Rap Music Powers Rhythmic Action of Medical Sensor

This graphic illustrates the principles behind the operation of a new type of miniature medical sensor powered by acoustic waves, including those found in music such as rap, blues, jazz and rock. The device, a pressure sensor, might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurisms or incontinence due to paralysis. (Credit: Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University)

The driving bass rhythm of rap music can be harnessed to power a new type of miniature medical sensor designed to be implanted in the body.

Acoustic waves from music, particularly rap, were found to effectively recharge the pressure sensor. Such a device might ultimately help to treat people stricken with aneurysms or incontinence due to paralysis.

The heart of the sensor is a vibrating cantilever, a thin beam attached at one end like a miniature diving board. Music within a certain range of frequencies, from 200-500 hertz, causes the cantilever to vibrate, generating electricity and storing a charge in a capacitor, said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue University professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering.

"The music reaches the correct frequency only at certain times, for example, when there is a strong bass component," he said. "The acoustic energy from the music can pass through body tissue, causing the cantilever to vibrate."

When the frequency falls outside of the proper range, the cantilever stops vibrating, automatically sending the electrical charge to the sensor, which takes a pressure reading and transmits data as radio signals. Because the frequency is continually changing according to the rhythm of a musical composition, the sensor can be induced to repeatedly alternate intervals of storing charge and transmitting data.

"You would only need to do this for a couple of minutes every hour or so to monitor either blood pressure or pressure of urine in the bladder," Ziaie said. "It doesn't take long to do the measurement."

Findings are detailed in a paper to be presented during the IEEE MEMS conference, which will be Jan. 29 to Feb. 2 in Paris. The paper was written by doctoral student Albert Kim, research scientist Teimour Maleki and Ziaie.

"This paper demonstrates the feasibility of the concept," he said.

The device is an example of a microelectromechanical system, or MEMS, and was created in the Birck Nanotechnology Center at the university's Discovery Park. The cantilever beam is made from a ceramic material called lead zirconate titanate, or PZT, which is piezoelectric, meaning it generates electricity when compressed. The sensor is about 2 centimeters long. Researchers tested the device in a water-filled balloon.

A receiver that picks up the data from the sensor could be placed several inches from the patient. Playing tones within a certain frequency range also can be used instead of music.

"But a plain tone is a very annoying sound," Ziaie said. "We thought it would be novel and also more aesthetically pleasing to use music."

Researchers experimented with four types of music: rap, blues, jazz and rock.

"Rap is the best because it contains a lot of low frequency sound, notably the bass," Ziaie said.

The sensor is capable of monitoring pressure in the urinary bladder and in the sack of a blood vessel damaged by an aneurism. Such a technology could be used in a system for treating incontinence in people with paralysis by checking bladder pressure and stimulating the spinal cord to close the sphincter that controls urine flow from the bladder. More immediately, it could be used to diagnose incontinence. The conventional diagnostic method now is to insert a probe with a catheter, which must be in place for several hours while the patient remains at the hospital.

"A wireless implantable device could be inserted and left in place, allowing the patient to go home while the pressure is monitored," Ziaie said.

The new technology offers potential benefits over conventional implantable devices, which either use batteries or receive power through a property called inductance, which uses coils on the device and an external transmitter. Both approaches have downsides. Batteries have to be replaced periodically, and data are difficult to retrieve from devices that use inductance; coils on the implanted device and an external receiver must be lined up precisely, and they can only be about a centimeter apart.

A patent application has been filed for the design.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Purdue University. The original article was written by Emil Venere.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Printed protection: Low-cost paper-based wireless sensor could help detect explosive devices

ScienceDaily (Oct. 27, 2011) — Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a prototype wireless sensor capable of detecting trace amounts of a key ingredient found in many explosives.

The device, which employs carbon nanotubes and is printed on paper or paper-like material using standard inkjet technology, could be deployed in large numbers to alert authorities to the presence of explosives, such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

"This prototype represents a significant step toward producing an integrated wireless system for explosives detection," said Krishna Naishadham, a principal research scientist who is leading the work at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). "It incorporates a sensor and a communications device in a small, low-cost package that could operate almost anywhere."

