Murali Subramaniyam

Development of the Elderly Healthcare Monitoring System with IoT

Stroke is a brain attack (or infarction of a portion of the brain) caused by the sudden disturbance of blood supply to that area. In recent years, even though the number of stroke-related deaths has been decreasing in Korea, the incidence of stroke is increasing, and the incidence increase with age. The chances of surviving from an acute and sudden infarction are much higher if the elderly people get emergency medical assistance within a few hours of occurrence. Elderly health monitoring and emergency alert system are mentioned as one of the main application areas of pervasive computing and biomedical applications. Moreover, a proactive elderly health monitoring system involves active capture of brain and body movement signals, signal analysis, communication, detection and warning processes. The primary objective of this research will be concerned itself with ambient assisted living issues for the successful detection and generation of alarms in cases of stroke onset, which will allow the timely delivery of medical assistance, to mitigate the long-term effects of these attacks.

Evaluating Methods of Vibration Exposure and Ride Comfort in Car

Objective: This paper studies the method of measuring whole-body vibration in the car and terms associated. Background: Human exposure to vibration can be broadly classified as localized and whole-body vibration. The whole-body vibration affects the entire body of the exposed person. It is mainly transmitted through the seat surfaces, backrests, and through the floor to an individual sitting in the vehicle. It can affect the comfort, performance, and health of individuals. Method: Human responses to whole-body vibration can be evaluated by two main standards such as ISO 2631 and BS 6841. The vibration is measured at 8 axes - three translations at feet, 3 translations of hip and two translations of back proposed by Griffin. B&Ks sensors used in this study are the 3-axes translational acceleration sensor to measure the translational accelerations at the hip, back and foot. Results: The parameters associated with the whole-body vibration in the car are frequency weightings, frequency weighted root-mean-square, vibration dose values, maximum transient vibration value, seat effective amplitude transmissibility, ride values and ride comfort. Conclusion: Studied the evaluating methods of vibration exposure and ride comfort. Application: Evaluation of whole-body vibration in the car.

Older Driver’s Physiological Response Under Risky Driving Conditions—Overtaking, Unprotected Left Turn

Twenty healthy elderly and twenty healthy young taxi drivers drove a car simulator through an immersive virtual environment. Two driving events were considered intersection crossing and overtaking a lead vehicle with continuous cross traffic coming from opposing direction. The physiological responses measured were electroencephalogram (EEG) from frontal (Fz) and occipital lobe (O2), electrocardiogram (ECG), and galvanic skin response (GSR). The data were measured using Biopac MP150 system and analyzed using AcqKnowledge (ver. 4.2) software. EEG results conveyed stress and eyestrain for the elderly; the increased heart rate and GSR results expressed the nervousness and/or stress for the elderly in both driving situations. The physiological results confirm that aging causes a decrement in cognitive functions, the deficit in visual perceptual skills, and difficulty in decision-making. Therefore, research and policy improvement required for elders. For example, the shorter renewal period for a driving license, and cognitive test like in the USA.

Legibility difference between e-books and paper books by using an eye tracker

The aim of the study was to evaluate the difference in legibility between e-books and paper books by using an eye tracker. Eight male and eight female subjects free of eye disease participated in the experiment. The experiment was conducted using a 2 × 3 within-subject design. The book type (e-book, paper book) and font size (8 pt, 10 pt, 12 pt) were independent variables, and fixation duration time, saccade length, blink rate and subjective discomfort were dependent variables. In the results, all dependent variables showed that reading paper books provided a better experience than reading e-books did. These results indicate that the legibility of e-books needs further improvement, considering fixation duration time, saccade movement, eye fatigue, device and so on. Practitioner Summary: This study evaluated the legibility difference between e-books and paper books from the viewpoint of readability, eye fatigue and subjective discomfort by using an eye tracker. The results showed that paper books provided a better experience than e-books. This indicates that the readability of e-books needs further improvement in relation to paper books.

Physiological Responses to Watching 3D on Television with Active and Passive Glasses

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between teenager’s emotional states while watching 3D on TV using active (shutter) and passive (filter) glasses and specific physiological indices. The physiological measures include electroencephalography (EEG) for beta wave at occipital lobe (O1 and O2 regions), electrooculography (EOG) for eye blinking rate from the dominate eye, and subjective evaluation. Eighteen healthy teenager’s (9 used active glass and 9 used passive glasses) aged 18.72±0.56 years were participated. The subjects were exposed to 3D visuals for 45 min each. The relative beta band power was comparatively higher while using passive glasses. The eye blink rate was comparatively higher while using passive glasses. Subjective evaluation scores were comparatively higher while using active glasses. The contrary results between physiological responses and psychophysical were observed. Further experiments need to be performed by considering more subjects, higher viewing duration and light weight glasses.

