Search

In-home health care services based on the Internet-of-Things are promising to resolve the challenges caused by the ageing of population. But the existing research is rather scattered and shows lack of interoperability. In this article, a business-technology co-design methodology is proposed for cross-boundary integration of in-home health care devices and services. In this framework, three key elements of a solution (business model, device and service integration architecture and information system integration architecture) are organically integrated and aligned. In particular, a cooperative Health-IoT ecosystem is formulated, and information systems of all stakeholders are integrated in a cooperative health cloud as well as extended to patients' home through the in-home health care station (IHHS). Design principles of the IHHS includes the reuse of 3C platform, certification of the Health Extension, interoperability and extendibility, convenient and trusted software distribution, standardised and secured electrical health care record handling, effective service composition and efficient data fusion. These principles are applied to the design of an IHHS solution called iMedBox. Detailed device and service integration architecture and hardware and software architecture are presented and verified by an implemented prototype. The quantitative performance analysis and field trials have confirmed the feasibility of the proposed design methodology and solution., QC 20141212

In-home healthcare services based on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) have great business potential; however, a comprehensive platform is still missing. In this paper, an intelligent home-based platform, the iHome Health-IoT, is proposed and implemented. In particular, the platform involves an open-platform-based intelligent medicine box (iMedBox) with enhanced connectivity and interchangeability for the integration of devices and services; intelligent pharmaceutical packaging (iMedPack) with communication capability enabled by passive radio-frequency identification (RFID) and actuation capability enabled by functional materials; and a flexible and wearable bio-medical sensor device (Bio-Patch) enabled by the state-of-the-art inkjet printing technology and system-on-chip. The proposed platform seamlessly fuses IoT devices (e. g., wearable sensors and intelligent medicine packages) with in-home healthcare services (e. g., telemedicine) for an improved user experience and service efficiency. The feasibility of the implemented iHome Health-IoT platform has been proven in field trials., QC 20150107

The revolution of Internet-of-Things (IoT) is reshaping the modern food supply chains with promising business prospects. To be successful in practice, the IoT solutions should create “income-centric” values beyond the conventional “traceability-centric” values. To accomplish what we promised to users, sensor portfolios and information fusion must correspond to the new requirements introduced by this income-centric value creation. In this paper, we propose a value-centric business-technology joint design framework. Based on it the income-centric added-values including shelf life prediction, sales premium, precision agriculture, and reduction of assurance cost are identified and assessed. Then corresponding sensor portfolios are developed and implemented. Three-tier information fusion architecture is proposed as well as examples about acceleration data processing, self-learning shelf life prediction and real-time supply chain re-planning. The feasibilities of the proposed design framework and solution have been confirmed by the field trials and an implemented prototype system., Updated from accepted to published.QC 20140623

A healthcare solution for medication noncompliance problem would help to save 177 billion annually in the United States. In addition, an in-home healthcare station (IHHS) is needed to meet the rapidly increasing demands for daily monitoring with on-site diagnosis and prognosis. In this paper, an intelligent medication management system is proposed based on intelligent package and ubiquitous sensing technologies. Preventive medication management is enabled by an intelligent package sealed by Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) and controlled by RFID link. Various vital parameters are collected by wearable biomedical sensors through the short range wireless link. Onsite diagnosis and prognosis based on these health parameters are supported by the scalable architecture. Additionally, friendly human-machine interface is emphasized to make it convenient for the elderly or disabled patients. A prototype system including the hardware, embedded software, user interface, database and some intelligent packages is implemented to verify the concepts., QC 20131212

The design of industrial wireless sensor network (IWSN) stacks requires the adoption of real time operation system (RTOS). Challenges exist especially in timing integrity and multi-processor support. As a solution, we propose an RTOS-based architecture for IWSN stacks with multi-processor support. It offers benefits in terms of platform independency, product life cycle, safety and security, system integration complexity, and performance scalability. An implemented WirelessHART stack has proven the feasibility of the proposed architecture in practical product design. And future challenges as well as suggestions to standard improvement are discussed., QC 20131202

