Bluetooth Coupling in Hearing Aids: Effect on Audiovisual Speech Recognition and Quality Rating of Compressed Speech in Older Individuals with Sloping Hearing Loss

Abstract Introduction Older individuals often report that they find it difficulty in enjoying watching television since they find it hard to follow the rapid intensity variations, and voice changes from scene to scene. Objective The present study investigated the effect of coupling the hearing aid with the television via Bluetooth on audiovisual speech recognition and quality rating of compressed speech in older individuals with hearing loss. Method Twenty participants in the age range of 60 to 75 years who had moderate to moderately severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss were bilaterally fitted with digital receiver in the canal hearing aids. The hearing aid was coupled with a television via Bluetooth using a streamer. The video recorded stimuli were presented at 65 dB SPL at normal rate, 35% compression and 45% compression conditions. Speech recognition scores and quality ratings were obtained for each condition with and without the Bluetooth streamer connected to the hearing aids. Results Speech recognition scores were significantly better with Bluetooth coupling compared with conventional hearing aid use at 40% compressed speech rate. The quality was also rated higher in almost all parameters across speech rates when Bluetooth was used. Conclusions The improved clarity and nullification of room reverberation offered by Bluetooth coupling can potentially compensate for the age-related temporal processing deficit contributing to ease of listening.

Design of Remote Multi-part Personal Radiation Dose System Based on Bluetooth Communication Module / 中国医疗器械杂志

OBJECTIVE@#A remote multi-part personal radiation dose detection system is designed with ATmega32A single chip microcomputer as the control core.@*METHODS@#First of all, the geiger counter tube module collects the radiation signal of the surrouding environment. Secondly, using ATmega32A Microprocessor of Slave computer to calculate the collected signal. Finally, it is sent to the host receiving device or mobile APP through Bluetooth module,so as to realize real-time detection of radiation data, remote transmission and security alarm.@*RESULTS@#The system is measured in the same environment as the RG1100 radiometer, with a maximum difference of 0.03 μSv/h.This shows that it can stably realize the functions of radiation measurement, monitoring, alarm, remote connection and multimodal display.@*CONCLUSIONS@#The system has the advantages of good portability (easy to carry), low power consumption, accurate measurement and so on. It has certain reference value and practicability.

Development of a Wearable Wireless ECG Monitoring System with Ultra-low Power Consumption / 中国医疗器械杂志

This study describes the development of a wireless and wearable ECG monitoring system with ultra-low power consumption. The system is mainly composed of a connection part of an ECG electrode sticker, an electrocardiogram collecting part, a data storage part, a Bluetooth main control unit, a charging module, a voltage regulator and a lithium battery. The low-power ECG acquisition chip ADS1292R and the ultra-low-power Bluetooth microcontroller nRF51822 together constitute the ECG signal acquisition and wireless data communication part. The collected ECG signals can be sent to the mobile APP through the Bluetooth function provided by the MCU, and can completly display and analysis to achieve low power system. After testing, the system power consumption is only (3.7 V×2.87 mA)10.619 mW, and if it is optimized, it can further reduce power consumption, therefore, the system design can have good applicability.

Design of Low Power Multi-parameter Monitoring System Based on Bluetooth / 中国医疗器械杂志

This paper designs a bluetooth-based low-power multi-parameter monitoring system. The system is mainly composed of ECG signal acquisition, respiratory signal acquisition, body temperature acquisition, bluetooth 4.0 transmission module and Android mobile phone APP display. The system collects the corresponding physiological signals through various collection parts, and can realize the monitoring of three physiological signals of electrocardiogram, respiration and body temperature. The Android mobile APP can display ECG, respiratory waveform and temperature data in real time. The system is small in size and low in power consumption, and has a good application prospect in portable and wearable medical applications.

Miniature Wireless ECG Sensor for Mobile Medical Treatment / 中国医疗器械杂志

A kind of miniature wireless ECG sensor is designed for mobile medicine in the paper.The miniature wireless ECG sensor acquires ECG signals of human body by single lead,and it transmits the processed ECG data to mobile phone through Bluetooth transmission technology to realize ECG waveform,heart rate display and ECG data storage.The wireless ECG sensor has the advantages of simple operation,high accuracy,strong anti-interference ability and good real-time performance.It can monitor some arrhythmia and other diseases for a long time.

