The increasing use of wireless networks and the constant miniaturization of electrical devices has empowered the development of Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs). In these networks various sensors are attached on clothing or on the body or even implanted under the skin. The wireless nature of the network and the wide variety of sensors offer numerous new, practical and innovative applications to improve health care and the Quality of Life. The sensors of a WBAN measure for example the heartbeat, the body temperature or record a prolonged electrocardiogram. Using a WBAN, the patient experiences a greater physical mobility and is no longer compelled to stay in the hospital. This paper offers a survey of the concept of Wireless Body Area Networks. First, we focus on some applications with special interest in patient monitoring. Then the communication in a WBAN and its positioning between the different technologies is discussed. An overview of the current research on the physical layer, existing MAC and network protocols is given. Further, cross layer and quality of service is discussed. As WBANs are placed on the human body and often transport private data, security is also considered. An overview of current and past projects is given. Finally, the open research issues and challenges are pointed out.

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A survey on wireless body area networks

Photoplethysmography and its application in clinical physiological measurement

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5/31324/01456901.pdf

Microelectronic circuits

Integrating the various embedded devices and systems in our environment enables an Internet of Things (IoT) for a smart city. The IoT will generate tremendous amount of data that can be leveraged for safety, efficiency, and infotainment applications and services for city residents. The management of this voluminous data through its lifecycle is fundamental to the realization of smart cities. Therefore, in contrast to existing surveys on smart cities we provide a data-centric perspective, describing the fundamental data management techniques employed to ensure consistency, interoperability, granularity, and reusability of the data generated by the underlying IoT for smart cities. Essentially, the data lifecycle in a smart city is dependent on tightly coupled data management with cross-cutting layers of data security and privacy, and supporting infrastructure. Therefore, we further identify techniques employed for data security and privacy, and discuss the networking and computing technologies that enable smart cities. We highlight the achievements in realizing various aspects of smart cities, present the lessons learned, and identify limitations and research challenges.

Smart Cities: A Survey on Data Management, Security, and Enabling Technologies

Current 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 a 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.

A Survey on Wireless Body Area Networks for eHealthcare Systems in Residential Environments

In this paper, we suggest a method to intelligently detect an accident at any place and any time and report the same to the nearby ‘service provider’. The service provider arranges for the necessary help. Accident Detection and Reporting System (ADRS) which can be placed in any vehicle uses a sensor to detect the accident. The sensor output is monitored and processed by the PIC16F877A microcontroller. The microcontroller takes decision on the traffic accident based on the input from the sensors. The RF transmitter module which is interfaced with the microcontroller will transmit the accident information to the nearby Emergency Service Provider (ESP). This information is received by the RF receiver module at the ‘service provider’ control room in the locality. The RF transceiver module used has a range up to 100 meters under ideal conditions. The service provider can use this information to arrange for ambulance and also inform police and hospital. We used low cost RF modules, a microcontroller by Microchip, LCD module and an accelerometer. This system can be installed at accident prone areas to detect and report the same. MPLAB IDE and Proteus software are used to simulate part of the system. ADRS also implements an intelligent Accident Detection and Reporting Algorithm (ADRA) for the purpose.

Wireless vehicular Accident Detection and Reporting System

Data authentication is one of the primary requisites in present day communication systems. In image processing, data authentication is implemented by using watermarking techniques. Nevertheless, whatever be the technique of watermarking, one of the important factors to be considered is robustness. In this paper we discuss about a novel robust method for digital watermarking in spatial domain. The method deals with an image in the spatial domain which is watermarked at different intensity subsections. Further, weave analyzed the performance of the proposed method by implementing the method using Verilog HDL & Matlab. A comparison of the proposed novel spatial domain method with the frequency domain method is also given here. We have implemented a frequency domain DCT/IDCT based digital watermarking as in [1] and [2]. We also compare the PSNR that can be obtained using the proposed spatial domain watermarking and the DCT/IDCT based watermarking.

https://www.amrita.edu/system/files/publications/performance-comparison-novel-rrobust-spatial-domain-digital-image-watermarking-conventional-frequency-domain-watermarking-techniques.pdf

Performance Comparison of Novel, Robust Spatial Domain Digital Image Watermarking with the Conventional Frequency Domain Watermarking Techniques

In this paper, we propose an Intelligent Home Navigation System (IHNS) which comprises of a wheelchair, voice module and navigation module It can be used by an elderly or physically challenged person to move inside the home without any difficulty It's common that the elders forget the way to the different rooms in house and the physically challenged people find it hard to move the wheel chair without external aid By making use of IHNS, elderly and the physically challenged can go to different rooms in the house like kitchen, living room, dining room etc by just speaking a word which is predefined to that particular room The voice of the person is detected by voice capture module which will be compared by voice recognition module with predefined voices loaded in to the system According to the received voice, the destination is automatically understood and the wheelchair moves according to the route which is predefined It is also equipped with obstacle avoidance technique, where the person may not be able to provide proper voices at the right time The wheel chair can automatically navigate from one point to the other in the home as per predefined route based on the voice received Thus the above proposed system can be used by elderly and physically challenged people in day to day life even if they are alone at home

https://www.amrita.edu/system/files/publications/automated-voice-based-home-navigation-system-elderly-physically-challenged.pdf

Automated voice based home navigation system for the elderly and the physically challenged

Many villages in India use fossil fuel based water pumping system for irrigation due to a shortage of electricity. Fossil fuel causes great damage to the environment as they release harmful greenhouse gases. Conventional generation of electricity by thermal and nuclear power plants also harm the environment. In this research work, we propose a solar energy based automated water pumping system which can be used in many villages as an alternative to the fossil fuel based water pumping systems. As the system is automated, the water pumps are switched on only when the moisture content of the soil is below a critical level which is determined by the moisture sensors planted in the fields. An intelligent microcontroller based circuit board is the heart of the system. As part of this research work, we conducted a case study in a village called Siruvani near Coimbatore district in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India. Agriculture is the lifeline for most of the forty-four families that live in this village. Currently, they use diesel based water pumping system which is not only expensive but also harms the environment. The villagers' profit is greatly reduced as they spend a lot of money in buying diesel for running the water pump system. The study conducted by us shows that the proposed solar based automated water pumping system if implemented would be a boon to these villagers in terms of cost and profit. In addition, this can save a lot of water and is environment-friendly. In this paper we would discuss the design and implementation of the automated solar water pumping system along with the case study carried in Siruvani village.

Solar powered automated water pumping system for eco-friendly irrigation

In this work we analyze various methods and techniques for the design and development of robotic arm for agricultural applications. In this paper, a technique by which a robotic arm is controlled using a depth sensor is proposed. The depth sensor captures the user input and inverse kinematics algorithm is used to define the motion of the robotic arm. We develop a robotic arm which imitates the action of human arm. The movement of the human arm in 3D space is captured, processed and replicated by the robotic arm using inverse kinematics. In first place a Kinect sensor captures the input and coordinates of the shoulder, elbow and wrist joints of the user are obtained from it. The angles at each joint required to completely describe the position of the robot's joints are calculated using an inverse kinematics technique as mentioned above. Through a proper microcontroller board, the robotic arm end effecter moves to the required position which can be used to pluck a fruit or prune a branch etc.

Rajesh Kannan Megalingam

Papers

Wireless vehicular Accident Detection and Reporting System

Performance Comparison of Novel, Robust Spatial Domain Digital Image Watermarking with the Conventional Frequency Domain Watermarking Techniques

Automated voice based home navigation system for the elderly and the physically challenged

Solar powered automated water pumping system for eco-friendly irrigation

Robotic arm design, development and control for agriculture applications