In-home healthcare services based on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) have big potential in business. To exploit this opportunity, an ecosystem should be established first. Technical solutions should aim for a cooperative ecosystem by addressing the interoperability, security, and system integration. In this paper, we propose an ecosystem-driven design strategy and apply it in the design of an open-platform based solution. In particular, a cooperative ecosystem is formulated by merging the traditional healthcare and mobile internet ecosystems. Utilizing the existing standardization efforts, the interfaces between actors can be simplified. To balance the control and avoid monopoly, ecosystem-driven security schemes are proposed including the public-based authentication, repository-based credential management, SE-based cryptography, and non-invasive message handover. In order to achieve the economy of scale, an open platform-based in-home healthcare station is proposed. The proposed methodology and solution are demonstrated in implemented prototype system and field trials., QC 20130523

The emerging technology breakthrough of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is expected to offer promising solutions for food supply chain (FSC) and in-home healthcare (IHH), which may significantly contribute to human health and well-being. In this thesis, we have investigated the technologies and architectures of the IoT for these two applications as so-called Food-IoT and Health-IoT respectively. We intend to resolve a series of research problems about the WSN architectures, device architectures and system integration architectures. To reduce the time-to-market and risk of failure, business aspects are taken into account more than before in the early stage of technology development because the technologies and applications of IoT are both immature today. The challenges about enabling devices that we have addressed include: the WSN mobility and wide area deployment, efficient data compression in resource-limited wireless sensor devices, reliable communication protocol stack architecture, and integration of acting capacity to the low cost intelligent and interactive packaging (I2Pack). Correspondingly, the WAN-SAN coherent architecture of WSN, the RTOS-based and multiprocessor friendly stack architecture, the content-extraction based data compression algorithm, and the CDM-based I2Pack solution are proposed and demonstrated. At the system level, we have addressed the challenges about effective integration of scattered devices and technologies, including EIS and information integration architectures such as shelf-life prediction and real-time supply chain re-planning for the Food-IoT, and device and service integration architectures for the Health-IoT. Additionally, we have also addressed some challenges at the top business level, including the Value Chain Models and Value Proposition of the Food-IoT, and the cooperative ecosystem model of the Health-IoT. These findings are generic and not dependent on our proprietary technologies and devices. To be more generalized, we ha, QC 20130523

The emerging technology breakthrough of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is expected to offer promising solutions for food supply chain (FSC) and in-home healthcare (IHH), which may significantly contribute to human health and well-being. In this thesis, we have investigated the technologies and architectures of the IoT for these two applications as so-called Food-IoT and Health-IoT respectively. We intend to resolve a series of research problems about the WSN architectures, device architectures and system integration architectures. To reduce the time-to-market and risk of failure, business aspects are taken into account more than before in the early stage of technology development because the technologies and applications of IoT are both immature today. The challenges about enabling devices that we have addressed include: the WSN mobility and wide area deployment, efficient data compression in resource-limited wireless sensor devices, reliable communication protocol stack architecture, and integration of acting capacity to the low cost intelligent and interactive packaging (I2Pack). Correspondingly, the WAN-SAN coherent architecture of WSN, the RTOS-based and multiprocessor friendly stack architecture, the content-extraction based data compression algorithm, and the CDM-based I2Pack solution are proposed and demonstrated. At the system level, we have addressed the challenges about effective integration of scattered devices and technologies, including EIS and information integration architectures such as shelf-life prediction and real-time supply chain re-planning for the Food-IoT, and device and service integration architectures for the Health-IoT. Additionally, we have also addressed some challenges at the top business level, including the Value Chain Models and Value Proposition of the Food-IoT, and the cooperative ecosystem model of the Health-IoT. These findings are generic and not dependent on our proprietary technologies and devices. To be more generalized, we ha, QC 20130523

