Sensors now helping elderly too in prompting next task

A new device has been developed at Washington State University which is designed to

work with smart home systems that would provide memory cues to help residents get back
on track when they are unsure of what to do next.

Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, professor of psychology, is part of WSU’s Center for
Advanced Studies in Adaptive Systems (CASAS). Her team of graduate students is working
with colleagues in electrical engineering and computer science to develop technology
to help people remember to do tasks like taking their medicine, preparing meals and
performing physical therapy exercises.

Schmitter-Edgecombe and Diane Cook, professor of electrical engineering and computer
science, have been testing and refining the WSU smart home for the last seven years.
It uses sensors on the walls, doors and various household objects to help monitor,
predict and ultimately improve quality of life, especially in care of the elderly.

The system predicts when cognitively impaired people are between activities and
may need a prompt to perform a new task. It comes in a box and can be installed in
an apartment or home relatively easily. It consists of roughly 30 infrared, motion
and vibration sensors that look at patterns of behaviors – such as whether a certain
activity has happened before, when it took place and how long it lasted – and then
deduce what’s going on.
Over time, the system uses this information to determine when the home’s inhabitant
has completed a specified task and might need a prompt to perform a new one.

To test their system, the research team collected data from two experiments. One was
conducted at the smart home on the WSU Pullman campus. The other took place at a
retirement community in Seattle where smart homes have been installed in eight
apartments.
For the second experiment, each of the apartments housed a single older adult who was
asked to go about daily routines while the wireless sensors collected data. Every day,
the researchers analyzed three hours of data starting when the participants first
awoke. The system was able to accurately predict periods of transition between
activities 80 percent of the time.

“The smart home is able to recognize the short period of time after visitors leave
and before the resident starts a new activity,” said Kayela Robertson, a psychology
postdoctoral candidate working on the project. “We are starting to develop a tablet-
or smart phone-based application that integrates with the smart home to provide a
prompt to perform a new task during this transition.”
For example, the smart home used data from sensors on the front door and in the living
room to determine when visitors arrived, how long they stayed and when they left.

The goal is to develop an easy-to-use and portable tool that would provide reminders
to perform a number of important activities.
The technology could also provide smart home occupants with a list of activities
they’ve done throughout the course of the day and give healthcare providers and loved
ones a better idea of how their aging patients, parents or other family members are
doing, whether they live nearby or in another state.

Read the full article: https://news.wsu.edu/2015/12/15/device-prompts-elderly-to-remember-next-task/

Detecting and measuring with VibraSens

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Techno-advanced lifestyle of smart city: Chicago

Chicago's IQ will be measured by Sensors now...!

The University of Chicago (UChicago) announced that the National Science Foundation has awarded a $3.1 million grant to support the development of Array of Things, an urban sensing instrument that will serve as a fitness tracker for the city. Starting next year, 500 Array of Things (AoT) nodes will measure data on Chicago’s environment, infrastructure and activity to scientifically investigate solutions to urban challenges ranging from air quality to urban flooding. The ultimate goal of this innovative community technology platform is to help make cities cleaner, healthier and more livable.

The grant will support a multidisciplinary team of designers, engineers and scientists at the Computation Institute (a joint initiative of UChicago and Argonne National Laboratory), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Northern Illinois University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.The Array of Things (AoT) is an urban sensing project, a network of interactive, modular sensor boxes that will be installed around Chicago to collect real-time data on the city’s environment, infrastructure, and activity for research and public use. AoT will essentially serve as a “fitness tracker” for the city, measuring factors that impact livability in Chicago such as climate, air quality and noise.

The nodes will initially measure temperature, barometric pressure, light, vibration, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, ambient sound intensity, pedestrian and vehicle traffic, and surface temperature. Continued research and development will help create sensors to monitor other urban factors of interest such as flooding and standing water, precipitation, wind, and pollutants.

Array of Things is interested in monitoring the city’s environment and activity, not individuals. In fact, the technology and policy have been designed to specifically avoid any potential collection of data about individuals, so privacy protection is built into the design of the sensors and into the operating policies. Array of Things will not collect any personal or private information.

The nodes utilize an Argonne-developed technology platform called Waggle, created by Argonne’s Peter Beckman, Rajesh Sankaran and Catlett, that allows for powerful and secure remote processing of measurements before transmission of data to a central server.

Because all of the data will be published openly and without charge, it will also support the development of innovative applications, such as a mobile application that allows a resident to track their exposure to certain air contaminants, or to navigate through the city based on avoiding urban heat islands, poor air quality, or excessive noise and congestion.

In partnership with the City of Chicago, the nodes will be mounted on streetlight traffic signal poles around the city by 2017. Fifty nodes will be installed in early 2016, and the number is expected grow to 200 by the end of 2016 and 500 by the end of 2017. The location of these nodes will be determined in collaboration with the City of Chicago and input from researchers and community members.