Simultaneous monitoring of motion ECG of two subjects using Bluetooth Piconet and baseline drift

Uninterrupted monitoring of multiple subjects is required for mass causality events, in hospital environment or for sports by medical technicians or physicians. Movement of subjects under monitoring requires such system to be wireless, sometimes demands multiple transmitters and a receiver as a base station and monitored parameter must not be corrupted by any noise before further diagnosis. A Bluetooth Piconet network is visualized, where each subject carries a Bluetooth transmitter module that acquires vital sign continuously and relays to Bluetooth enabled device where, further signal processing is done. In this paper, a wireless network is realized to capture ECG of two subjects performing different activities like cycling, jogging, staircase climbing at 100 Hz frequency using prototyped Bluetooth module. The paper demonstrates removal of baseline drift using Fast Fourier Transform and Inverse Fast Fourier Transform and removal of high frequency noise using moving average and S-Golay algorithm. Experimental results highlight the efficacy of the proposed work to monitor any vital sign parameters of multiple subjects simultaneously. The importance of removing baseline drift before high frequency noise removal is shown using experimental results. It is possible to use Bluetooth Piconet frame work to capture ECG simultaneously for more than two subjects. For the applications where there will be larger body movement, baseline drift removal is a major concern and hence along with wireless transmission issues, baseline drift removal before high frequency noise removal is necessary for further feature extraction.

Design of Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor and Its Data Encryption Method / 中国医疗器械杂志

A wireless blood pressure measurement system was designed to facilitate the measurement of the patient's blood pressure and to transmit the measured data safely and reliably. Through PDA, radio frequency identification technology (RFID) and bluetooth technology, the function of reading patients' information and statistics and analysis of blood pressure, heart rate data was realized. The IDEA and RSA joint algorithms were used to encrypt the patients' data and the key of the IDEA algorithm to ensure the security of the patient' data. The test results showed that the system had high accuracy of measurement data, safe and reliable transmission, and improved the nurses' work efficiency.

Design of Portable Spirometer Based on Internet of Things of Medicine / 中国医疗器械杂志

A kind of portable device for detecting common lung function parameters is mentioned in this paper. Using the singlechip microcomputer as the master control block to collect and process the data from high-accuracy gas pressure sensor, through the way of parametric calibration and linear interpolation to test and calculate the Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF), Forced Expiratory Volume in one second (FEV1), and FEV1/FVC. Meanwhile, the detected parameters can be uploaded to the intelligent mobile terminal through the wireless transmission module. The device is able to show expiratory volume-time curve and the final parameters clearly, the error of measurement is less than 5%. In addition, that device is small and convenient, not only is good for clinical application, but also can be used for family in a house.

Design and Implementation of Medical Wireless Gateway Based on Several Communication Protocols / 中国医疗器械杂志

We designed a multi-functional medical wireless gateway based on Zigbee Bluetooth and WiFi Technology to monitor the medical physiological status of subjects in real time. On the one hand, the gateway acts as the Zigbee coordinator, organizing the Zigbee network and controlling multiple medical digital terminals. On the other hand, the gateway implements a heterogeneous wireless network. It establishes the communication between the medical digital terminals and the host computers or hand-held devices. In addition, we developed a display interface based on the LabVIEW platform, implemented the display and storage of various physiological data on the host computer, and verified the availability of the medical wireless gateway.