Other types of hazardous gas sensors are based on expensive semiconductor fabrication and gas chromatography, Naishadham said, and they consume more power, require human intervention, and typically do not operate at ambient temperatures. Furthermore, those sensors have not been integrated with communication devices such as antennas.

The wireless component for communicating the sensor information -- a resonant lightweight antenna -- was printed on photographic paper using inkjet techniques devised by Professor Manos Tentzeris of Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Tentzeris is collaborating with Naishadham on development of the sensing device.

The sensing component, based on functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), has been fabricated and tested for detection sensitivity by Xiaojuan (Judy) Song, a GTRI research scientist. The device relies on carbon-nanotube materials optimized by Song.

A presentation on this sensing technology was given in July at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium (IEEE APS) in Spokane, Wash., by Hoseon Lee, a Ph.D. student in ECE co-advised by Tentzeris and Naishadham. The paper received the Honorable Mention Award in the Best Student Paper competition at the symposium.

This is not the first inkjet-printed ammonia sensor that has been integrated with an antenna on paper, said Tentzeris. His group produced a similar integrated sensor last year in collaboration with the research group of C.P. Wong, who is Regents professor and Smithgall Institute Endowed Chair in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Georgia Tech.

"The fundamental difference is that this newest CNT sensor possesses dramatically improved sensitivity to miniscule ammonia concentrations," Tentzeris said. "That should enable the first practical applications to detect trace amounts of hazardous gases in challenging operational environments using inkjet-printed devices."

Tentzeris explained that the key to printing components, circuits and antennas lies in novel "inks" that contain silver nanoparticles in an emulsion that can be deposited by the printer at low temperatures -- around 100 degrees Celsius. A process called sonication helps to achieve optimal ink viscosity and homogeneity, enabling uniform material deposition and permitting maximum operating effectiveness for paper-based components.

"Ink-jet printing is low-cost and convenient compared to other technologies such as wet etching," Tentzeris said. "Using the proper inks, a printer can be used almost anywhere to produce custom circuits and components, replacing traditional clean-room approaches."

Low-cost materials -- such as heavy photographic paper or plastics like polyethylene terephthalate -- can be made water resistant to ensure greater reliability, he added. Inkjet component printing can also use flexible organic materials, such as liquid crystal polymer (LCP), which are known for their robustness and weather resistance. The resulting components are similar in size to conventional components but can conform and adhere to almost any surface.

Naishadham explained that the same inkjet techniques used to produce RF components, circuits and antennas can also be used to deposit the functionalized carbon nanotubes used for sensing. These nanoscale cylindrical structures -- about one-billionth of a meter in diameter, or 1/50,000th the width of a human hair -- are functionalized by coating them with a conductive polymer that attracts ammonia, a major ingredient found in many IEDs.

Sonication of the functionalized carbon nanotubes produces a uniform water-based ink that can be printed side-by-side with RF components and antennas to produce a compact wireless sensor node.

"The optimized carbon nanotubes are applied as a sensing film, with specific functionalization designed for a particular gas or analyte," Song said. "The GTRI sensor detects trace amounts of ammonia usually found near explosive devices, and it can also be designed to detect similar gases in household, healthcare and industrial environments at very low concentration levels."

The sensor has been designed to detect ammonia in trace amounts -- as low as five parts per million, Naishadham said.

The resulting integrated sensing package can potentially detect the presence of trace explosive materials at a distance, without endangering human lives. This approach, called standoff detection, involves the use of RF technology to identify explosive materials at a relatively safe distance. The GTRI team has designed the device to send an alert to nearby personnel when it detects ammonia.

The wireless sensor nodes require relatively low power, which could come from a number of technologies including thin-film batteries, solar cells or power-scavenging and energy-harvesting techniques. In collaboration with Tentzeris's and Wong's groups, GTRI is investigating ways to make the sensor operate passively, without any power consumption.