The emerging technology breakthrough of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is expected to offer promising solutions for food supply chain (FSC) and in-home healthcare (IHH), which may significantly contribute to human health and well-being. In this thesis, we have investigated the technologies and architectures of the IoT for these two applications as so-called Food-IoT and Health-IoT respectively. We intend to resolve a series of research problems about the WSN architectures, device architectures and system integration architectures. To reduce the time-to-market and risk of failure, business aspects are taken into account more than before in the early stage of technology development because the technologies and applications of IoT are both immature today. The challenges about enabling devices that we have addressed include: the WSN mobility and wide area deployment, efficient data compression in resource-limited wireless sensor devices, reliable communication protocol stack architecture, and integration of acting capacity to the low cost intelligent and interactive packaging (I2Pack). Correspondingly, the WAN-SAN coherent architecture of WSN, the RTOS-based and multiprocessor friendly stack architecture, the content-extraction based data compression algorithm, and the CDM-based I2Pack solution are proposed and demonstrated. At the system level, we have addressed the challenges about effective integration of scattered devices and technologies, including EIS and information integration architectures such as shelf-life prediction and real-time supply chain re-planning for the Food-IoT, and device and service integration architectures for the Health-IoT. Additionally, we have also addressed some challenges at the top business level, including the Value Chain Models and Value Proposition of the Food-IoT, and the cooperative ecosystem model of the Health-IoT. These findings are generic and not dependent on our proprietary technologies and devices. To be more generalized, we ha, QC 20130523

The emerging technology breakthrough of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is expected to offer promising solutions for food supply chain (FSC) and in-home healthcare (IHH), which may significantly contribute to human health and well-being. In this thesis, we have investigated the technologies and architectures of the IoT for these two applications as so-called Food-IoT and Health-IoT respectively. We intend to resolve a series of research problems about the WSN architectures, device architectures and system integration architectures. To reduce the time-to-market and risk of failure, business aspects are taken into account more than before in the early stage of technology development because the technologies and applications of IoT are both immature today. The challenges about enabling devices that we have addressed include: the WSN mobility and wide area deployment, efficient data compression in resource-limited wireless sensor devices, reliable communication protocol stack architecture, and integration of acting capacity to the low cost intelligent and interactive packaging (I2Pack). Correspondingly, the WAN-SAN coherent architecture of WSN, the RTOS-based and multiprocessor friendly stack architecture, the content-extraction based data compression algorithm, and the CDM-based I2Pack solution are proposed and demonstrated. At the system level, we have addressed the challenges about effective integration of scattered devices and technologies, including EIS and information integration architectures such as shelf-life prediction and real-time supply chain re-planning for the Food-IoT, and device and service integration architectures for the Health-IoT. Additionally, we have also addressed some challenges at the top business level, including the Value Chain Models and Value Proposition of the Food-IoT, and the cooperative ecosystem model of the Health-IoT. These findings are generic and not dependent on our proprietary technologies and devices. To be more generalized, we ha, QC 20130523

The emerging technology breakthrough of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) is expected to offer promising solutions for food supply chain (FSC) and in-home healthcare (IHH), which may significantly contribute to human health and well-being. In this thesis, we have investigated the technologies and architectures of the IoT for these two applications as so-called Food-IoT and Health-IoT respectively. We intend to resolve a series of research problems about the WSN architectures, device architectures and system integration architectures. To reduce the time-to-market and risk of failure, business aspects are taken into account more than before in the early stage of technology development because the technologies and applications of IoT are both immature today. The challenges about enabling devices that we have addressed include: the WSN mobility and wide area deployment, efficient data compression in resource-limited wireless sensor devices, reliable communication protocol stack architecture, and integration of acting capacity to the low cost intelligent and interactive packaging (I2Pack). Correspondingly, the WAN-SAN coherent architecture of WSN, the RTOS-based and multiprocessor friendly stack architecture, the content-extraction based data compression algorithm, and the CDM-based I2Pack solution are proposed and demonstrated. At the system level, we have addressed the challenges about effective integration of scattered devices and technologies, including EIS and information integration architectures such as shelf-life prediction and real-time supply chain re-planning for the Food-IoT, and device and service integration architectures for the Health-IoT. Additionally, we have also addressed some challenges at the top business level, including the Value Chain Models and Value Proposition of the Food-IoT, and the cooperative ecosystem model of the Health-IoT. These findings are generic and not dependent on our proprietary technologies and devices. To be more generalized, we ha, QC 20130523