Design implementation and of ECG monitoring and management system based on smartphone platform / 医疗卫生装备

Objective To develop an ECG monitoring and management system based on the smartphone platform to transmit ECG data to the doctor in daily life or working environment.Methods The system was composed of an ECG signal acquisition device and a smartphone App.The ECG signal acquisition device used MSP430F149 microcontroller as the core unit,which executed ECG signal extraction by adopting right leg drive,active filters,dual instrumentation amplifier and moving average algorithm,applied differential threshold method to accurately detecting R wave,calculated heart rate and then sent ECG data to the smartphone through Bluetooth 4.0 module.The smartphone App was developed based on cross-platform mobile development framework Cordova,and used Cordova plugins,JavaScript,HTML5 and CSS to receive the data from the acquisition device,draw and store ECG,show heart rate and remind abnormalities in heart rate as well as to transmit ECG data to the doctor through the mobile medicine App and social App.Then the doctor provided advices on prevention,treatment and etc after analyzing the received data.Results Compared with the ECG machine,the system had the relative errors of heart rate,P duration,QRS duration and QT duration being 2.7％,4.5％,4.3％ and 3.3％ respectively.All the above four parameters having significant correlations,and the correlation parameters were 0.955,0.948,0.91 and 0.834 respectively (P＜0.05).The system had 8-h endurance in case of being fully charged.Concluslon The system gains advantages in power consumption,accuracy,noise,cost,volume,weight,safety,reliability as well as easy operation and maintenance,and facilitates the ECG conditions to be mastered timely by the doctor.

Design implementation and of ECG monitoring and management system based on smartphone platform / 医疗卫生装备

Objective To develop an ECG monitoring and management system based on the smartphone platform to transmit ECG data to the doctor in daily life or working environment.Methods The system was composed of an ECG signal acquisition device and a smartphone App.The ECG signal acquisition device used MSP430F149 microcontroller as the core unit,which executed ECG signal extraction by adopting right leg drive,active filters,dual instrumentation amplifier and moving average algorithm,applied differential threshold method to accurately detecting R wave,calculated heart rate and then sent ECG data to the smartphone through Bluetooth 4.0 module.The smartphone App was developed based on cross-platform mobile development framework Cordova,and used Cordova plugins,JavaScript,HTML5 and CSS to receive the data from the acquisition device,draw and store ECG,show heart rate and remind abnormalities in heart rate as well as to transmit ECG data to the doctor through the mobile medicine App and social App.Then the doctor provided advices on prevention,treatment and etc after analyzing the received data.Results Compared with the ECG machine,the system had the relative errors of heart rate,P duration,QRS duration and QT duration being 2.7％,4.5％,4.3％ and 3.3％ respectively.All the above four parameters having significant correlations,and the correlation parameters were 0.955,0.948,0.91 and 0.834 respectively (P＜0.05).The system had 8-h endurance in case of being fully charged.Concluslon The system gains advantages in power consumption,accuracy,noise,cost,volume,weight,safety,reliability as well as easy operation and maintenance,and facilitates the ECG conditions to be mastered timely by the doctor.

Measurement and Wireless Data Transmission of Heart Rate Using Pulse Sensor

There is often a need to access heart rate measuring system which provides accurate and quick readings of patients. This paper presents the design of simple heart rate measurement system based on Arduino board which displays and simultaneously transmitting the data to a smartphone via Bluetooth. Here the cardiac activity of the patient is acquired by a pulse sensor and the output of this sensor is transmitted using Bluetooth. By using this system unlike the conventional method, the doctor doesn't need to be present at the time of measuring the heart rate. The system takes the physical input from pulse sensor by placing the patients’ finger on the sensor and then the input is processed by Arduino to count the number of pulses and displaying the output in the smartphone using a Bluetooth application.

Development Scenario of Dietary Intake Survey Using Internet of Things (IoT)

The study suggests the possibility of using internet of things for a dietary intake survey. The development scenario of the dietary intake survey was composed of a weighing sensor for measuring food weight, bluetooth module for communicating through smart-phones, and smart-phone application. The weighing sensor attached to the bottom of utensils was designed to measure the weight of initial food & food eaten, and the results were transmitted to the smart-phone through the bluetooth module. The exclusive application in the smart-phone displayed the results of the amount of food intake, calorie intake, and eating rate. Through this system, subjects could continuously monitor their dietary intake & eating rate and recognize their actual eating environment, which leads to prevent overconsumption of food intake & form balanced eating habits. Based on this system, we need to consolidate and develop a weight control program.

