Recent developments and technological advancements in wireless communication, MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) technology and integrated circuits has enabled low-power, intelligent, miniaturized, invasive/non-invasive micro and nano-technology sensor nodes strategically placed in or around the human body to be used in various applications, such as personal health monitoring. This exciting new area of research is called Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) and leverages the emerging IEEE 802.15.6 and IEEE 802.15.4j standards, specifically standardized for medical WBANs. The aim of WBANs is to simplify and improve speed, accuracy, and reliability of communication of sensors/actuators within, on, and in the immediate proximity of a human body. The vast scope of challenges associated with WBANs has led to numerous publications. In this paper, we survey the current state-of-art of WBANs based on the latest standards and publications. Open issues and challenges within each area are also explored as a source of inspiration towards future developments in WBANs.

Wireless Body Area Networks: A Survey

Advancements in medical science and technology, medicine and public health coupled with increased consciousness about nutrition and environmental and personal hygiene have paved the way for the dramatic increase in life expectancy globally in the past several decades. However, increased life expectancy has given rise to an increasing aging population, thus jeopardizing the socio-economic structure of many countries in terms of costs associated with elderly healthcare and wellbeing. In order to cope with the growing need for elderly healthcare services, it is essential to develop affordable, unobtrusive and easy-to-use healthcare solutions. Smart homes, which incorporate environmental and wearable medical sensors, actuators, and modern communication and information technologies, can enable continuous and remote monitoring of elderly health and wellbeing at a low cost. Smart homes may allow the elderly to stay in their comfortable home environments instead of expensive and limited healthcare facilities. Healthcare personnel can also keep track of the overall health condition of the elderly in real-time and provide feedback and support from distant facilities. In this paper, we have presented a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art research and development in smart home based remote healthcare technologies.

Smart Homes for Elderly Healthcare—Recent Advances and Research Challenges

Dynamic systems have proven to be well suited to describe a broad spectrum of human coordination behavior such as synchronization with auditory stimuli. Simultaneous measurements of the spatiotemporal dynamics of electroencephalographic (EEG) and magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data reveals that the dynamics of the brain signals is highly ordered and also accessible by dynamic systems theory. However, models of EEG and MEG dynamics have typically been formulated only in terms of phenomenological modeling such as fixed-current dipoles or spatial EEG and MEG patterns. In this paper, it is our goal to connect three levels of organization, that is the level of coordination behavior, the level of patterns observed in the EEG and MEG and the level of neuronal network dynamics. To do so, we develop a methodological framework, which defines the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural ensembles, the neural field, on a sphere in three dimensions. Using magnetic resonance imaging we map the neural field dynamics from the sphere onto the folded cortical surface of a hemisphere. The neural field represents the current flow perpendicular to the cortex and, thus, allows for the calculation of the electric potentials on the surface of the skull and the magnetic fields outside the skull to be measured by EEG and MEG, respectively. For demonstration of the dynamics, we present the propagation of activation at a single cortical site resulting from a transient input. Finally, a mapping between finger movement profile and EEG/MEG patterns is obtained using Volterra integrals.

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Spatiotemporal forward solution of the EEG and MEG using network modeling

Context: Open source software (OSS) and software ecosystems (SECOs) are two consolidated research areas in software engineering. OSS influences the way organizations develop, acquire, use and commercialize software. SECOs have emerged as a paradigm to understand dynamics and heterogeneity in collaborative software development. For this reason, SECOs appear as a valid instrument to analyze OSS systems. However, there are few studies that blend both topics together. Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the current state of the art in OSS ecosystems (OSSECOs) research, specifically: (a) what the most relevant definitions related to OSSECOs are; (b) what the particularities of this type of SECO are; and (c) how the knowledge about OSSECO is represented. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping following recommended practices. We applied automatic and manual searches on different sources and used a rigorous method to elicit the keywords from the research questions and selection criteria to retrieve the final papers. As a result, 82 papers were selected and evaluated. Threats to validity were identified and mitigated whenever possible. Results: The analysis allowed us to answer the research questions. Most notably, we did the following: (a) identified 64 terms related to the OSSECO and arranged them into a taxonomy; (b) built a genealogical tree to understand the genesis of the OSSECO term from related definitions; (c) analyzed the available definitions of SECO in the context of OSS; and (d) classified the existing modelling and analysis techniques of OSSECOs. Conclusion: As a summary of the systematic mapping, we conclude that existing research on several topics related to OSSECOs is still scarce (e.g., modelling and analysis techniques, quality models, standard definitions, etc.). This situation calls for further investigation efforts on how organizations and OSS communities actually understand OSSECOs.

