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Users often need to control and monitor the environmental variables of their homes, even when they are not at home. In this paper, we present a multifunctional, low-cost, and flexible system for smart home control and environmental monitoring. This system employs an embedded micro web server based on an Arduino Yún microcontroller with Internet connectivity that allows remote device control. The proposed system can be controlled via the Internet through an Android-based mobile app. To guarantee access regardless of Internet availability, the proposed system can also be controlled via standalone manual operation using a touch display. The proposed system transmits sensor data to a cloud platform and can receive commands from the server, allowing many devices to be automatically controlled. To demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this system, devices such as light switches, power plugs, and various sensors, including temperature, gas, 2.5-μm particulate matter (PM2.5) and motion sensors, were integrated into a prototype of the proposed home control system. Finally, we implemented the prototype in a model home to validate the flexibility, scalability, usability and reliability of the system.

Many commercially available electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, including conventional wet and dry sensors, can cause skin irritation and user discomfort owing to the foreign material. The EEG products, especially sensors, highly prioritize the comfort level during devices wear. To overcome these drawbacks for EEG sensors, this paper designs Societe Generale de Surveillance S \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$\cdot $ \end{document} A \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{upgreek} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document} }{}$\cdot $ \end{document} (SGS)-certified, silicon-based dry-contact EEG sensors (SBDSs) for EEG signal measurements. According to the SGS testing report, SBDSs extract does not irritate skin or induce noncytotoxic effects on L929 cells according to ISO10993-5. The SBDS is also lightweight, flexible, and nonirritating to the skin, as well as capable of easily fitting to scalps without any skin preparation or use of a conductive gel. For forehead and hairy sites, EEG signals can be measured reliably with the designed SBDSs. In particular, for EEG signal measurements at hairy sites, the acicular and flexible design of SBDS can push the hair aside to achieve satisfactory scalp contact, as well as maintain low skin-electrode interface impedance. Results of this paper demonstrate that the proposed sensors perform well in the EEG measurements and are feasible for practical applications., Many electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, including conventional wet and dry sensors, use materials that can cause skin irritation and discomfort. To overcome this drawback, this study reports on the design and human testing of a SGS-certified, silicon-based dry-contact EEG sensor. In addition to being non-irritating, the acicular sensors are lightweight, flexible, and capable of easily fitting to the scalp, forehead, or hairy sites without any skin preparation or conductive gel. The sensors also maintain low skin-electrode interface impedance. Results of this study demonstrate that the proposed sensors perform well in EEG measurements and are feasible for both medical and entertainment applications.

Brain ischemia is a neurological deficit caused by a reduction in the blood supply to tissue, and one of the leading causes of disability in the world. Currently, the most well-known therapeutic agent for ischemia recovery is recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA), but it is viable for only a small portion (approximately 3.6%) of ischemic patients and may cause side effects such as tissue damage. Thus, introducing a new therapeutic concept for ischemia, we proposed an integrated intervention combining global and focal stimulations in this article. To investigate the potential therapeutic effect of cathodal-transcranial direct current stimulation (C-tDCS) with peripheral sensory stimulation (PSS) during the hyperacute phase of stroke, the present study evaluated neurovascular and neuroprotective responses of the rat cortex following ischemic insult. A hybrid, dual-modality system, including electrocorticography (ECoG) and functional photoacoustic microscopy (fPAM), termed ECoG-fPAM, was used to image cortical functional responses pre- and post-ischemia. Using ECoG-fPAM, results showed that cerebral blood volume (CBV) was able to be recovered during the intervention. In addition, neural activity including somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) and alpha-to-delta ratio (ADR) were restored and greater than the baseline value when the integrated intervention was administered. The results of NeuN/ED-1 immunohistochemical staining and TTC staining also supported the neuroprotective effect of this intervention, protecting more neurons and decreasing the infarct size. Overall, the results acquired from the ECoG-fPAM system demonstrated that C-tDCS + PSS administered immediately following ischemia induction can significantly promote neuroprotection via inhibition of ischemia expansion and reversed cortical neurovascular functions, suggesting effective recovery.

Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disability in the world. Thrombolytic therapy using recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA), the only FDA-approved drug for acute ischemia, is limited by a narrow therapeutic time window and risk of hemorrhage. There is a serious need for a neuroprotective therapy which is clinically viable. We earlier demonstrated that peripheral sensory stimulation (PSS) is a potential therapeutic intervention for hyperacute ischemia resulting in recovery of neurovascular functions when administered immediately following ischemia onset in a rat model. Here, we investigated the potential neuroprotective effect of PSS during the hyperacute phase of stroke in a rat photothrombotic ischemia (PTI) model. We employed electrocorticography (ECoG) to image cortical neural activity responses pre-and post-ischemia. Results showed that the neural activity including somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) and alpha-to-delta ratio (ADR) were restored following administration of PSS. Further, immunohistochemistry and TTC staining also indicated the neuroprotective effect of PSS intervention, protecting more neurons and reduced infarct. Overall, the study demonstrated that PSS administered immediately following ischemia induction in a rat PTI model can significantly promote neuroprotection via inhibition of peri-infarct expansion and enhanced cortical neural activity functions, suggesting effective recovery. Future work utilizing multimodal imaging to probe changes in neurovascular functions, will explore application of PSS as an adjuvant intervention for improving rtPA thrombolysis therapy.