Eleven nodes are currently undergoing testing on the University of Chicago campus. Additional funding for the project was provided by the University of Chicago Innovation Fund, Argonne, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

What Is The Array of Things? 

US Air Force to use vibration sensors to detect vehicles in anti-access and denied areas.

Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced an

upcoming program this week for Vibrometry Interrogation for Battlefield Exploitation
(VIBE). The objective of VIBE is to develop combat identification (CID) automatic
target recognition (ATR) for vibrometry sensor data for use within anti-access/area
denial (A2/AD) environments.

Vibrometry sensors utilize the principal of micro-Doppler measurements between the
sensor and target caused by surface deflections. These deflections are due to vibrations mainly caused by mechanical systems (motors) or transformer hum (magnetostriction) during operation of military and civilian vehicles and equipment. These measurements enhance air-to-ground (A/G) and air-to-air (A/A) remote identification of targets. The
addition of vibration measurement to the sensor suite provides an additional non-imagery based identification modality at ranges where traditional electro-optical imaging is resolution limited. The vibrometry modality also provides unique capabilities in settings where a vibration signature is available such as facility interrogation, power plant assessment, obscured targets, and Battle Damage Assessment (BDA).

One of the VIBE program's key challenges will be to extracting features from vibrometry
signatures that remain consistent, and filter out irrelevant noise. For this project
Air Force researchers are not interested in any proprietary hardware, software, or
data solutions. Instead, the program will focus on basic algorithm development.
Program funding will be about $15 million from 2016 to 2022, researchers say.

For more information please follow the link: https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=2cd88d2c41b98042ff665877a11dfc96&tab=core&_cview=0

Vibration technology based security system has been proposed by NIT-K to secure unmanned level crossings.

Recently, an MoU has been signed between Palakkad division - Southern Railway and ECE department, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal on a system to provide advance warning at unmanned level crossings.

NIT department focused on vibration technology  and detailed the approach stating that motion of train generating vibration will be used in this system development where a sensitive vibration sensor/acoustic sensor will be installed on the track or sleeper near the level crossing which be constantly monitored for its output.  Further, the output of the vibration sensor will be monitored by the micro-controller device which will process the readings and infer the presence of the train, its type and velocity. 

This simple system that can detect the presence of the train after sensing the unambiguous presence of the train and can provide an audio-visual warning so that people, vehicles, people and livestock can move away from the location of the level crossing. The system will reset itself for next train detection.  

Read the full article: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/NIT-K-Surathkal-students-to-secure-unmanned-level-crossings/articleshow/49438115.cms 

TO-5 Transistor style piezoelectric accelerometer

TO-5 solid state piezoelectric accelerometers offer low cost solution for vibration and shock measurements in high-volume and commercial OEM applications.
The compact designs may be embedded into machinery at the OEM level to provide value-added monitoring protection. The units employ field-proven, solid-state, annular shear piezoelectric sensing elements.
They are available with charge, voltage or ®ICP / ®IEPE output.
They offer better resolution and broader frequency range compare to MEMS or capacitive accelerometers.
They are therefore mainly used for predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, bearing and gear mesh vibration measurements, ...
The piezoelectric accelerometer model 160 uses a solid-state piezoelectric element in the annular shear mode. It is available with 2-wire.

ICP - IEPE - LIVM Voltage output for easy compatibility with existing piezoelectric accelerometer. 3-wire Voltage output is also available for simplified operation and connectivity to low power data acquisition unit.

Typical applications
The piezoelectric accelerometer model 160 is design for vibration and shock measurements in high-volume and OEM applications. It is well suited for vibration monitoring and machinery protection.

Explore our e-shops for Model 160 and a wide range of products in your own area...   

Industrial Triaxial Vibration Sensors

Industrial, triaxial vibration sensors use piezoceramic in the annular shear mode, have dual case isolation with an internal Faraday shield, use ®ICP / ®IEPE transmission mode.

Compared to obsolete compression design, annular shear piezoelectric sensors feature better frequency response, improved base strain, lower noise, smaller size, thermal transient immunity and insensitivity to cable motion. Annular shear mode is also less susceptible to transverse vibrations and better immune to electronic saturation at high frequency.

Why industrial triaxial vibration sensors are bigger than laboratory ones?

Triaxial industrial sensors require dual case isolation provided by an internal Faraday shield. Laboratory triaxial sensors are only isolated (if at all) by an external isolation pad on the mounting surface or by an anodised aluminum housing. They are therefore prone to ground loop and 50 Hz or 60 Hz pickup. In harsh environments, industrial vibration sensors don’t allow for such solutions.

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