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Open source software ecosystems: A Systematic mapping

Middleware supporting event-based communication is widely recognized as being well suited to mobile applications since it naturally accommodates a dynamically changing population of interacting entities and the dynamic reconfiguration of the connections between them. STEAM is an event-based middleware designed for use in ad hoc networks. STEAM differs from other event-based middleware in that its architecture does not rely on the presence of any separate infrastructure, event notification filters are distributed, and filtering may be applied to functional and non-functional attributes. In particular, filters may be applied to either the subject or the content of an event notification, or to non-functional attributes, such as location and time. Filters may be used to define geographical areas within which event notifications are valid, thereby bounding the propagation of these notifications. Such proximity-based filtering represents a natural way to filter events of interest in mobile applications. This paper describes the architecture and implementation of STEAM and its use of proximity-based filtering. In particular, we show how proximity-based filtering can be used to reduce the number of events delivered to collaborative mobile applications.

Exploiting proximity in event-based middleware for collaborative mobile applications

In this paper conceptions and architectural considerations of the OSAMI project and their specializations towards the requirements of the e-health domain by the German subproject (OSAMI-D) are described. Along with the expected shift of healthcare service between stationary towards ambulatory care, a standardized way of integrating medical data acquired at home into the IT infrastructure of hospitals and the synchronization with medical workflows have to be implemented. Therefore, the OSAMI-D project will provide open source components that implement the required interfaces. Preliminary results of the requirements analysis and the implementation of first domain-specific services are presented. These services are used to realize two home care scenarios, which support ambulant cardiologic rehabilitation (indoor and outdoor). Special emphasis is placed on standards and formats for the communication and storage of patient data.

OSAMI-D: An open service platform for healthcare monitoring applications

IP based design comprises two main steps. First, a suitable IP has to be found. Second, the IP has to undergo further processing before it can be included in existing designs. Since IP providers use different formats and design tools require different parts of the IP for their services it is hard to find an IP format that satisfies and is exchangeable between all parties. This paper presents such a unified format. It can be used to search for, deliver and exchange IPs between the designer and external IP service providers. A tool chain based on the format was implemented and evaluated. The results prove its applicability.

An XML format based integration infrastructure for IP based design

Industrial digitalization in the industry 4.0 era: Classification, reuse and authoring of digital models on Digital Twin platforms

This paper presents some architectural guidelines for an open, component- oriented software framework supporting applications running on wearable devices, and describes an approach for implementing context processing capabilities within such framework. The authors describe an open approach intended to both enhance reusability and simplify the development of contextaware applications.

Context processing within an open, component-oriented, software framework

Today we live in an environment surrounded with networked converging devices. Human computer interactions are becoming personalized and a new concept of a global and cross-domain platform is emerging to exploit the full potential of the network in all business areas. In this convergence process, the software platform should be able to personalize itself dynamically in devices according to the context. OSAmI-Commons, an ITEA2 project for developing an open-source common approach to such a dynamic service-based platform, allows any type of device to connect and exchange information and services. OSAMI consortium is contributing to defining the foundations of a cross-platform open-services ecosystem. The sustainability of this platform is an objective beyond the project duration.

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Wolfgang Thronicke

Papers

OSAMI-D: An open service platform for healthcare monitoring applications

An XML format based integration infrastructure for IP based design

Industrial digitalization in the industry 4.0 era: Classification, reuse and authoring of digital models on Digital Twin platforms

Context processing within an open, component-oriented, software framework

OSAMI Commons — An open dynamic services platform for ambient intelligence