We developed a dual-wavelength optical imaging with laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) and intrinsic optical signals imaging (IOSI) for cerebral blood flow (CBF) and hemoglobin oxygenation simultaneously recording, and examined the effects of AUDA in ischemia.

This paper demonstrates bidirectional selective recording and stimulation by using flexible and adjustable sling electrodes aiming at electroceuticals application in the future. The sling design enables helical implantations of sensing electrodes on a nerve with less pressure and tight contact. Neural signals are recorded from six sensing electrodes with different amplitudes and latencies, showing relatively selective recordings. In addition, selective stimulations are also conducted with monitoring muscle signals, showing different selectivity depending on spatial positions of stimulating electrodes. Overall our data shows that this sling design would be effective in bidirectional control in electroceuticals.

Recently, the functional photoacoustic microscopy (fPAM) system has been proven to be a reliable imaging technique for measuring the total hemoglobin concentration (HbT), cerebral blood volume (CBV) and hemoglobin oxygen saturation (SO2) in single cerebral blood vessels of rats. In this study, we report for the first time the combination of electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings and fPAM (ECoG-fPAM) to investigate functional hemodynamic changes and neuro-vascular coupling in single cortical arterioles of rats with electrical forepaw stimulation after photothrombotic stroke. Because of the optical focusing nature of our fPAM system, photo-induced ischemic stroke targeting on single cortical arterioles can be easily conducted with simple adaptation. Functional cerebral HbT, CBV and SO2 changes associated with the induced stroke in selected arterioles from the anterior cerebral artery system were imaged with a 36 × 65-µm spatial resolution. The ECoG-fPAM system complements existing imaging techniques and has the potential to offer a favorable tool for explicitly studying cerebral hemodynamics and neuro-vascular coupling in small animal models of photo-induced ischemic stroke.

A Wearable Mobile Electrocardiogram Monitoring System (WMEMS), which mainly consists of a wearable Electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition device, a mobile phone with global positioning system, and a healthcare server, was developed in this study. Most of telemedicine systems for long-term ECG monitoring focus on the application of communication techniques. However, how to monitor long-term ECG state more comfortably in daily life is also an important issue. In this study, a novel dry foam electrode was designed and applied for the wearable ECG acquisition device in our WMEMS. These novel dry foam electrodes without conduction gels can provide good conductivity to acquire ECG signal effectively, and can adapt to irregular skin surface to maintain low skin-electrode impedance and reduce motion artifacts under movement. Therefore, the wearable ECG acquisition device is suitable for long-term ECG monitoring in daily life. Moreover, by combining with wireless communication technique, our WMEMS can monitor patient's heart rate continuously anywhere in the globe if they are under the coverage of GSM cellular network. Experiment results showed that our WMEMS really provides a good system prototype for ECG telemedicine applications.

In this study, a optimization process was performed for the developed dry electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes by using the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to minima the skin-electrode impedance. The developed dry EEG electrodes can measure the EEG signals without any gels applied and no skin preparation. However, how to find a proper skin-electrode contact area is an important issue. The contact area is directly related to the electrodes impedance and fabrication cost. Therefore, the NSGA-II is used to searching the suitable contact area and other design parameters. NSGA-II is a wieldy used optimization method, especially for the multi-objectives issues like this case. Finally, we compare the results of the simulation and experiments for ensuring the optimal process. The experiment results show that using the optimal values provided from NSGA-II can achieve the minima skin-electrode impedance. It confirms the dry electrode can be effectively used for the cognitive or other applications in the future.

In this study, we demonstrated a Wearable Mobile Electroencephalogram (EEG)-based Brain Computer Interface System (WMEBCIS) with foam-based dry electrodes embedded. According to the previous studies, many kinds of BCI systems have been proposed and target the applications on sensors and information techniques. For daily life EEG monitoring by using the BCI systems, the sensors have employ a key technique for ensuring the data quality. In view of this, a novel dry foam electrode was designed and applied for the wearable EEG acquisition device in our WMEBCIS. The developed dry electrodes can achieve the quick-placement and high signals quality under no skin preparation and without gels applied. Most importantly, due to its softness advantage, the developed electrodes can fit properly on the skin surface to maintain low skin-electrode impedance and reduce motion artifacts under movement. By using the specific mechanism of our wearable EEG acquisition device, it can be worn conveniently and can maintain the electrode-scalp contact area to acquire good EEG signal quality effectively. Therefore, the wearable EEG acquisition device is suitable for long-term EEG monitoring in daily life. In words, our WMEBCIS was also demonstrated for a cognitive application on drowsiness detection.

This paper discusses a novel hybrid EEG biosensor module that measures through-hair EEG with zero preparation of the scalp. The biosensors can be donned or doffed quickly by the wearer, requiring no skin preparation, produce no skin irritation, and be comfortably worn for an extended period. The proposed EEG sensor is fabricated by the injection molding process with a flexible base and biofriendly materials. The noninvasive nature of BRCNCTU's EEG system [1] (i.e. zero skin preparation, minimal wiring) permits greater subject freedom of motion and considerably improves user compliance for such systems. This effort culminates in a biomonitoring system, measuring EEG, EOG, ECG and EMG signals for real time monitoring of human-computer interactions.