Design and Realization of Independent Calling Device for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / 中国康复理论与实践

@#Objective To design a device for the patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), who are disable to speak and move, to call for the nurses independently when necessary. Methods The electroencephalographic signals were collected and processed with TGAM, and the extracted attention characteristic values were transmitted to a computer with Bluetooth. The loudspeaker would call the nurses when the attention characteristic value exceeds the normal range. Results In the testing process of 20 participants in 10 tests, the success rate was 81.5%, and the average misjudged frequence was 0.2 within 20 min. Conclusion The device can be used in the nursing of the patients with ALS to meet the needs of daily nursing work.

Study on the detection system of human local metabolic rate based on embedded technology / 中国医学装备

Objective:To introduce the local human body metabolic rate measurement system based on the Smartphone with the Android operating system and realizes the transmission of physiological data from the detecting module to Smartphone. Methods:Embedding Bluetooth module in the module of detecting physiological parameters, the measurement target is fingers, so the detected physiological data can be sent to Smartphone with Android system. By develop apk application program, the Smartphone can realize the operation of opening the Bluetooth devices and searching the around Bluetooth devices, to realize the data transmission by the Socket connection, we develop the software which realizes showing data. Results:The Smartphone received the metabolic rate parameters from Bluetooth, and show the result on the surface. A study of the technology of transmitting physiological parameters information through the interface of Bluetooth in Android Smartphone is made in this paper. Conclusion:The paper is based on the Mobile Medicine Measuring System, realizes the technology of physiological parameters transmission through Bluetooth in Android system, which has a great broad application.

Design and Realization of Independent Calling Device for Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / 中国康复理论与实践

@#Objective To design a device for the patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), who are disable to speak and move, to call for the nurses independently when necessary. Methods The electroencephalographic signals were collected and processed with TGAM, and the extracted attention characteristic values were transmitted to a computer with Bluetooth. The loudspeaker would call the nurses when the attention characteristic value exceeds the normal range. Results In the testing process of 20 participants in 10 tests, the success rate was 81.5%, and the average misjudged frequence was 0.2 within 20 min. Conclusion The device can be used in the nursing of the patients with ALS to meet the needs of daily nursing work.

Development of calibration device for platelet thermostatic storage box / 中国医学装备

Objective:The platelet thermostatic storage box is widely used in hospital, laboratory, and blood station. It is very necessary to develop a calibration device to ensure the accuracy of the technical parameters.Methods: Using Infrared emitter, digital temperature sensor, ARM microcontroller etc to form a calibration device, the parameters of temperature, amplitude and frequency are processed. Data is transferred by Bluetooth communication, final; the test report is printed out for clinical.Results: The calibration device is developed, it can detect the important performance parameters of preservation box, it can ensure the safety of patient's blood transfusion. Conclusion: This calibration device is simple operation, strong practicability, stable performance; it can detect the technical parameters of platelet thermostatic storage box through experiment to ensure the safety and quality.

A Review of Assistive Listening Device and Digital Wireless Technology for Hearing Instruments

Assistive listening devices (ALDs) refer to various types of amplification equipment designed to improve the communication of individuals with hard of hearing to enhance the accessibility to speech signal when individual hearing instruments are not sufficient. There are many types of ALDs to overcome a triangle of speech to noise ratio (SNR) problems, noise, distance, and reverberation. ALDs vary in their internal electronic mechanisms ranging from simple hard-wire microphone-amplifier units to more sophisticated broadcasting systems. They usually use microphones to capture an audio source and broadcast it wirelessly over a frequency modulation (FM), infra-red, induction loop, or other transmission techniques. The seven types of ALDs are introduced including hardwire devices, FM sound system, infra-red sound system, induction loop system, telephone listening devices, television, and alert/alarm system. Further development of digital wireless technology in hearing instruments will make possible direct communication with ALDs without any accessories in the near future. There are two technology solutions for digital wireless hearing instruments improving SNR and convenience. One is near-field magnetic induction combined with Bluetooth radio frequency (RF) transmission or proprietary RF transmission and the other is proprietary RF transmission alone. Recently launched digital wireless hearing aid applying this new technology can communicate from the hearing instrument to personal computer, phones, Wi-Fi, alert systems, and ALDs via iPhone, iPad, and iPod. However, it comes with its own iOS application offering a range of features but there is no option for Android users as of this moment.

