Automated detection of breast cancer in thermal infrared images, based on independent component analysis.

Breast cancer, among women, is the second-most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death. It has become a major health issue in the world over the past decades and its incidence has increased in recent years mostly due to increased awareness of the importance of screening and population ageing. Early detection is crucial in the effective treatment of breast cancer. Current mammogram screening may turn up many tiny abnormalities that are either not cancerous or are slow-growing cancers that would never progress to the point of killing a woman and might never even become known to her. Ideally a better screening method should find a way of distinguishing the dangerous, aggressive tumors that need to be excised from the more languorous ones that do not. This paper therefore proposes a new method of thermographic image analysis for automated detection of high tumor risk areas, based on independent component analysis (ICA) and on post-processing of the images resulting from this algorithm. Tests carried out on a database enable tumor areas of 4 × 4 pixels on an original thermographic image to be detected. The proposed method has shown that the appearance of a heat anomaly indicating a potentially cancerous zone is reflected as an independent source by ICA analysis of the YCrCb components; the set of available images in our small series is giving us a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 94.7%.

User-friendly cognitive training for the elderly: a technical report.

OBJECTIVE: This article presents a system that implements a cognitive training program in users' homes. The system comprises various applications designed to create a daily brain-fitness regime. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The proposed mental training system uses television and a remote control specially designed for the elderly. This system integrates Java applications to promote brain-fitness training in three areas: arithmetic, memory, and idea association. The system comprises the following: Standard television set, simplified wireless remote control, black box (system's core hardware and software), brain-fitness games (language Java), and Wi-Fi-enabled Internet-connected router. All data from the user training sessions are monitored through a control center. This control center analyzes the evolution of the user and the proper performance of the system during the test. RESULTS: The implemented system has been tested by six healthy volunteers. The results for this user group demonstrated the accessibility and usability of the system in a controlled real environment. The impressions of the users were very favorable, and they reported high adaptability to the system. The mean score for usability and accessibility assigned by the users was 3.56 out of 5 points. The operation stress test (over 200 h) was successful. CONCLUSION: The proposed system was used to implement a cognitive training program in users' homes, which was developed to be a low-cost tool with a high degree of user interactivity. The results of this preliminary study indicate that this user-friendly system could be adopted as a form of cognitive training for the elderly.

Sensory system for implementing a human-computer interface based on electrooculography.

This paper describes a sensory system for implementing a human-computer interface based on electrooculography. An acquisition system captures electrooculograms and transmits them via the ZigBee protocol. The data acquired are analysed in real time using a microcontroller-based platform running the Linux operating system. The continuous wavelet transform and neural network are used to process and analyse the signals to obtain highly reliable results in real time. To enhance system usability, the graphical interface is projected onto special eyewear, which is also used to position the signal-capturing electrodes.

Dynamically programmable electronic pill dispenser system.

Compliance in medicine dispensation has proven critical for dosage control, diagnosis, and treatment. We have designed, manufactured, and characterized a novel dynamically programmable e-pill dispensing system. Our system is initially programmed remotely through a cell phone. After programming, the system may be reconfigured in order to adapt pill dispensation to new conditions. In this paper we describe the mechanics, electronics, control, and communication protocols implemented. Our dyn-e-pill devices can be actuated for over 350 h with two pill retrievals per hour. We challenged the charging circuit and demonstrated that the system has a lifetime longer than 6 h with a 30 min charging cycle, while it lasts for 14 h of uninterrupted use with a full charge.

Data acquisition, analysis and transmission platform for a Pay-As-You-Drive system.

This paper presents a platform used to acquire, analyse and transmit data from a vehicle to a Control Centre as part of a Pay-As-You-Drive system. The aim is to monitor vehicle usage (how much, when, where and how) and, based on this information, assess the associated risk and set an appropriate insurance premium. To determine vehicle usage, the system analyses the driver's respect for speed limits, driving style (aggressive or non-aggressive), mobile telephone use and the number of vehicle passengers. An electronic system on board the vehicle acquires these data, processes them and transmits them by mobile telephone (GPRS/UMTS) to a Control Centre, at which the insurance company assesses the risk associated with vehicles monitored by the system. The system provides insurance companies and their customers with an enhanced service and could potentially increase responsible driving habits and reduce the number of road accidents.