Mark C. Hou

Automatic Tongue Diagnosis System

Tongue diagnosis tops the four diagnoses and hence is crucial to the inspection diagnosis in Chinese Medicine. Clinically, doctors mostly rely on their own knowledge and experience when determining major lesions of a patient by observing the coloration, overall modalities, and volume of sputum of different parts of the tongue. Different doctors may come to drastically different judgments on the same tongue presentation with little overlap. Therefore, it is important to develop scientific methods that can help doctors diagnose based on standardized differentiation procedures and render reliable diagnoses in order to enhance the clinical application value of Chinese Medicine. The computerized automatic capture of characteristics shown on the images of the surface and the back of the tongue comprises breakup of the tongue image and capture of the tongue characteristics. And that, tongue characteristics include the shape, fur, body, and fluid. Sublingual collateral vessels are used to examine traits of veins on the back of the tongue and detect the length, width, number of branches, solidness, and color. By far, 29 images of the surface of the tongue and 69 images of the back of the tongue have been collected.

HRV response of vegetative state patient with music therapy

This case study centered on the effects of Music Therapy (MT) on vegetative state (VS) patients for a continuous 41-day experiment with electrocardiogram (ECG) recorded. Mahlers Second Symphony was used for this MT. There are various elements in Mahlers second symphony, with string, wind, drum, and even voice; providing the subject a strong and dynamic stimulation. There are some significant changes after 14-day stimulation: both standard deviation of all normal RR intervals (SDNN) and root mean square successive differences (RMSSD) in heart rate variability of the subject increased, indicating the activity of the cardiovascular system was enhanced. Although theres only one subject in this experiment, the results are still encouraging.

A ±6ms-accuracy, 0.68mm 2 and 2.21μW QRS detection ASIC

Healthcare issues arose from population aging. Meanwhile, electrocardiogram (ECG) is a powerful measurement tool. The first step of ECG is to detect QRS complexes. A state-of-the-art QRS detection algorithm was modified and implemented. By the dedicated architecture design, the novel ASIC is proposed with 2.21 μW power consumption and 0.68mm2 core area. It is the smallest QRS detection ASIC so far in the world. In addition, the positive prediction of the ASIC is 99.36% based on the MIT/BIH arrhythmia database certification.

The relationship between music processing and electrocardiogram (ECG) in vegetative state (VS)

Previous literature has suggested that consciousness of patients in vegetative state (VS) may be enhanced via music listening; however, studies empirically documenting the link among music, vegetative state, and electrocardiogram (ECG) are scant. Therefore, the current article attempts to explore how music improves the VS patients condition with the assessment of ECG recordings. The present work involved a follow-up of case report, consisting of forty-two 150-min sessions, whose duration is longer than other VS studies. The quantitative analysis of the data was conducted through C programming language, HRV Analysis, EXCEL and MATLAB package software in order to find a specific pattern of HRV. Results of the study showed a medium level of consistence between the two variables of music and ECG. To conclude, this publication may be of importance in presenting some specific pattern of the ECG diagram while letting VS patients listen to the music.

Removement of the Three Minutes Irritating Music Produced No Incremental Relaxation

This paper studies how the incentive bass drum sound, or a simple fast rhythm affect the performance of HRV (Heart rate variability), which is a measurement of variations in the heart rate. We expect to find a relationship of music and human cardiovascular condition. Related experiments have been tested and got some results. Over the last 25 years, HRV analysis has become more popular and important as a non-invasive research of biomedical engineering. HRV is a widely used method to assess cardiac autonomic control. There are two important measures. The first one is SDNN, and the second one is LF/HF. Through the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) power were obtained from NN intervals. LF/HF reflects the sympatho-vagal balance of autonomic nervous system (ANS). By understanding the relationship between the same tempo with different times of measuring in continuous weeks and the HRV information, we can improve our life and health. The music have some irritate to human cardiac, just like rock music. From the results of this experiment, we can expect to find the influence of this music type to human cardiovascular condition.

What's Happening to Our Body after Drinking Coke? The Characteristic of the Blood Pressure Wave in Radial Artery

Previous literature has suggested that psychological state may be changed via drinking coke, however, studies empirically documenting the link between coke and blood pressure wave (BPW) are scant. Therefore, the current article attempts to explore how coke intervene the mental condition with the assessment of pulse signal recordings. The quantitative analysis of the data was conducted through SAS, EXCEL and MATLAB package software in order to find a specific pattern of pulse spectrum. Results of this study showed the high frequency of heart rate variability increased from 34.83 to 43.83, and that of beat-to-beat pulse variability was enhanced from 7.67 to 35.5. The value of beat-to beat pulse variability in time-domain also went up. The relationship between sd1 and sd2 of RRI and HRV are positively correlated.

A Novel and Low-Cost Cosmetic Chip Using 4x4 Array Photoplethysmography

Microcirculatory dysfunction plays a key role in the patho-physiology of various disease states. The microcirculation in the skin is in a rather complicated. With technical advances, microcirculatory monitoring nowadays becomes more and more available for application in clinical practice. The proposed cosmetic chip platform based on the photoplethysmography (PPG) is a simple and low-cost optical technique that can be used to detect blood volume changes in the micro-vascular bed of tissue.

The Sustained Exhilarating Cardiac Responses after Listening to the Very Fast and Complex Rhythm

In recent years, there has been a dramatic proliferation of research concerned with heart rate variability (HRV) analysis. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a largely used method for accessing cardiac autonomic control. Based on HRV, the standard deviation of normal-to-normal (SDNN) heart beats and the ratio of low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF) power of RR intervals can be used for monitoring the activity of circulation system and the sympatho-vagal balance of autonomic nervous system (ANS) respectively. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to examine the relationship between tempo and complexity of music and the two variables of the HRV measures. A four-phase study was designed to take down the values of the two variables. Subjects were 26 students enrolled in the National Chiao Tung University and were tested individually in the laboratory. In this investigation we recorded four different phasis values of the two variables. The results revealed a medium level of consistency between the two variables and the very fast and complex style rhythm. Clearly, the findings indicate the very fast and complex style rhythm has a positive effect on HRV. To conclude, these findings lead us to believe that very fast and complex style rhythm should be used to treat the symptom of people who cannot concentrate on doing something such as suffering from melancholia.

Camera-Based Cosmetic Platform to Measure Microcirculation and Skin Condition of Faces

A novel cosmetic chip is proposed to meet the need of the cosmetology market and the progress of the medical industry. To measure the quality of deep skin, we have to try some non-traditional way, the vascular under our skin is a complicated microcirculation system. The results of experiment verify that the cosmetic chip is able to detect the condition of deep skin.