Philip Angove

A Mobile Gateway for Remote Interaction With Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) almost invariably support a centralized network management model. Though the data gathering function is conducted remotely, such data are usually routed via data sinks to central servers for processing, storage, visualization, and interpretation. However, the issue of supporting remote access to WSNs and individual sensor nodes whilst in their physical environment has not been viewed as a priority. It is envisaged that this situation will change as WSNs proliferate in a range of domains, and the potential for supporting innovative revenue-generating services manifest themselves. As a step towards realizing such access, a mobile gateway has been designed and implemented. This gateway supports Zigbee as this is the predominant protocol supported by WSNs. Furthermore, it also supports Bluetooth, thereby facilitating interaction with conventional mobile devices. The gateway is programmable according to the needs of arbitrary services and applications.

A Novel and Miniaturized 433/868MHz Multi-band Wireless Sensor Platform for Body Sensor Network Applications

Body Sensor Network (BSN) technology is seeing a rapid emergence in application areas such as health, fitness and sports monitoring. Current BSN wireless sensors typically operate on a single frequency band (e.g. utilizing the IEEE 802.15.4 standard that operates at 2.45GHz) employing a single radio transceiver for wireless communications. This allows a simple wireless architecture to be realized with low cost and power consumption. However, network congestion/failure can create potential issues in terms of reliability of data transfer, quality-of-service (QOS) and data throughput for the sensor. These issues can be especially critical in healthcare monitoring applications where data availability and integrity is crucial. The addition of more than one radio has the potential to address some of the above issues. For example, multi-radio implementations can allow access to more than one network, providing increased coverage and data processing as well as improved interoperability between networks. A small number of multi-radio wireless sensor solutions exist at present but require the use of more than one radio transceiver devices to achieve multi-band operation. This paper presents the design of a novel prototype multi-radio hardware platform that uses a single radio transceiver. The proposed design allows multi-band operation in the 433/868MHz ISM bands and this, together with its low complexity and small form factor, make it suitable for a wide range of BSN applications.

Novel smart sensor glove for arthritis rehabiliation

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a disease which attacks the synovial tissue lubricating skeletal joints. This systemic condition affects the musculoskeletal system, including bones, joints, muscles and tendons that contribute to loss of function and Range of Motion (ROM). Traditional measurement of arthritis requires labour intensive personal examination by medical staff which through their objective measures may hinder the enactment and analysis of arthritis rehabilitation. This paper presents the development of a smart glove to facilitate this rehabilitative process through the integration of sensors, processors and wireless technology to empirically measure ROM. The Tyndall/University of Ulster glove uses a combination of 20 bend sensors, 16 tri-axial accelerometers and 11 force sensors to detect joint movement. All sensors are placed on a flexible PCB to provide high levels of flexibility and sensor stability. The system operation means that the glove does not require calibration for each glove wearer.

Enabling Intelligence on a Wireless Sensor Network Platform

Conventional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) usually adopt a centralised approach to data processing and interpretation primarily due to the limited computation and energy resources available on sensor nodes. These constraints limits the potential of intelligent techniques to data analysis and such activities on the centralised host. In contrast, Intelligent WSNs (iWSNs) will be significantly more powerful thus enabling the harnessing of intelligent techniques for diverse purposes. One such purpose is the practical realisation of smart environments, and facilitating mobility and interaction with the inhabitants of such environments. As a step in this direction, this paper presents the design of an iWSN sensor node platform that enables the hosting of lightweight Artificial Intelligence (AI) frameworks whilst enabling the ubiquitous energy constraints be quantified, mitigated and managed.

Celeritas — A Wearable Sensor System for Interactive Digital Dance Theatre

Celeritas is an artistic/scientific collaboration between the Tyndall National Institute (Cork), the Interaction Design Centre in Limerick, Cindy Cummings (Dance Artist, Cork) and Todd Winkler (Composer and Digital Artist, Brown University, USA). Research Teams at the Tyndall Institute are developing wireless sensor network nodes, also known as motes, and associated miniaturized sensors. Motes can be applied in many different domains, ranging from medical and environmental monitoring to everyday applications in ubiquitous computing. This project aims to apply Tyndall’s sensor system to create a wireless dance costume for audio/visual performance using inertial sensor monitoring technology.