A content-extraction based acceleration data compression algorithm is proposed for real-time transport quality monitoring in critical logistics applications. It splits the original data into three components, Tilt, Shock and Vibration, and compresses them separately by making use of the specific characteristics. Outstanding performances as well as low complexity and good scalability are achieved, which are essential for resource-constrained mobile wireless sensors. The algorithm has been proven by 46-day field test data. The compression ratio is up to 3.75 in loss-less mode, and up to 142 in lossy mode with 28.9dB SNR., QC 20130115

Food chain visibility and safety problems have caused huge loss of money and threat to public food safety. The blooming Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) technology has been highlighted as a promising solution to resolve these problems. Because nowadays food chains has become highly distributed, heterogeneous, cooperative, and globalized, a comprehensive system-picture is needed in design practices to meet the extremely diverse requirements. In this paper, a universal WSN platform is designed for food chain monitoring applications based on a scenario-based method. It classifies the complicated real food chains into five typical scenarios (Produce, Store, Transport, Sell, and Consume). All scenarios are supported by convergence of all the necessary technical requirements. And corresponding operation models, networking protocols, hardware, and software are implemented. Comparing to existing researches, this paper provides a more comprehensive system-picture and its technical feasibility is approved by practical implementation as well as field experiments., QC 20120124

In this paper a system level analysis andimplementation of two-layer mobile wireless sensor networkarchitecture is proposed for tracking and environmentalsupervision applications. It uses a mobile Master Sensor Node(MSN) that collects information inside a Sensor Area Network(SAN) where many semi-passive Slave Sensor Nodes (SSN) aredeployed. The collected information is sent through a WirelessWide Area Network (WWAN) infrastructure to a central server viaTCP/UDP. The communication interface between the user and theMSN is established through out mobile communication services orinternet mail services. The communication between the MSN andthe SSN is through asymmetric-link Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) based architecture. An MSN prototype hasbeen implemented and tested under real conditions forenvironmental supervision during the perishable goodstransportation., QC 20120119

Interactive packaging is an emerging research area in recent years. It brings people convenient and smart lives, reduces consumption of traditional packaging materials and direct or indirect labor costs as well. Being integrated in interactive packaging, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology becomes one of the most proactive development enablers. In this paper, an interactive and intelligent packaging solution integrating passive RFID system and Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) is given at first. Package opening action is electrically controlled by the RFID system. CDM is primarily used in aerospace applications in the past and the conductor/adhesive joint can be easily opened by applying a little electric power on to the material. Some related works will be shown about the electrochemical characteristics of CDM in order to facilitate the system design. A demonstration system was developed and the test results have proved feasibility of the solution and shown the potential of low cost for mass production. Based on this solution, an interactive medication package for pervasive healthcare is further developed, using EPCglobal Gen2 RFID technology. It will make the medication being accessible for patient only at the prescribed dose and time, and medication taking information will be delivered as well. Such medication package will not only give unprecedented high patient compliance, but also improve the communication between patients and healthcare staffs., QC 20111202

A global fresh food tracking service is presented, in which a set of primary environmental conditions for transport of fresh fruits and vegetables, including global position, temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of CO2, O2 and ethylene gases and 3-axis acceleration, is collected through mobile and remotely controllable wireless sensor nodes. Real time monitoring, tracking, alarming, close-loop controlling and information sharing could therefore be provided as WEB services with service oriented architecture. Fully functioned hardware modules, protocols and system software have been developed. A 50-day field test has been successfully carried out, proving the system concept and the robustness of hardware and software designed. Due to its worldwide deploy-ability and added-values to fresh food supply chain, it is feasible to establish a practical fresh food tracking service business., QC 20120124