"We are focusing on providing standoff detection for those engaged in military or humanitarian missions and other hazardous situations," Naishadham said. "We believe that it will be possible, and cost-effective, to deploy large numbers of these detectors on vehicles or robots throughout a military engagement zone."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Georgia Institute of Technology Research News. The original article was written by Rick Robinson.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Stretchable electronics: Wireless sensor measures and inputs intense body movements to computer

ScienceDaily (June 17, 2011) — Electronics that can be bent and stretched might sound like science fiction. But Uppsala researcher Zhigang Wu, working with collaborators, has devised a wireless sensor that can stand to be stretched. For example, the sensor can measure intensive body movements and wirelessly send information directly to a computer.

The findings are now being presented in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Robots of liquid metal, as in the Terminator movies, are probably the best-known cases of deformable electronic systems. But so far this only exists in our imagination. Twisting, folding, and stretching fragile conventional electronics is not yet possible.

The latest advances in the field of µFSRFE (microfluidic stretchable radio frequency electronics) have shown the possibility of combining established stiff electronics components with channels of elastomers filled with fluid metal. In this way it has been possible to construct systems that after severe mechanical deformation can manage to return to their original form. Such electronics can adapt to nearly any bent and moving surfaces on a human being or a robot and can thus serve as a second layer of smart e-skin for health monitoring or remote control.

The researcher Zhigang Wu from Uppsala University, in collaboration with researchers at the company Laird Technologies, has presented a newly developed and wireless µFSRFE sensor consisting of a multifunctional antenna integrated with a conventional rigid circuit board. The reporting sensor can measure intensive body movements and wirelessly send information directly to a computer. The design enables wireless measurement of repeated bending across a large area or moveable parts.

The sensor they designed will pave the way for myriad new applications that until now have only been seen on the movie screen.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Uppsala Universitet.

Journal Reference:

Shi Cheng, Zhigang Wu. A Microfluidic, Reversibly Stretchable, Large-Area Wireless Strain Sensor. Advanced Functional Materials, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201002508

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

New sensor to measure structural stresses can heal itself when broken

ScienceDaily (June 17, 2011) — Researchers from North Carolina State University have designed a sensor that can measure strain in structural materials and is capable of healing itself -- an important advance for collecting data to help us make informed decisions about structural safety in the wake of earthquakes, explosions or other unexpected events.

Engineers use sensors to measure the strain, or forces, exerted on materials used to build everything from airplanes to civil infrastructure. For example, these sensors can tell us how an airplane wing is performing in flight, and give maintenance authorities advance notice when the wing may be near failure. In other words, it gives you a chance to address an issue before it becomes a problem.

Historically, one flaw in such sensors is that they can break under stress. That means the sensor can no longer provide information to users, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the material they were monitoring has been irreparably harmed. And, as in the airplane example, the sensors may be inaccessible -- making them difficult or impossible to replace.

"To address this problem, we've developed a sensor that automatically repairs itself, in the event that it is broken," says Dr. Kara Peters, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.

The sensor can stretch and compress along with the material it monitors. An infrared (IR) light wave runs through the sensor and detects these changes in length, which tells us how much strain the material is undergoing.

The sensor contains two glass optical fibers that run through a reservoir filled with ultraviolet(UV)-curable resin. The ends of the glass fibers are aligned with each other, but separated by a small gap. Focused beams of IR and UV light run through one of the fibers. When the tightly focused UV beam hits the resin, the resin hardens, creating a thin polymer filament that connects the glass fibers -- creating a closed circuit for the IR light. The rest of the resin in the reservoir remains in liquid form, surrounding the filament.

The remaining liquid resin is important. If the polymer filament breaks under stress, more liquid resin rushes into the gap, comes into contact with the UV beam and hardens -- repairing the sensor automatically.

"Events that can break a sensor, but don't break the structure being monitored, are important," Peters says. "These events could be bird strikes to an airplane wing or earthquake damage to a building. Collecting data on what has happened to these structures can help us make informed decisions about what is safe and what is not. But if those sensors are broken, that data isn't available. Hopefully, this new sensor design will help us collect this sort of data in the future."

