Daniel Esteve

A review of smart homes-Present state and future challenges

In the era of information technology, the elderly and disabled can be monitored with numerous intelligent devices. Sensors can be implanted into their home for continuous mobility assistance and non-obtrusive disease prevention. Modern sensor-embedded houses, or smart houses, cannot only assist people with reduced physical functions but help resolve the social isolation they face. They are capable of providing assistance without limiting or disturbing the residents daily routine, giving him or her greater comfort, pleasure, and well-being. This article presents an international selection of leading smart home projects, as well as the associated technologies of wearable/implantable monitoring systems and assistive robotics. The latter are often designed as components of the larger smart home environment. The paper will conclude by discussing future challenges of the domain.

A disposable plastic compact wrist for smart minimally invasive surgical tools

This paper describes a new compact bending and disposable (to avoid nosocomial contaminations) plastic wrist for minimally invasive surgery with a large free space for several connections such as electrical wires, fiberoptics and fluidic tubes, etc. It uses small partially locked ball joints to increase the dexterity of surgical tools in all directions contrary to other wrists using several successive orthogonal joints. This compact wrist is a generic concept comprises at least two vertebrae composed of non-attached contacts: plastic plates and balls. Six metal wires drive the position of each vertebra and several other free wires allow the locking of wrist axial rotations. Analytic and finite element simulations allow an evaluation of the mechanical rigidity of the wrist by several parameters: the wire number, diameter, position, mechanical properties and the general geometry of the wrist. The wrist is fabricated with 6 mm biocompatible plastic vertebrae micromachined by low cost water jet cutting. It uses 0.3 mm NiTi super-elastic wires for its mechanical structure which enable two degrees of freedom (DOF) in any directions between -85 degrees and 85 degrees. The two DOFs of the wrist and the DOF of the forceps are driven by a handled basic system using pulleys, 0.5mm Topline/spl reg/ ropes connected to NiTi wires and four RC-servomotors. In the first prototype 6 electrical wires, 2 micro-light emitters and 4 fiberoptics were successfully integrated. We are convinced of the effectiveness of this compact disposable plastic wrist, to be used with a usual or a motorised handled surgical instrument and integrating new functionalities such as electrical/optical/fluidics connections for smart surgical embedded micro-systems like micro-sensors and micro-actuators.

Remote tracking patients in retirement home using wireless multisensor system

This paper presents an experiment for monitoring the behaviour of dependent elderly people living in a retirement home in rural area. The surveillance consists to monitor the physical activities of the elderly in order to detect automatically risk situations such as fall, high agitation or any change in behaviour. Monitoring is carried out both locally via a wireless multisensor system and remotely via a satellite communication link. This approach aims to associate advanced wireless technologies with health monitoring application.

A low cost and hybrid technology for integrating silicon sensors or actuators in polymer microfluidic systems

This paper describes a new technology permitting a hybrid integration of silicon chips in polymer (PDMS and SU8) microfluidic structures. This two-step technology starts with transferring the silicon device onto a rigid substrate (typically PCB) and planarizing it, and then it proceeds with stacking of the polymer-made fluidic network onto the device. The technology is low cost, based on screen printing and lamination, can be applied to treat large surface areas, and is compatible with standard photolithography and vacuum based approaches. We show, as an example, the integration of a thermal sensor inside channels made of PDMS or SU8. The developed structures had no fluid leaks at the Si/polymer interfaces and the electrical circuit was perfectly tightproof.

Individual Movement Trajectories in Smart Homes

A project in innovation technology for the advancement of smart home to help elderly is conducted. The aim is to anticipate the dangerous situations that may happen at home (fall, restlessness, fainting, running away etc.) trough individual data collection and analysis of movement trajectories. This paper describes a conceptual space/time model of movement trajectories (beginning, end, stop and move). These models can be used for danger prevention in smart home. Results are presented for apartment scenarios and individual movement trajectories.

A Resazurin Based Bio Sensor for Detection of Organic Pollutants in Water

With the objective of water analysis, a microsystem was developed, by using Resazurin molecule as an indirect bio sensor. The detection principle consists to monitor optically the oxygen consumption of E. Coli bacteria towards their metabolism in presence of organic pollutants. Thus, aiming on Glucose detection, a concentration-dependent inhibition effect on oxygen consumption rate was evidenced in the [0–0.41 mM] range of organic pollutants.