Interactive packaging is an emerging research area in recent years. It brings people convenient and smart lives, reduces consumption of traditional packaging materials and direct or indirect labor costs as well. Being integrated in interactive packaging, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology becomes one of the most proactive development enablers. In this paper, an interactive and intelligent packaging solution integrating passive RFID system and Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) is given at first. Package opening action is electrically controlled by the RFID system. CDM is primarily used in aerospace applications in the past and the conductor/adhesive joint can be easily opened by applying a little electric power on to the material. Some related works will be shown about the electrochemical characteristics of CDM in order to facilitate the system design. A demonstration system was developed and the test results have proved feasibility of the solution and shown the potential of low cost for mass production. Based on this solution, an interactive medication package for pervasive healthcare is further developed, using EPCglobal Gen2 RFID technology. It will make the medication being accessible for patient only at the prescribed dose and time, and medication taking information will be delivered as well. Such medication package will not only give unprecedented high patient compliance, but also improve the communication between patients and healthcare staffs., QC 20111202

Interactive packaging is an emerging research area in recent years. It brings people convenient and smart lives, reduces consumption of traditional packaging materials and direct or indirect labor costs as well. Being integrated in interactive packaging, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology becomes one of the most proactive development enablers. In this paper, an interactive and intelligent packaging solution integrating passive RFID system and Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) is given at first. Package opening action is electrically controlled by the RFID system. CDM is primarily used in aerospace applications in the past and the conductor/adhesive joint can be easily opened by applying a little electric power on to the material. Some related works will be shown about the electrochemical characteristics of CDM in order to facilitate the system design. A demonstration system was developed and the test results have proved feasibility of the solution and shown the potential of low cost for mass production. Based on this solution, an interactive medication package for pervasive healthcare is further developed, using EPCglobal Gen2 RFID technology. It will make the medication being accessible for patient only at the prescribed dose and time, and medication taking information will be delivered as well. Such medication package will not only give unprecedented high patient compliance, but also improve the communication between patients and healthcare staffs., QC 20111202

Interactive packaging is an emerging research area in recent years. It brings people convenient and smart lives, reduces consumption of traditional packaging materials and direct or indirect labor costs as well. Being integrated in interactive packaging, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology becomes one of the most proactive development enablers. In this paper, an interactive and intelligent packaging solution integrating passive RFID system and Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) is given at first. Package opening action is electrically controlled by the RFID system. CDM is primarily used in aerospace applications in the past and the conductor/adhesive joint can be easily opened by applying a little electric power on to the material. Some related works will be shown about the electrochemical characteristics of CDM in order to facilitate the system design. A demonstration system was developed and the test results have proved feasibility of the solution and shown the potential of low cost for mass production. Based on this solution, an interactive medication package for pervasive healthcare is further developed, using EPCglobal Gen2 RFID technology. It will make the medication being accessible for patient only at the prescribed dose and time, and medication taking information will be delivered as well. Such medication package will not only give unprecedented high patient compliance, but also improve the communication between patients and healthcare staffs., QC 20111202

Interactive packaging is an emerging research area in recent years. It brings people convenient and smart lives, reduces consumption of traditional packaging materials and direct or indirect labor costs as well. Being integrated in interactive packaging, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology becomes one of the most proactive development enablers. In this paper, an interactive and intelligent packaging solution integrating passive RFID system and Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) is given at first. Package opening action is electrically controlled by the RFID system. CDM is primarily used in aerospace applications in the past and the conductor/adhesive joint can be easily opened by applying a little electric power on to the material. Some related works will be shown about the electrochemical characteristics of CDM in order to facilitate the system design. A demonstration system was developed and the test results have proved feasibility of the solution and shown the potential of low cost for mass production. Based on this solution, an interactive medication package for pervasive healthcare is further developed, using EPCglobal Gen2 RFID technology. It will make the medication being accessible for patient only at the prescribed dose and time, and medication taking information will be delivered as well. Such medication package will not only give unprecedented high patient compliance, but also improve the communication between patients and healthcare staffs., QC 20111202