The paper, "A self-repairing polymer waveguide sensor," is published in the June issue of Smart Materials And Structures and was co-authored by Peters and NC State Ph.D. student Young Song. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

NC State's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is part of the university's College of Engineering.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by North Carolina State University.

Journal Reference:

Young J Song, Kara J Peters. A self-repairing polymer waveguide sensor. Smart Materials and Structures, 2011; 20 (6): 065005 DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/20/6/065005

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

New sensor to measure structural stresses can heal itself when broken

ScienceDaily (June 17, 2011) — Researchers from North Carolina State University have designed a sensor that can measure strain in structural materials and is capable of healing itself -- an important advance for collecting data to help us make informed decisions about structural safety in the wake of earthquakes, explosions or other unexpected events.

Engineers use sensors to measure the strain, or forces, exerted on materials used to build everything from airplanes to civil infrastructure. For example, these sensors can tell us how an airplane wing is performing in flight, and give maintenance authorities advance notice when the wing may be near failure. In other words, it gives you a chance to address an issue before it becomes a problem.

Historically, one flaw in such sensors is that they can break under stress. That means the sensor can no longer provide information to users, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the material they were monitoring has been irreparably harmed. And, as in the airplane example, the sensors may be inaccessible -- making them difficult or impossible to replace.

"To address this problem, we've developed a sensor that automatically repairs itself, in the event that it is broken," says Dr. Kara Peters, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.

The sensor can stretch and compress along with the material it monitors. An infrared (IR) light wave runs through the sensor and detects these changes in length, which tells us how much strain the material is undergoing.

The sensor contains two glass optical fibers that run through a reservoir filled with ultraviolet(UV)-curable resin. The ends of the glass fibers are aligned with each other, but separated by a small gap. Focused beams of IR and UV light run through one of the fibers. When the tightly focused UV beam hits the resin, the resin hardens, creating a thin polymer filament that connects the glass fibers -- creating a closed circuit for the IR light. The rest of the resin in the reservoir remains in liquid form, surrounding the filament.

The remaining liquid resin is important. If the polymer filament breaks under stress, more liquid resin rushes into the gap, comes into contact with the UV beam and hardens -- repairing the sensor automatically.

"Events that can break a sensor, but don't break the structure being monitored, are important," Peters says. "These events could be bird strikes to an airplane wing or earthquake damage to a building. Collecting data on what has happened to these structures can help us make informed decisions about what is safe and what is not. But if those sensors are broken, that data isn't available. Hopefully, this new sensor design will help us collect this sort of data in the future."

The paper, "A self-repairing polymer waveguide sensor," is published in the June issue of Smart Materials And Structures and was co-authored by Peters and NC State Ph.D. student Young Song. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

NC State's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is part of the university's College of Engineering.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by North Carolina State University.

Journal Reference:

Young J Song, Kara J Peters. A self-repairing polymer waveguide sensor. Smart Materials and Structures, 2011; 20 (6): 065005 DOI: 10.1088/0964-1726/20/6/065005

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Stretchable electronics: Wireless sensor measures and inputs intense body movements to computer

ScienceDaily (June 17, 2011) — Electronics that can be bent and stretched might sound like science fiction. But Uppsala researcher Zhigang Wu, working with collaborators, has devised a wireless sensor that can stand to be stretched. For example, the sensor can measure intensive body movements and wirelessly send information directly to a computer.

The findings are now being presented in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Robots of liquid metal, as in the Terminator movies, are probably the best-known cases of deformable electronic systems. But so far this only exists in our imagination. Twisting, folding, and stretching fragile conventional electronics is not yet possible.

The latest advances in the field of µFSRFE (microfluidic stretchable radio frequency electronics) have shown the possibility of combining established stiff electronics components with channels of elastomers filled with fluid metal. In this way it has been possible to construct systems that after severe mechanical deformation can manage to return to their original form. Such electronics can adapt to nearly any bent and moving surfaces on a human being or a robot and can thus serve as a second layer of smart e-skin for health monitoring or remote control.

