Contents


Preface

Data acquisition is a process of sampling real-world phenomena to collect data that can be manipulated by a computer and software. Data acquisition systems include sensors that convert physical parameters to an electrical signal and utilize computer network technologies for data transfers. Recent advances in biomedical data acquisition systems have led to innovative applications in medical diagnosis, healthcare, and assisted living. The emerging solutions enable the non-invasive and continuous acquisition of valuable biomedical data. Moreover, the collected data can be exchanged using networked systems and analyzed in real time at remote locations.

This book provides insight into the recent advances and applications of biomedical data acquisition technology. It consists of six chapters, each focusing on a specific

Chapter 1 concisely reviews several solutions that utilize network-connected sensors for patient activity recognition and monitoring of physiological parameters in healthcare. The considered technological solutions include smart sensors, wireless body sensor networks, and visual sensor networks. The chapter discusses the operation of these networked systems to demonstrate their advantages from the perspec-

Chapter 2 is devoted to ambient assisted-living systems that can support people in their daily routines by using different types of sensors, mobile devices, computers, communication networks, and software applications. The authors present a data analysis framework that monitors complex patient situations in real time using a web application and a set of sensors. The implemented sensors measure heart rate and breathing rate, analyze gait, and determine the temperature, humidity, and volatile organic compounds of air in the room. Moreover, the proposed system controls an active prosthetic foot to adapt it to the floor covering automatically. The chapter demonstrates that the components of the ambient assisted-living system can communicate with low latency via a heterogeneous network that integrates

Chapter 3 considers acoustic sensor applications for monitoring the joints of the human body. The authors review the use of acoustic emission measurements and vibroarthrography in osteoarthritis diagnosis. These methods' main advantages include the possibility of non-invasive and radiation-free monitoring of variations in joint structure and evaluation of osteoarthritis progression. It is suggested that the acoustic approach could be competitive to state-of-the-art radiographic and

Chapter 4 presents a method for controlling advanced prosthetic devices, with the use of an aneural–machine interface. In this method, the introduced data acquisition system translates the human brain's neural activity into control commands for prostheses. Specifically, functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to acquire data that enable the generation of the control commands for a three degrees-offreedom prosthetic arm. The experimental results show that popular classification

tive of biomedical data acquisition for representative application examples.

WiFi, Bluetooth, Gigabit LAN, and 4G+ communication.

magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

innovative application.
