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Di Tocco J, Lo Presti D, Massaroni C, Cinti S, Cimini S, De Gara L, Schena E. Plant-Wear: A Multi-Sensor Plant Wearable Platform for Growth and Microclimate Monitoring. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 23:549. [PMID: 36617147 PMCID: PMC9824330 DOI: 10.3390/s23010549] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2022] [Revised: 12/16/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Wearable devices are widely spreading in various scenarios for monitoring different parameters related to human and recently plant health. In the context of precision agriculture, wearables have proven to be a valuable alternative to traditional measurement methods for quantitatively monitoring plant development. This study proposed a multi-sensor wearable platform for monitoring the growth of plant organs (i.e., stem and fruit) and microclimate (i.e., environmental temperature-T and relative humidity-RH). The platform consists of a custom flexible strain sensor for monitoring growth when mounted on a plant and a commercial sensing unit for monitoring T and RH values of the plant surrounding. A different shape was conferred to the strain sensor according to the plant organs to be engineered. A dumbbell shape was chosen for the stem while a ring shape for the fruit. A metrological characterization was carried out to investigate the strain sensitivity of the proposed flexible sensors and then preliminary tests were performed in both indoor and outdoor scenarios to assess the platform performance. The promising results suggest that the proposed system can be considered one of the first attempts to design wearable and portable systems tailored to the specific plant organ with the potential to be used for future applications in the coming era of digital farms and precision agriculture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Di Tocco
- Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Daniela Lo Presti
- Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Carlo Massaroni
- Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Stefano Cinti
- Department of Pharmacy, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, 80138 Naples, Italy
| | - Sara Cimini
- Department of Science and Technology for Humans and the Environment, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Laura De Gara
- Department of Science and Technology for Humans and the Environment, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Emiliano Schena
- Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, 00128 Rome, Italy
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2
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Romano C, Schena E, Formica D, Massaroni C. Comparison between Chest-Worn Accelerometer and Gyroscope Performance for Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate Monitoring. BIOSENSORS 2022; 12:bios12100834. [PMID: 36290971 PMCID: PMC9599933 DOI: 10.3390/bios12100834] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Revised: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
The demand for wearable devices to simultaneously monitor heart rate (HR) and respiratory rate (RR) values has grown due to the incidence increase in cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. The use of inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors, embedding both accelerometers and gyroscopes, may ensure a non-intrusive and low-cost monitoring. While both accelerometers and gyroscopes have been assessed independently for both HR and RR monitoring, there lacks a comprehensive comparison between them when used simultaneously. In this study, we used both accelerometers and gyroscopes embedded in a single IMU sensor for the simultaneous monitoring of HR and RR. The following main findings emerged: (i) the accelerometer outperformed the gyroscope in terms of accuracy in both HR and RR estimation; (ii) the window length used to estimate HR and RR values influences the accuracy; and (iii) increasing the length over 25 s does not provide a relevant improvement, but accuracy improves when the subject is seated or lying down, and deteriorates in the standing posture. Our study provides a comprehensive comparison between two promising systems, highlighting their potentiality for real-time cardiorespiratory monitoring. Furthermore, we give new insights into the influence of window length and posture on the systems' performance, which can be useful to spread this approach in clinical settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Romano
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 21, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Emiliano Schena
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 21, 00128 Rome, Italy
| | - Domenico Formica
- School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
| | - Carlo Massaroni
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 21, 00128 Rome, Italy
- Correspondence:
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Janik P, Janik MA, Pielka M. Monitoring Breathing and Heart Rate Using Episodic Broadcast Data Transmission. SENSORS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2022; 22:6019. [PMID: 36015777 PMCID: PMC9416172 DOI: 10.3390/s22166019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2022] [Revised: 07/28/2022] [Accepted: 08/10/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The paper presents a wearable sensor for breath and pulse monitoring using an inertial sensor and episodic broadcast radio transmission. The data transmission control algorithm applied allows for the transmission of additional information using the standard PDU format and, at the same time, goes beyond the Bluetooth teletransmission standard (BLE). The episodic broadcast transmission makes it possible to receive information from sensors without the need to create a dedicated radio link or a defined network structure. The radio transmission controlled by the occurrence of a specific event in the monitored signal is combined with the reference wire transmission. The signals from two different types of sensors and the simulated ECG signal are used to control the BLE transmission. The presented results of laboratory tests indicate the effectiveness of episodic data transmission in the BLE standard. The conducted analysis showed that the mean difference in pulse detection using the episodic transmission compared to the wire transmission is 0.038 s, which is about 4% of the mean duration of a single cycle, assuming that the average adult human pulse is 60 BPM.