The researcher Zhigang Wu from Uppsala University, in collaboration with researchers at the company Laird Technologies, has presented a newly developed and wireless µFSRFE sensor consisting of a multifunctional antenna integrated with a conventional rigid circuit board. The reporting sensor can measure intensive body movements and wirelessly send information directly to a computer. The design enables wireless measurement of repeated bending across a large area or moveable parts.

The sensor they designed will pave the way for myriad new applications that until now have only been seen on the movie screen.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Uppsala Universitet.

Journal Reference:

Shi Cheng, Zhigang Wu. A Microfluidic, Reversibly Stretchable, Large-Area Wireless Strain Sensor. Advanced Functional Materials, 2011; DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201002508

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Beyond smart phones: Sensor network to make 'smart cities' envisioned

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011) — Thanks to numerous sensors, Smartphones make it easy for their owners to organize certain parts of their lives. However, that is just the beginning. Darmstadt researchers envision entire "smart" cities, where all devices present within municipal areas are intelligently linked to one another.

Computer scientists, electrical and computer engineers, and mathemati­cians at the TU Darmstadt and the University of Kassel have joined forces and are working on implementing that vision under their "Cocoon" project. The backbone of a "smart" city is a communications network consisting of sen­sors that receive streams of data, or signals, analyze them, and trans­mit them onward. Such sensors thus act as both receivers and trans­mit­ters, i.e., represent trans­ceivers. The networked communications involved oper­ates wire­lessly via radio links, and yields added values to all partici­pants by analyzing the input data involved. For example, the "Smart Home" control system already on the market allows networking all sorts of devices and automatically regulating them to suit demands, thereby alleg­edly yielding energy savings of as much as fifteen percent.

"Smart Home" might soon be followed by "Smart Hospital," "Smart Indus­try," or "Smart Farm," and even "smart" systems tailored to suit mobile net­works are feasible. Traffic jams may be avoided by, for example, car-to-car or car-to-environment (car-to-X) communications. Health-service sys­tems might also benefit from mobile, sensor communications whenever patients need to be kept supplied with information tailored to suit their health­care needs while underway. Furthermore, sensors on their bodies could assess the status of their health and automatically transmit calls for emergency medical assistance, whenever necessary.

"Smart" and mobile, thanks to beam forming

The researchers regard the ceaseless travels of sensors on mobile systems and their frequent entries into/exits from instrumented areas as the major hurdle to be overcome in implementing their vision of "smart" cities. Sensor-aided devices will have to deal with that by responding to subtle changes in their environments and flexibly, efficiently, regulating the quali­ties of received and transmitted signals. Beam forming, a field in which the TU Darmstadt's Institute for Communications Technology is active, should help out there. On that subject, Prof. Rolf Jakoby of the TU Darmstadt's Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Dept. remarked that, "Current types of antennae radiate omnidirectionally, like light bulbs. We intend to create conditions, under which antennae will, in the future, behave like spotlights that, once they have located a sought device, will track it, while suppressing interference by stray electromag­netic radiation from other devices that might also be present in the area."

Such antennae, along with transceivers equipped with them, are thus recon­figurable, i.e., adjustable to suit ambient conditions by means of onboard electronic circuitry or remote controls. Working in col­lab­or­a­tion with an industrial partner, Jakoby has already equipped terres­trial digital-television (TDTV) transmitters with reconfigurable amplifiers that allow amplifying transmitted-signal levels by as much as ten percent. He added that, "If all of Germany's TDTV-transmitters were equipped with such amp­li­fiers, we could shut down one nuclear power plant."

Frequency bands are a scarce resource

Reconfigurable devices also make much more efficient use of a scarce resource, freq­uency bands. Users have thus far been allocated rigorously defined frequency bands, where only fifteen to twenty percent of the capacities of even the more popular ones have been allocated. Beam forming might allow making more efficient use of them. Jakoby noted that, "This is an area that we are still taking a close look at, but we are well along the way toward understand­ing the system better." However, only a few uses of beam forming have emerged to date, since currently available systems are too expensive for mass applications.