Pervasive healthcare solution for medication noncompliance problem would help to save $177 billion annually in the United States. And the rapidly increasing demanding of daily monitoring with onsite diagnosis and prognosis is driving homecare solutions to integrate more and more sensing and data processing capacities. So a powerful system is needed not only to address the medication noncompliance but also to be used as a Pervasive Healthcare Station in home. In this paper, a pervasive and preventive healthcare solution for medication noncompliance and daily monitoring is proposed using an intelligent package sealed by Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) and controlled by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Onsite diagnosis and prognosis capacities for kinds of health parameters are supported due to scalable and intensive computing capacitance of the 2D-Mesh-NoC based multi-core architecture. Additionally, friendly human-machine interface is emphasized to make it usable for the elderly, disabled and patients due to enhanced multimedia performance. Experimental results of an implemented prototype confirmed the necessity of the multi-core architecture and approved the feasibility of the proposed intelligent package., QC 20110222

A global fresh food tracking service is presented, in which a set of real-time primary environmental conditions for transport of fresh fruits and vegetables, including global position, temperature, relative humidity, concentrations of CO2, O2 and ethylene gases and 3-axis acceleration, is collected through mobile and remotely controllable wireless sensor nodes. Real time monitoring, tracking, alarming, close-loop controlling and information sharing could therefore be provided as WEB services with service oriental architecture. Fully functioned hardware modules, protocols and system software have been developed. A 50-day field test has been successfully carried out, proving the system concept and the robustness of hardware and software designed. Due to its worldwide deploy-ability and added-values to fresh food supply chain, it is now feasible to establish a practical fresh food tracking service business., QC 20120124

A mobile and wide area deployable wireless sensor system, including hardware and software, is developed to enhance the mobility, deployment and capability of wireless sensors for networked services. Due to the dual-layer dual-directional wireless communication capability of a novel WAN-SAN coherent architecture and the removal of fix-installed gateway, all sensor nodes are remotely controllable and seamlessly integrated to internet services. Hardware modules are optimized for ultra low power and compact size. Abstract and extendable application interface is developed, based on SMS and TCP/UDP protocol, to be integrated easily into existing service systems. Hierarchical CPS-LPS Adaptive Localization, is supported based on CPS, wireless cellular ID, RFID, IR-UWB and inertial prediction. Specific data compression technique is adopted for high density data source. Finally, Fresh Food Tracking service is presented as an application example, including some field test data., QC 20110330

RFID Based Intelligent Sensing (RBIS) is a promising technology strategy for upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) which will boom up numbers of innovative applications in next decades. In order to introduce IoT applications to human daily life and get the value chain fully-formed, we must change the application model of RBIS from object-centric to user-centric and extend the business values from enterprise-centric to consumer-centric. In this paper, a user-centric model of RBIS for IoT applications is proposed based on generalization and abstraction of numbers of possible application scenarios. By extending the traditional two-role model (Reader and Tag) into three-role model (Mediator, Object and Visitor), a new role of Visitor is introduced to identify the human activities. Based on that, user-centric data gathering, personalized service delivery and privacy protection are enabled where the core-values of IoT applications lie in. An event-driven mechanism is introduced to improve the efficiency of communication and data processing in the system especially for long term monitoring of sparse events. The proposed model has been verified by implemented prototype system, the TouchMe system, including the hardware, software, interactive package boxes, and a novel passive RFID tag chip as the next generation solution. Experimental results approve that the proposed model clarifies the application requirements, technical architectures and added values of IoT applications. It is possible to establish feasible practical IoT services based on the proposed model in the future., QC 20120124

Primarily used in aerospace applications, Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) has recently drawn attention to the traditional packaging industry due to its low-cost and electrical easy-open. Sinuate®, a CDM product, consists of two aluminum foils bonded together with a conductive epoxy adhesive. When applying a little electricity on its surface, the material can open easily without violence and release without residue. In this paper, a brief introduction on Sinuate® will be presented at first. And some test results on the electrical properties of the joint opening/detaching process will be shown and analyzed.