An IoT Solution for Multiple Sensors Control and Management

The era of the fourth industrial revolution and the Covid-19 pandemic gives rise to the incredible growth of the IoT (Internet of Things) field. The trend of an immense amount of devices connected to specific networks brings up various problems, but most noticeable, control and management issues. In this paper, we propose a structural and efficient solution to solve this problem in a large-scale IoT system - along with two implementations of the proposed solution. The paper's main contribution is to present an overview of the architecture for an IoT system inspired by numerous IoT-based implementations. The design is expected to be dynamic, transparent, and easily deployed for newcomers. Furthermore, with the different implementations in health care and agriculture mentioned later, we want to demonstrate the flexibility and adaptability of the design to various fields. © 2022 IEEE.

COUGHTRIGGER: EARBUDS IMU BASED COUGH DETECTION ACTIVATOR USING AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT SENSITIVITY-PRIORITIZED TIME SERIES CLASSIFIER

Persistent coughs are a major symptom of respiratory-related diseases. Increasing research attention has been paid to detecting coughs using wearables, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Microphone is most widely used sensor to detect coughs. However, the intense power consumption needed to process audio hinders continuous audio-based cough detection on battery-limited commercial wearables, such as earbuds. We present CoughTrigger, which utilizes a lower-power sensor, inertial measurement unit (IMU), in earbuds as a cough detection activator to trigger a higher-power sensor for audio processing and classification. It runs all-the-time as a standby service with minimal battery consumption and triggers the audio-based cough detection when a candidate cough is detected from IMU. Besides, the use of IMU brings the benefit of improved specificity of cough detection. Experiments are conducted on 45 subjects and CoughTrigger achieved 0.77 AUC score. We also validated its effectiveness on free-living data and through on-device implementation. © 2022 IEEE

Virtual outcomes: A possible strategy to improve retention in a primary stroke prevention trial

Background: Hypertension is the most important modifiable risk factor for stroke and an important contributor to the racial disparities of stroke incidence. Thus, working within the communities in which racial disparities of stroke are prevalent is important.Trials working with such communities may have low participant retention at least partially attributable to social determinants of health such as limited time, transportation and access to medical care. Trial outcome adaptations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to compare in-person to virtual retention strategies as a possible strategy to improve trial retention. Methods: Reach Out is a health system focused, multi-component, health theory based, mobile health behavioral intervention to reduce blood pressure (BP) among Emergency Department (ED) patients at a safety net hospital in the under-resourced, minority, majority community of Flint, Michigan. The primary outcome is change in systolic blood pressure. Outcomes were conducted inperson from 10/4/2019 to 3/13/2020 at various locations throughout the community that were convenient for each participant. As a result of COVID-19 and the resulting state mandated stay-athome order, outcomes were converted to phone, text, and picture-based elements. Virtual outcomes consists of: 1) a texted picture validating BP cuff is in correct body placement;2) 3 self-reported blood pressures;and 3) telephone outcome survey. Virtual outcomes were offered at times convenient to participants throughout the daytime, evening, and weekend. Results: Prior to COVID-19, 6-month outcomes were conducted in-person. Of possible in-person outcomes, 76 of 140 (54%) were completed. Tele-outcomes commenced on 4/9/2020. As of 8/18/2020, 63 of 132 (48%) 6-month tele-outcomes, and 38 of 59 (64%) 12-month tele-outcomes have been completed. Total tele-outcomes completed are 101 of 191 (53%). 6 participants havecompleted 12-month tele-outcomes, who did not complete 6-month in-person outcomes. Conclusion: In a mobile health behavioral intervention to reduce hypertension among patients whoreceived care at a safety-net ED, we found that participant retention was similar between in-personand virtual outcome assessments. Virtual outcomes obviate the need for transportation andchildcare, barriers to participation for some participants and could help increase the retention rate infuture trials.