Small, model networks are targeted

Yet another fundamental problem remains to be solved before "smart" cities may become realities. Sensor communications requires the cooper­a­tion of all devices involved, across all communications protocols, such as "Bluetooth," and across all networks, such as the European Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) mobile-telephone network or wireless local-area networks (WLAN), which cannot be achieved with current devices, communications protocols, and networks. Jakoby explained that, "Con­verting all devices to a common communications protocol is infeas­ible, which is why we are seeking a new protocol that would be superim­posed upon everything and allow them to communicate via several proto­cols." Transmission channels would also have to be capable of handling a mas­sive flood of data, since, as Prof. Abdelhak Zoubir of the TU Darm­stadt's Electrical Engineer­ing and Information Technology Dept., the "Cocoon" project's coordinator, put it, "A "smart" Darm­stadt alone would surely involve a million sensors communicating with one another via satel­lites, mobile telephones, computers, and all of the other types of devices that we already have available. Furthermore, since a single, mobile sensor is readily capable of generating several hundred Meg­a­bytes of data annu­ally, new models for handling the communications of millions of such sen­sors that will more densely compress data in order to provide for error-free com­munica­tions will be needed. Several hurdles will thus have to be over­come before "smart" cities become reality. Nevertheless, the scientists working on the "Cocoon" project are convinced that they will be able to simulate a "smart" city incorporating various types of devices employing early versions of small, model networks.

Over the next three years, scientists at the TU Darmstadt will be receiving a total of 4.5 million Euros from the State of Hesse's Offensive for Devel­op­ing Scientific-Economic Excellence for their researches in conjunction with their "Cocoon -- Cooperative Sensor Communications" project.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Technische Universität Darmstadt.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Beyond smart phones: Sensor network to make 'smart cities' envisioned

ScienceDaily (May 16, 2011) — Thanks to numerous sensors, Smartphones make it easy for their owners to organize certain parts of their lives. However, that is just the beginning. Darmstadt researchers envision entire "smart" cities, where all devices present within municipal areas are intelligently linked to one another.

Computer scientists, electrical and computer engineers, and mathemati­cians at the TU Darmstadt and the University of Kassel have joined forces and are working on implementing that vision under their "Cocoon" project. The backbone of a "smart" city is a communications network consisting of sen­sors that receive streams of data, or signals, analyze them, and trans­mit them onward. Such sensors thus act as both receivers and trans­mit­ters, i.e., represent trans­ceivers. The networked communications involved oper­ates wire­lessly via radio links, and yields added values to all partici­pants by analyzing the input data involved. For example, the "Smart Home" control system already on the market allows networking all sorts of devices and automatically regulating them to suit demands, thereby alleg­edly yielding energy savings of as much as fifteen percent.

"Smart Home" might soon be followed by "Smart Hospital," "Smart Indus­try," or "Smart Farm," and even "smart" systems tailored to suit mobile net­works are feasible. Traffic jams may be avoided by, for example, car-to-car or car-to-environment (car-to-X) communications. Health-service sys­tems might also benefit from mobile, sensor communications whenever patients need to be kept supplied with information tailored to suit their health­care needs while underway. Furthermore, sensors on their bodies could assess the status of their health and automatically transmit calls for emergency medical assistance, whenever necessary.

"Smart" and mobile, thanks to beam forming

The researchers regard the ceaseless travels of sensors on mobile systems and their frequent entries into/exits from instrumented areas as the major hurdle to be overcome in implementing their vision of "smart" cities. Sensor-aided devices will have to deal with that by responding to subtle changes in their environments and flexibly, efficiently, regulating the quali­ties of received and transmitted signals. Beam forming, a field in which the TU Darmstadt's Institute for Communications Technology is active, should help out there. On that subject, Prof. Rolf Jakoby of the TU Darmstadt's Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Dept. remarked that, "Current types of antennae radiate omnidirectionally, like light bulbs. We intend to create conditions, under which antennae will, in the future, behave like spotlights that, once they have located a sought device, will track it, while suppressing interference by stray electromag­netic radiation from other devices that might also be present in the area."

