Robert Frischer

Architecture of Mobile and Desktop Stations for Noninvasive Continuous Blood Pressure Measurement

Many types of blood pressure measurement devices can be bought in electronics shops. All such devices are contact measurement devices which need to be in contact of human body. Secondary they allow only one measurement per several minutes interval (ones per 10 minutes). Our goal is to develop a small device for noninvasive continuous measurement of blood pressure. This device must be a small battery powered embedded system which measure a blood pressure during a long time period and send this information remotely to operator’s stations. In this station the analysis of receiving video signal is made for several types of usage. In current state we develop a small device to scan a video images throw the NIR CCD camera (Near Infra Red). The video signal is transferred by wireless connection to desktop station where it is analyzed. The first results provide an indication to be a right way to obtain exact continuous blood pressure information.

Non Destructive Defect Detection by Spectral Density Analysis

The potential nondestructive diagnostics of solid objects is discussed in this article. The whole process is accomplished by consecutive steps involving software analysis of the vibration power spectrum (eventually acoustic emissions) created during the normal operation of the diagnosed device or under unexpected situations. Another option is to create an artificial pulse, which can help us to determine the actual state of the diagnosed device. The main idea of this method is based on the analysis of the current power spectrum density of the received signal and its postprocessing in the Matlab environment with a following sample comparison in the Statistica software environment. The last step, which is comparison of samples, is the most important, because it is possible to determine the status of the examined object at a given time. Nowadays samples are compared only visually, but this method can’t produce good results. Further the presented filter can choose relevant data from a huge group of data, which originate from applying FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). On the other hand, using this approach they can be subjected to analysis with the assistance of a neural network. If correct and high-quality starting data are provided to the initial network, we are able to analyze other samples and state in which condition a certain object is. The success rate of this approximation, based on our testing of the solution, is now 85.7%. With further improvement of the filter, it could be even greater. Finally it is possible to detect defective conditions or upcoming limiting states of examined objects/materials by using only one device which contains HW and SW parts. This kind of detection can provide significant financial savings in certain cases (such as continuous casting of iron where it could save hundreds of thousands of USD).

Smart intelligent control of current source for high power LED diodes

Current trends in low power electronics represent e.g. low power lightings, where classical light bulbs are replaced by halogen or Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lights. In the context of the development of saver LEDs the manufacturing technology is overcoming the borders which results in the production of High Power (HP) LEDs at the opposite side of the spectrum. One HP-LED with 100W power is available in current China markets. However, such a great power needs a new access to control the current source. The main problem is overheating which leads to lowering of HP-LEDs lifetime or, in an extreme case, destroying lightings. Our paper deals with an intelligent solution which solves all the problems of current source design and control. The developed solution is also prepared for remote control of power.

Continuous Noninvasive Blood Pressure Measurement by Near Infra Red CCD Camera and Pulse Transmit Time Systems

The need of continuous blood pressure measurement is usable in wide spectrum of applications from physicians practice to home care applications. Many types of blood pressure measurement devices can be bought in electronics shops. All such devices are contact measurement devices which need to be in contact of human body (hand or foot mainly). Secondary they allow only one measurement per several minutes interval (typically ones in 10 minutes). Our goal is to develop a small device for noninvasive continuous measurement of blood pressure. This device must be a small battery powered embedded system which measure a blood pressure during a long time period and send this information remotely to operator’s stations. We would like to try two systems of blood pressure monitoring. The first one is system with NIR CCD camera (Near Infra Red), which measure the wide changes of the blood vessels and the second one is system, which measure the pulse transmit time (PTT). At the end we can compare the systems and get information, which system will be a right way to obtain exact continuous blood pressure information.