Sleep Quality and Skin-Lightening Effects of White Mother Chrysanthemum Aroma

In this study, the volatile compounds of white mother chrysanthemum flower were analyzed through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and gas chromatography–olfactometry (GC–O) analysis approaches. To investigate the effect of white mother chrysanthemum odor on sleep quality, polysomnography sleep tests and subjective evaluations were performed. A skin-lightening test was performed to investigate the effects of the newly developed night cosmetic cream. During the polysomnography sleep test, 20 female subjects were tested on two separate days: one with fragranced cream and the other with fragrance-free cream. The skin-lightening test was composed of two groups: 10 subjects applied fragrance-free night cream and other 10 subjects applied fragranced night cream. They applied the cosmetic cream to their faces once a day before sleep for 4 weeks. The results show that sleep efficiency was significantly affected by the mother chrysanthemum odor but found that the reconstituted fragrance of white mother chrysanthemum flowers had a skin-lightening effect through sound sleep.

Review on Evaluation Methods to Pre-detect the Stroke Using Wearable Devices

The overall aim of this study is to collect stroke assessment methodology for pre-detect the stroke using the wearable devices. The particular objectives of the study were (1) to find various stroke-monitoring methodologies, (2) to compare stroke-monitoring methodologies, (3) to develop a methodology that can pre-detect the stroke. For this purpose, a systematic search was conducted using Google Scholar for studies published from 2010 to 2015. The search was restricted to papers published in English and containing the terms “stroke motion”, “stroke detection”, “stroke application”. The literature survey revealed various stroke detection methods including motion pattern, gait analysis, head impulse test, electrocardiogram, eye movements, muscle activity recognition, and so on.

3D Hand Anthropometry of Korean Teenager’s and Comparison with Manual Method

The requirements of wearing products fitting comfort was continuously increasing and considerable attentions had been paid for a long time. The assessment of the physical dimensions of the human hand provided a metric description to establish human-machine compatibility. Higher accuracy in hand anthropometric measurements could be achieved with the aids of an image analysis system. Scanning of hand surfaces either 2D or 3D was an alternative method for manual measurements. Three-dimensional anthropometry may lead to significant improvement in fitting comfort of wearing products. The purpose of this study was to measure 3D hand anthropometry and compared it with manual methods. For that purpose, 10 hand measurements of the right hand (lengths, breadths, and circumference of hand and fingers) were taken from 1,700 middle and high school students by age ranged from 13 to 19 years old. The hand was measured by manual (using anthropometric sliding, spreading calipers and measuring tape) and using a high-resolution 3D hand scanner (NEXHAND H-100, Knitech, South Korea) with the scanning accuracy ± 0.5 mm. From the scanned data, the hand measurements were extracted using scanning software (Enhand, Knitech, South Korea). Mean and standard deviation for each hand measurements were calculated. T-test statistical test on the data revealed that there was no significant difference between the manual and 3D hand measurements (p > 0.05). Therefore, 3D anthropometry can be replaced with manual methods. The data gathered may be used for ergo-design applications of hand tools and devices. And also it can provide a great help to develop a hand anthropometry database for hand wearing products.

Evaluation of the Functional and Non-functional Seat Sponge Effect in Sitting Chairs

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate comfort levels of functional and non-functional chairs using subjective comfort rating, interface pressure measurement, muscle activity measurement, and skin temperature measurement. Background: Chairs are used for a prolonged period of time for sitting in many places such as the office, at university, at school, in industry, and so on. Almost all people use chairs in their everyday life. The functional properties of the chair are associated with comfort. Method: The subjective evaluation contains questions regarding chair comfort which can be rated with five point scale. The body-seat interface pressure was measured using a pressure mat system. The symmetry of sitting was measured using electromyography. The change in body part (thigh and buttock) temperature before and after sitting on a chair was measured with an infrared camera. Results: Participants rated significantly (p Conclusion: Overall, interface pressure measurement, muscle activity measurement, thermal imaging and subjective comfort score results showed that the functional chair was more comfortable than the non-functional chair. Application: The adopted methodologies could be used to measure the seating comfort of train seats.

Ride Quality Investigation of Passenger Cars on Different Road Conditions

Objective: The ride qualities of the six passenger cars were evaluated in 4 subjects on the highway and uneven road. The relation between vibration with driving velocity and driving posture were also investigated separately. Background: Ride comfort plays an important role in the vehicle design. Vibration is the one of the principal components associated with ride comfort. Method: The acceleration of the foot, hip and back were measured using B&K accelerometers in this study. The velocity of the passenger cars was maintained at a constant speed of 80km/h on the highway and 40km/h on the uneven road. For evaluating the effects of driving velocity and driving posture on vehicles vibration level, separate experiments were performed on the highway with 5 different vehicle speeds and 5 different backrest angles, respectively. Results: The overall ride value of the luxury car showed the best result while the smaller car showed the worst value on the highway. On the uneven road the overall ride value level was increased 75~98%. All the vehicles had the SEAT value less than 1. Faster the velocity lowers the SEAT value. The ride quality in terms of vibration gets worst when the backrest angle increased. Conclusion: The smaller car had a first mode at the higher frequency and showed higher vibration level. SEAT value was mostly affected by the seat property not by vehicle. We ranked the luxury car seat had a best vibration reduction quality than others based on SEAT values. When the driving velocity increased, the overall ride values were increased proportionally and the SEAT values were somewhat decreased. Application: Evaluation of whole-body vibration in the passenger car.