Such antennae, along with transceivers equipped with them, are thus recon­figurable, i.e., adjustable to suit ambient conditions by means of onboard electronic circuitry or remote controls. Working in col­lab­or­a­tion with an industrial partner, Jakoby has already equipped terres­trial digital-television (TDTV) transmitters with reconfigurable amplifiers that allow amplifying transmitted-signal levels by as much as ten percent. He added that, "If all of Germany's TDTV-transmitters were equipped with such amp­li­fiers, we could shut down one nuclear power plant."

Frequency bands are a scarce resource

Reconfigurable devices also make much more efficient use of a scarce resource, freq­uency bands. Users have thus far been allocated rigorously defined frequency bands, where only fifteen to twenty percent of the capacities of even the more popular ones have been allocated. Beam forming might allow making more efficient use of them. Jakoby noted that, "This is an area that we are still taking a close look at, but we are well along the way toward understand­ing the system better." However, only a few uses of beam forming have emerged to date, since currently available systems are too expensive for mass applications.

Small, model networks are targeted

Yet another fundamental problem remains to be solved before "smart" cities may become realities. Sensor communications requires the cooper­a­tion of all devices involved, across all communications protocols, such as "Bluetooth," and across all networks, such as the European Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) mobile-telephone network or wireless local-area networks (WLAN), which cannot be achieved with current devices, communications protocols, and networks. Jakoby explained that, "Con­verting all devices to a common communications protocol is infeas­ible, which is why we are seeking a new protocol that would be superim­posed upon everything and allow them to communicate via several proto­cols." Transmission channels would also have to be capable of handling a mas­sive flood of data, since, as Prof. Abdelhak Zoubir of the TU Darm­stadt's Electrical Engineer­ing and Information Technology Dept., the "Cocoon" project's coordinator, put it, "A "smart" Darm­stadt alone would surely involve a million sensors communicating with one another via satel­lites, mobile telephones, computers, and all of the other types of devices that we already have available. Furthermore, since a single, mobile sensor is readily capable of generating several hundred Meg­a­bytes of data annu­ally, new models for handling the communications of millions of such sen­sors that will more densely compress data in order to provide for error-free com­munica­tions will be needed. Several hurdles will thus have to be over­come before "smart" cities become reality. Nevertheless, the scientists working on the "Cocoon" project are convinced that they will be able to simulate a "smart" city incorporating various types of devices employing early versions of small, model networks.

Over the next three years, scientists at the TU Darmstadt will be receiving a total of 4.5 million Euros from the State of Hesse's Offensive for Devel­op­ing Scientific-Economic Excellence for their researches in conjunction with their "Cocoon -- Cooperative Sensor Communications" project.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Technische Universität Darmstadt.

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Self-powered, blood-activated sensor detects pancreatitis quickly and cheaply

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2011) — A new low cost test for acute pancreatitis that gets results much faster than existing tests has been developed by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin.

The sensor, which could be produced for as little as a dollar, is built with a 12-cent LED light, aluminum foil, gelatin, milk protein and a few other cheap, easily obtainable materials.

The sensor could help prevent damage from acute pancreatitis, which is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas that can lead to severe stomach pain, nausea, fever, shock and in some cases, death.

"We've turned Reynold's Wrap, JELL-O and milk into a way to look for organ failure," says Brian Zaccheo, a graduate student in the lab of Richard Crooks, professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The sensor, which is about the size of a matchbox, relies on a simple two-step process to diagnose the disease.

In step one, a bit of blood extract is dropped onto a layer of gelatin and milk protein. If there are high levels of trypsin, an enzyme that is overabundant in the blood of patients with acute pancreatitis, the trypsin will break down the gelatin in much the same way it breaks down proteins in the stomach.

In step two, a drop of sodium hydroxide (lye) is added. If the trypsin levels were high enough to break down that first barrier, the sodium hydroxide can trickle down to the second barrier, a strip of Reynold's wrap, and go to work dissolving it.