Real Time Voltage and Current Phase Shift Analyzer for Power Saving Applications

Nowadays, high importance is given to low energy devices (such as refrigerators, deep-freezers, washing machines, pumps, etc.) that are able to produce reactive power in power lines which can be optimized (reduced). Reactive power is the main component which overloads power lines and brings excessive thermal stress to conductors. If the reactive power is optimized, it can significantly lower the electricity consumption (from 10 to 30%—varies between countries). This paper will examine and discuss the development of a measuring device for analyzing reactive power. However, the main problem is the precise real time measurement of the input and output voltage and current. Such quality measurement is needed to allow adequate action intervention (feedback which reduces or fully compensates reactive power). Several other issues, such as the accuracy and measurement speed, must be examined while designing this device. The price and the size of the final product need to remain low as they are the two important parameters of this solution.

Noninvasive Continuous Blood Pressure Measurement and GPS Position Monitoring of Patients

Need of blood pressure measurement is usable in wide spectrum of applications from physicians offices to home care applications. Many types of blood pressure measurement devices can be bought in electronics shops. All such devices are measurement devices which need to be in contact with human body (hand or foot mainly). Further they allow only one measurement per several minutes interval (typically 10 minutes). Our goal is to develop a small device for noninvasive continuous measurement of blood pressure. This device must be a small battery powered embedded system which measures a blood pressure during a long time period and sends this information to remote operators stations. In this station the analysis of receiving video data is made for several types of usage. In current state we develop a small device to scan a video or a set of images with the NIR (Near Infra Red) CCD camera. The video data are transferred by wireless connection to the computer where they are analyzed. The first results provide an indication to be a right way to obtain exact continuous blood pressure information. In the future there exists a way to integrate this blood pressure measurement system to concurrently developed biotelemetric system architecture for patients and physicians called Guardian. For position monitoring in outdoor areas there is developed GPS module which informs about patient location and brings very precise time basis for other measuring modules of Guardian system and time synchronization.

Notice of Retraction Material inner defect detection by a vibration spectrum analysis

In this paper is described possibility of non-destructive diagnostics of solid objects by software analysis of vibration spectrum. With using platform MATLAB, we can process and evaluate information from accelerometer, which is placed on the measured object. The analog signal is digitized by special I/O device dSAPCE CP-1104 and then processed offline with FFT (Fast Fourier Transform). The power spectrum is then examined by developed evaluating procedures and individual results are displayed in bar graph. When we take a look on results, there is an evidently correlation between spectrum and examining object (inner defects).

Incremental PIC controller with handled limit states and manual settings

A proportional-integral-derivative controller (PID controller) is a basic control loop feedback controller widely used in industrial control systems. An “error” value as the difference between a measured output system variable and a desired setpoint is calculated. The controller role is to minimize the error by adjusting the system inputs. For best performance, the PID parameters must be tuned according to the controlled system parameters.

Smart Mobile User Adaptive System with Autonomous Sensor Networks

In this article we present a smart mobile user adaptive system with autonomous sensor networks as a modern way of use an energy harvesting for powering of intelligent sensors. Gaining the energy to supply sensors is possible even from immediate sensor’s environment. They are supplying the energy from vibration less environment and without need of high intensity incident light. For running they are need only small thermal gradient of order of degrees. Thanks to evolution of new MOS-FET transistors with very low value of RDSON (order of mOhm) is possible to use even very low voltage produced by thermal sources called Thermo Electric Generators.

Simple Discrete Controller with PWM Power Output

One of problems of the most common used industrial controllers is in their very expensive price. Moreover, they not offer any other features except some basic ones, how to affect controlling process (e.g. settings of PWM (Pulse Wide Modulation) switching frequency). On the other side, developing of a new analog controller to control a simple system is not reasonable due to financial or time issues. That is the reason why we decided to build a simple, discrete controller and implement its algorithm into a single chip, eight bit microcontroller unit (MCU). Such a discrete PSD controller is characteristic for its simplicity and variability. It can control a plenty of less complicated systems by a simple change of its characteristic parameters. Thanks to modern approach it is possible to create a full-featured controller including power action element on a tiny area equal to 7cm2.