Study of the pre-hospital diagnostic reliability of real-time tele-transmission of 12-lead electrocardiogram of patients with acute ST-segment elevated myocardial infarction / 中华急诊医学杂志

Objective To evaluate the pre-hospital diagnostic reliability of real-time tele-transmission of 12-lead electrocardiogram of patients with ST-segment elevated acute myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods The 12-lead electrocardiogram was simultaneously recorded with real-time tele-transmission system and a conventional electrocardiograph in 40 STEMI cases.The width and amplitude of each wave,the deviated amplitude of ST-segment in the same leads were compared by t-test and rank-sum test.Results There were no statistical differences in the width and amplitude of P wave,QRS wave and t wave as well as the deviated altitude of ST-segment between the two separate electrocardiographs (P ＞0.05).There was a significant positive correlation between the two ECG devices in respect of ST-segment elevated altitude (r =0.912,P =0.000).The differential ability of ST-segment elevation between two separate ECG devices kept highly consistent (Kappa value:0.976).Conclusions Real-time tele-transmission of 12-lead electrocardiogram is reliable for the pre-hospital diagnosis of STEMI.

Monitor de señales de electrocardiografía y frecuencia cardiaca mediante un teléfono móvil con el protocolo de comunicación Bluetooth / Monitor of ECG signal and heart rate using a mobile phone with Bluetooth communication protocol

Objetivo: Desarrollar un equipo de monitoreo de señales de electrocardiografía (ECG) y frecuencia cardiaca (FC) portátil, comunicado con un teléfono móvil mediante el protocolo de comunicación Bluetooth (BT), para su visualización en pantalla. Métodos: Se diseñó un sistema de monitoreo que en su sección electrónica realiza la adquisición de la señal de ECG, así como su amplificación, filtrado, conversión analógica a digital y transmisión por BT del ECG y la FC. Se desarrollaron dos programas para el sistema. El primero calcula la FC a través de la identificación del QRS, y envía las señales del ECG y FC al teléfono móvil. El segundo es una aplicación que permite adquirirlas y visualizarlas en la pantalla del móvil. Resultados: Se desarrolló un sistema electrónico portátil alimentado por una batería de 9 volts, de amplificación y ancho de banda que cumplen con los estándares internacionales, para monitoreo de ECG. La identificación del complejo QRS se realizó con el algoritmo de la segunda derivada, mientras que los programas realizados permiten enviar y recibir la información del ECG y la FC a través de BT, para visualizarlos en la pantalla del móvil. El monitoreo es factible hasta 15 m de distancia. Se probó en distintos móviles de Nokia®, Sony Ericsson® y Samsung®. Conclusiones: Este sistema muestra una alternativa de monitoreo móvil, con un teléfono por medio de BT y la programación en Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). Permite registrar el trazo del ECG y la FC, y puede implementarse en diferentes móviles.

Objective: To develop a portable signal monitoring equipment for electrocardiography (ECG) and heart rate (HR), communicated with a mobile phone using the Bluetooth (BT) communication protocol for display of the signal on screen. Methods: A monitoring system was designed in which the electronic section performs the ECG signal acquisition, as well as amplification, filtering, analog to digital conversion and transmission of the ECG and HR using BT. Two programs were developed for the system. The first one calculates HR through QRS identification and sends the ECG signals and HR to the mobile, and the second program is an application to acquire and display them on the mobile screen. Results: We developed a portable electronic system powered by a 9 volt battery, with amplification and bandwidth meeting the international standards for ECG monitoring. The QRS complex identification was performed using the second derivative algorithm, while the programs allow sending and receiving information from the ECG and HR via BT, and viewing it on the mobile screen. The monitoring is feasible within distances of 15 m and it has been tested in various mobiles telephones of brands Nokia®, Sony Ericsson® and Samsung®. Conclusions: This system shows an alternative for mobile monitoring using BT and Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) programming. It allows the register of the ECG trace and HR, and it can be implemented in different phones.