The foil corrodes, and with both barriers now permeable, a circuit is able to form between a magnesium anode and an iron salt at the cathode. Enough current is generated to light up a red LED. If the LED lights up within an hour, acute pancreatitis is diagnosed.

"In essence, the device is a battery having a trypsin-selective switch that closes the circuit between the anode and cathode," write Zaccheo and Crooks in a paper recently published in Analytical Chemistry.

Zaccheo and Crooks, who have a provisional patent, can envision a number of potential uses for the sensor. It might help providers in the developing world who don't have the resources to do the more complex tests for pancreatitis. It could be of use in situations where batteries are in short supply, such as after a natural disaster or in remote locations. And because of the speed of the sensor, it could be an excellent first-line measure even in well-stocked hospitals.

For Zaccheo, the most appealing aspect of the project isn't so much the specific sensor. It is the idea we might be able to save time, money and even lives by adopting this kind of low-tech approach.

"I want to develop biosensors that are easy to use but give a high level of sensitivity," he says. "All you need for this, for instance, is to know how to use a dropper and a timer."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Texas at Austin.

Journal Reference:

Brian A. Zaccheo, Richard M. Crooks. Self-Powered Sensor for Naked-Eye Detection of Serum Trypsin. Analytical Chemistry, 2011; 83 (4): 1185 DOI: 10.1021/ac103115z

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here

Self-powered, blood-activated sensor detects pancreatitis quickly and cheaply

ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2011) — A new low cost test for acute pancreatitis that gets results much faster than existing tests has been developed by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin.

The sensor, which could be produced for as little as a dollar, is built with a 12-cent LED light, aluminum foil, gelatin, milk protein and a few other cheap, easily obtainable materials.

The sensor could help prevent damage from acute pancreatitis, which is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas that can lead to severe stomach pain, nausea, fever, shock and in some cases, death.

"We've turned Reynold's Wrap, JELL-O and milk into a way to look for organ failure," says Brian Zaccheo, a graduate student in the lab of Richard Crooks, professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

The sensor, which is about the size of a matchbox, relies on a simple two-step process to diagnose the disease.

In step one, a bit of blood extract is dropped onto a layer of gelatin and milk protein. If there are high levels of trypsin, an enzyme that is overabundant in the blood of patients with acute pancreatitis, the trypsin will break down the gelatin in much the same way it breaks down proteins in the stomach.

In step two, a drop of sodium hydroxide (lye) is added. If the trypsin levels were high enough to break down that first barrier, the sodium hydroxide can trickle down to the second barrier, a strip of Reynold's wrap, and go to work dissolving it.

The foil corrodes, and with both barriers now permeable, a circuit is able to form between a magnesium anode and an iron salt at the cathode. Enough current is generated to light up a red LED. If the LED lights up within an hour, acute pancreatitis is diagnosed.

"In essence, the device is a battery having a trypsin-selective switch that closes the circuit between the anode and cathode," write Zaccheo and Crooks in a paper recently published in Analytical Chemistry.

Zaccheo and Crooks, who have a provisional patent, can envision a number of potential uses for the sensor. It might help providers in the developing world who don't have the resources to do the more complex tests for pancreatitis. It could be of use in situations where batteries are in short supply, such as after a natural disaster or in remote locations. And because of the speed of the sensor, it could be an excellent first-line measure even in well-stocked hospitals.

For Zaccheo, the most appealing aspect of the project isn't so much the specific sensor. It is the idea we might be able to save time, money and even lives by adopting this kind of low-tech approach.

"I want to develop biosensors that are easy to use but give a high level of sensitivity," he says. "All you need for this, for instance, is to know how to use a dropper and a timer."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Texas at Austin.

Journal Reference:

Brian A. Zaccheo, Richard M. Crooks. Self-Powered Sensor for Naked-Eye Detection of Serum Trypsin. Analytical Chemistry, 2011; 83 (4): 1185 DOI: 10.1021/ac103115z

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

View the original article here