Medical & biological engineering & computing
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Med Biol Eng Comput · Mar 2009
A self-paced brain-computer interface for controlling a robot simulator: an online event labelling paradigm and an extended Kalman filter based algorithm for online training.
Due to the non-stationarity of EEG signals, online training and adaptation are essential to EEG based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. Self-paced BCIs offer more natural human-machine interaction than synchronous BCIs, but it is a great challenge to train and adapt a self-paced BCI online because the user's control intention and timing are usually unknown. This paper proposes a novel motor imagery based self-paced BCI paradigm for controlling a simulated robot in a specifically designed environment which is able to provide user's control intention and timing during online experiments, so that online training and adaptation of the motor imagery based self-paced BCI can be effectively investigated. We demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed paradigm with an extended Kalman filter based method to adapt the BCI classifier parameters, with experimental results of online self-paced BCI training with four subjects.
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Med Biol Eng Comput · Jan 2009
A non-contact vital sign monitoring system for ambulances using dual-frequency microwave radars.
We developed a novel non-contact monitoring system to measure the vital signs of casualties inside a moving ambulance. This system was designed to prevent exposure of patients to infectious organisms under biochemical hazard conditions. The system consists of two microwave radars: a 10-GHz respiratory-monitoring radar is positioned 20 cm away from the surface of the isolator. ⋯ The subject (22.13 +/- 0.99 years) was placed inside the isolator on a stretcher in the simulated ambulance. While the ambulance was in motion at a speed of approximately 10 km/h, the heart rates determined by the cardiac-monitoring radar correlated significantly with those measured by ECG (r = 0.69, p < 0.01), and the respiratory rates derived from the respiratory-monitoring radar correlated with those measured by the respiration curves (r = 0.97, p < 0.0001). The proposed system appears promising for future on-ambulance monitoring of the vital sign of casualties exposed to toxins.
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Med Biol Eng Comput · Jan 2009
Design, construction and evaluation of an ambulatory device for screening of sleep apnea.
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is a major public health problem. The golden reference for diagnosing OSAS is the sleep-laboratory based polysomnography (PSG). However, screening of population for OSAS may be practical and cost efficient only through ambulatory home recordings. ⋯ A total of 106 and 169 recordings were successfully conducted with the novel device and a commercial ambulatory device, respectively. Both devices showed similar diagnostic capability in detecting sleep apnea. The novel device was found clinically applicable, technically reliable and sensitive for the diagnostics of OSAS.
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Med Biol Eng Comput · Dec 2008
Finger and ear photoplethysmogram waveform analysis by fitting with Gaussians.
Analysis of the contour of the blood volume pulse (VP) has become important because it contains much information about cardiovascular activity. Traditionally, pulse contour analysis requires first or higher derivatives to be calculated. This paper describes a novel algorithm for analysing simultaneously measured ear and finger photoplethysmography (PPG) signals. ⋯ The VP was obtained from PPG signals taken from 40 healthy subjects at each heartbeat cycle. From the evaluated VP, time values of the direct wave and three reflected waves were calculated, as well as the augmentation index (AI) and the reflection index (RI). The evaluated parameters were compared with those that were obtained by the derivative method, and it was demonstrated that the new method can be used to analyze VP waveforms.
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Med Biol Eng Comput · Oct 2008
Using a short-term parameter of heart rate variability to distinguish awake from isoflurane anesthetic states.
The measurement of anesthetic depth is important in anesthesiology. Although heart rate variability (HRV) is profoundly affected by general anesthesia, it has not yet been commonly used in this field. One of the reasons is the lack of suitable parameters of HRV for short-term observations. ⋯ We observed the values of this index of 30 patients when they were awake and under isoflurane anesthesia. The values had very little overlapping between the two states and the prediction probability to distinguish the two states was 0.91. We suggest that HRV, if suitably treated, can play more roles in the monitoring of anesthetic depth.