Novel Contrast Enhancing Technique For Gait Analysis Images

Abstract: Measuring body temperature is considerably important to physiological studies as well as clinical investigations. In recent years, numerous observations have been reported and various methods of measurement have been employed. The present paper introduces a novel wearable sensor in intelligent clothing for human body temperature measurement. The objective is the integration of optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG)-based sensors into functional textiles to extend the capabilities of wearable solutions for body temperature monitoring. In addition, the temperature sensitivity is 150 pm/°C, which is almost 15 times higher than that of a bare FBG. This study combines large and small pipes during fabrication to implant FBG sensors into the fabric. The law of energy conservation of the human body is considered in determining heat transfer between the body and its clothing. The mathematical model of heat transmission between the body and clothed FBG sensors is studied, and the steady-state thermal analysis is presented. The simulation results show the capability of the material to correct the actual body temperature. Based on the skin temperature obtained by the weighted average method, this paper presents the five points weighted coefficients model using both sides of the chest, armpits, and the upper back for the intelligent clothing. The weighted coefficients of 0.0826 for the left chest, 0.3706 for the left armpit, 0.3706 for the right armpit, 0.0936 for the upper back, and 0.0826 for the right chest were obtained using Cramer's Rule. Using the weighting coefficient, the deviation of the experimental result was ± 0.18 °C, which favors the use for clinical armpit temperature monitoring. Moreover, in special cases when several FBG sensors are broken, the weighted coefficients of the other sensors could be changed to obtain accurate body temperature.

Abstract: We report on the photonic variant of the previously introduced Guided-Path Tomography (GPT), by demonstrating a system for footstep imaging using Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) sensors. The 1 m × 2 m sensor head is manufactured by attaching 80 POF sensors on a standard commercial carpet underlay. The sensing principle relies on the sensitivity of POF to bending, quantified by measuring light transmission. The Photonic GPT (PGPT) system, comprising the sensor head with processing hardware and software, covered by a mass-production general-purpose carpet top, successfully performs footstep imaging and correctly displays the position and footfall of a person walking on the carpet in real time. We also present the implementation of fast footprint “center of mass” calculations, suitable for recording gait and footfall. A split-screen movie, showing the frame-by-frame camera-captured action next to the reproduced footprints is included in the electronic version of this paper.