achievement of optimal performance regarding the sensibility of e-health shared data and, especially, the anonymity of patients and other entities, while it is also essential to consider the scarcity of bandwidth in wireless networks. This paper proposes a new mutual authentication protocol for m-health systems, which supports D2D communication, ensuring security and surpassing the performance and security of other authentication procedures reported in the literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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13 pages, 2359 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biometric Identity Based on Intra-Body Communication Channel Characteristics and Machine Learning

by Ahmed E. Khorshid, Ibrahim N. Alquaydheb, Fadi Kurdahi, Roger Piqueras Jover and Ahmed Eltawil

Sensors 2020, 20(5), 1421; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20051421 - 05 Mar 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3131

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and validate using the Intra-body communications channel as a biometric identity. Combining experimental measurements collected from five subjects and two multi-layer tissue mimicking materials’ phantoms, different machine learning algorithms were used and compared to test and validate using [...] Read more.

In this paper, we propose and validate using the Intra-body communications channel as a biometric identity. Combining experimental measurements collected from five subjects and two multi-layer tissue mimicking materials’ phantoms, different machine learning algorithms were used and compared to test and validate using the channel characteristics and features as a biometric identity for subject identification. An accuracy of 98.5% was achieved, together with a precision and recall of 0.984 and 0.984, respectively, when testing the models against subject identification over results collected from the total samples. Using a simple and portable setup, this work shows the feasibility, reliability, and accuracy of the proposed biometric identity, which allows for continuous identification and verification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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18 pages, 21485 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Towards Wearable-Inertial-Sensor-Based Gait Posture Evaluation for Subjects with Unbalanced Gaits

by SEN QIU, Huihui Wang, Jie Li, Hongyu Zhao, Zhelong Wang, Jiaxin Wang, Qiong Wang, Dirk Plettemeier, Michael Bärhold, Tony Bauer and Bo Ru

Sensors 2020, 20(4), 1193; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20041193 - 21 Feb 2020

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 4661

Abstract

Human gait reflects health condition and is widely adopted as a diagnostic basis
in clinical practice. This research adopts compact inertial sensor nodes to monitor the function
of human lower limbs, which implies the most fundamental locomotion ability. The proposed
wearable gait analysis [...] Read more.

Human gait reflects health condition and is widely adopted as a diagnostic basis
in clinical practice. This research adopts compact inertial sensor nodes to monitor the function
of human lower limbs, which implies the most fundamental locomotion ability. The proposed
wearable gait analysis system captures limb motion and reconstructs 3D models with high accuracy.
It can output the kinematic parameters of joint flexion and extension, as well as the displacement
data of human limbs. The experimental results provide strong support for quick access to accurate
human gait data. This paper aims to provide a clue for how to learn more about gait posture
and how wearable gait analysis can enhance clinical outcomes. With an ever-expanding gait database,
it is possible to help physiotherapists to quickly discover the causes of abnormal gaits, sports injury
risks, and chronic pain, and provides guidance for arranging personalized rehabilitation programs
for patients. The proposed framework may eventually become a useful tool for continually monitoring
spatio-temporal gait parameters and decision-making in an ambulatory environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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26 pages, 20551 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fuzzy Logic and Bio-Inspired Firefly Algorithm Based Routing Scheme in Intrabody Nanonetworks

by Hamza Fahim, Wei Li, Shumaila Javaid, Mian Muhammad Sadiq Fareed, Gulnaz Ahmed and Muhammad Kashif Khattak

Sensors 2019, 19(24), 5526; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19245526 - 13 Dec 2019

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4149

Abstract

An intrabody nanonetwork (IBNN) is composed of nanoscale (NS) devices, implanted inside the human body for collecting diverse physiological information for diagnostic and treatment purposes. The unique constraints of these NS devices in terms of energy, storage and computational resources are the primary [...] Read more.

An intrabody nanonetwork (IBNN) is composed of nanoscale (NS) devices, implanted inside the human body for collecting diverse physiological information for diagnostic and treatment purposes. The unique constraints of these NS devices in terms of energy, storage and computational resources are the primary challenges in the effective designing of routing protocols in IBNNs. Our proposed work explicitly considers these limitations and introduces a novel energy-efficient routing scheme based on a fuzzy logic and bio-inspired firefly algorithm. Our proposed fuzzy logic-based correlation region selection and bio-inspired firefly algorithm based nano biosensors (NBSs) nomination jointly contribute to energy conservation by minimizing transmission of correlated spatial data. Our proposed fuzzy logic-based correlation region selection mechanism aims at selecting those correlated regions for data aggregation that are enriched in terms of energy and detected information. While, for the selection of NBSs, we proposed a new bio-inspired firefly algorithm fitness function. The fitness function considers the transmission history and residual energy of NBSs to avoid exhaustion of NBSs in transmitting invaluable information. We conduct extensive simulations using the Nano-SIM tool to validate the in-depth impact of our proposed scheme in saving energy resources, reducing end-to-end delay and improving packet delivery ratio. The detailed comparison of our proposed scheme with different scenarios and flooding scheme confirms the significance of the optimized selection of correlated regions and NBSs in improving network lifetime and packet delivery ratio while reducing the average end-to-end delay. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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18 pages, 14694 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling and Characterization of Capacitive Coupling Intrabody Communication in an In-Vehicle Scenario

by Yuan Xu, Zhonghua Huang, Shize Yang, Zhiqi Wang, Bing Yang and Yinlin Li

Sensors 2019, 19(19), 4305; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19194305 - 04 Oct 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2949

Abstract

Intrabody communication (IBC) has drawn extensive attention in the field of ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, and more. Until now, most studies on the modeling and characterization of capacitive coupling IBC have been conducted in open space, while influences when using metallic-enclosed environments such as [...] Read more.

Intrabody communication (IBC) has drawn extensive attention in the field of ubiquitous healthcare, entertainment, and more. Until now, most studies on the modeling and characterization of capacitive coupling IBC have been conducted in open space, while influences when using metallic-enclosed environments such as a car, airplane, or elevator have not yet been considered. In this paper, we aimed to systematically investigate the grounding effect of an enclosed metal wall of a vehicle on the transmission path loss, utilizing the finite element method (FEM) to model capacitive coupling IBC in an in-vehicle scenario. The results of a simulation and experimental validation indicated that the system gain in an in-vehicle scenario increased up to 7 dB compared to in open space. The modeling and characterization achieved in this paper of capacitive coupling IBC could facilitate an intrabody sensor design and an evaluation with great flexibility to meet the performance needs of an in-vehicle use scenario. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wireless Body Area Networks for Health Applications)

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