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A BLE-Connected Piezoresistive and Inertial Chest Band for Remote Monitoring of the Respiratory Activity by an Android Application: Hardware Design and Software Optimization. FUTURE INTERNET 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/fi14060183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Breathing is essential for human life. Issues related to respiration can be an indicator of problems related to the cardiorespiratory system; thus, accurate breathing monitoring is fundamental for establishing the patient’s condition. This paper presents a ready-to-use and discreet chest band for monitoring the respiratory parameters based on the piezoresistive transduction mechanism. In detail, it relies on a strain sensor realized with a pressure-sensitive fabric (EeonTex LTT-SLPA-20K) for monitoring the chest movements induced by respiration. In addition, the band includes an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which is used to remove the motion artefacts from the acquired signal, thereby improving the measurement reliability. Moreover, the band comprises a low-power conditioning and acquisition section that processes the signal from sensors, providing a reliable measurement of the respiration rate (RR), in addition to other breathing parameters, such as inhalation (TI) and exhalation (TE) times, inhalation-to-exhalation ratio (IER), and flow rate (V). The device wirelessly transmits the extracted parameters to a host device, where a custom mobile application displays them. Different test campaigns were carried out to evaluate the performance of the designed chest band in measuring the RR, by comparing the measurements provided by the chest band with those obtained by breath count. In detail, six users, of different genders, ages, and physical constitutions, were involved in the tests. The obtained results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed approach in detecting the RR. The achieved performance was in line with that of other RR monitoring systems based on piezoresistive textiles, but which use more powerful acquisition systems or have low wearability. In particular, the inertia-assisted piezoresistive chest band obtained a Pearson correlation coefficient with respect to the measurements based on breath count of 0.96 when the user was seated. Finally, Bland–Altman analysis demonstrated that the developed system obtained 0.68 Breaths Per Minute (BrPM) mean difference (MD), and Limits of Agreement (LoAs) of +3.20 and −1.75 BrPM when the user was seated.
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Lo Presti D, Bianchi D, Massaroni C, Gizzi A, Schena E. A Soft and Skin-Interfaced Smart Patch Based on Fiber Optics for Cardiorespiratory Monitoring. BIOSENSORS 2022; 12:363. [PMID: 35735511 PMCID: PMC9221342 DOI: 10.3390/bios12060363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2022] [Revised: 05/23/2022] [Accepted: 05/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Wearables are valuable solutions for monitoring a variety of physiological parameters. Their application in cardiorespiratory monitoring may significantly impact global health problems and the economic burden related to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Here, we describe a soft biosensor capable of monitoring heart (HR) and respiratory (RR) rates simultaneously. We show that a skin-interfaced biosensor based on fiber optics (i.e., the smart patch) is capable of estimating HR and RR by detecting local ribcage strain caused by breathing and heart beating. The system addresses some of the main technical challenges that limit the wide-scale use of wearables, such as the simultaneous monitoring of HR and RR via single sensing modalities, their limited skin compliance, and low sensitivity. We demonstrate that the smart patch estimates HR and RR with high fidelity under different respiratory conditions and common daily body positions. We highlight the system potentiality of real-time cardiorespiratory monitoring in a broad range of home settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Lo Presti
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
| | - Daniele Bianchi
- Unit of Nonlinear Physics and Mathematical Models, Department of Engineering, University of Rome Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy; (D.B.); (A.G.)
| | - Carlo Massaroni
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
| | - Alessio Gizzi
- Unit of Nonlinear Physics and Mathematical Models, Department of Engineering, University of Rome Campus Bio-Medico, 00128 Rome, Italy; (D.B.); (A.G.)
| | - Emiliano Schena
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Department of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
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Di Tocco J, Lo Presti D, Rainer A, Schena E, Massaroni C. Silicone-Textile Composite Resistive Strain Sensors for Human Motion-Related Parameters. SENSORS 2022; 22:s22103954. [PMID: 35632361 PMCID: PMC9147119 DOI: 10.3390/s22103954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Revised: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
In recent years, soft and flexible strain sensors have found application in wearable devices for monitoring human motion and physiological parameters. Conductive textile-based sensors are good candidates for developing these sensors. However, their robust electro-mechanical connection and susceptibility to environmental factors are still an open challenge to date. In this work, the manufacturing process of a silicone-textile composite resistive strain sensor based on a conductive resistive textile encapsulated into a dual-layer of silicone rubber is reported. In the working range typical of biomedical applications (up to 50%), the proposed flexible, skin-safe and moisture resistant strain sensor exhibited high sensitivity (gauge factor of −1.1), low hysteresis (maximum hysteresis error 3.2%) and ease of shaping in custom designs through a facile manufacturing process. To test the developed flexible sensor, two applicative scenarios covering the whole working range have been considered: the recording of the chest wall expansion during respiratory activity and the capture of the elbow flexion/extension movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua Di Tocco
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (J.D.T.); (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
| | - Daniela Lo Presti
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (J.D.T.); (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
| | - Alberto Rainer
- Unit of Tissue Engineering and Chemistry for Engineering, Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy;
- Institute of Nanotechnology, National Research Council, Via Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
| | - Emiliano Schena
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (J.D.T.); (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Carlo Massaroni
- Unit of Measurements and Biomedical Instrumentation, Departmental Faculty of Engineering, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Via Alvaro del Portillo, 00128 Rome, Italy; (J.D.T.); (D.L.P.); (C.M.)
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Domingues MDF, Sciarrone A, Radwan A. Special Issue "Wearable and BAN Sensors for Physical Rehabilitation and eHealth Architectures". SENSORS 2021; 21:s21248509. [PMID: 34960602 PMCID: PMC8708758 DOI: 10.3390/s21248509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Maria de Fátima Domingues
- Instituto de Telecomunicações, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal;
- Correspondence:
| | - Andrea Sciarrone
- Department of Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications Engineering, and Naval Architecture (DITEN), University of Genoa, Via dell’Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genoa, Italy;
| | - Ayman Radwan
- Instituto de Telecomunicações, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal;
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