Dear Readers It is a real pleasure for me to present this special issue of I&M Magazine on "Instrumentation and Measurement for Human Care." This issue provides advances in science and breakthrough knowledge in the field of Assistive Technology (AT). AT is a term with a very broad meaning that groups all of those devices, objects, hardware and software solutions that are intended for people who are

The past decades have seen an explosion of new sensors. The integration of advanced sensors, miniaturized components, specific circuits, devices, systems and interfaces with the association of ad hoc signal processing, artificial intelligence and control technologies have allowed the design of new human care, wellbeing and assistive devices and systems. Such systems require also the elaboration of

Together with sight and hearing, touch represents a means of communication for human beings. Indeed, the sense of touch is capable of proving a whole non-verbal language that can be developed and offer many more possibilities than traditionally believed. Much of what is found in the literature about tactile communication concerns tactile stimulation of the fingertips and hands. However, as the area

Blind people can locate and track a sound source with remarkable efficiency. Following this principle, we have developed an autonomous embedded device capable of guiding people using a spatialized virtual sound source. In this device, we use both the information provided by an accurate and low-latency real-time location system (RTLS) and the head orientation data provided by a low-cost inertial unit

Blind persons need electronic traveling aid (ETA) solutions for better orientation and navigation in unfamiliar indoor environments, with embedded features for detection and recognition of both obstacles and desired destinations such as rooms, staircases, and elevators. Because the use of GPS for locational references is impractical indoors, the development of such navigation systems is challenging

The term assistive technology identifies a wide range of solutions and services to improve the life quality of frail people, by supporting them in performing everyday tasks, accessing public services, participating in education and civic life, as well as performing well at their job [1]—[3]. Potential users of assistive technology are elders, sometimes with disabilities, diseases or mental health conditions

The term "Internet of Things" (IoT) was first used in 2009 by Kevin Ashton to refer to networks of physical devices with the capability to acquire data and forward them to a data concentrator for processing. In the last decade, IoT systems have provided effective and valuable solutions for monitoring and control in a variety of fields such as transportation, smart agriculture, smart cities and smart

Calibration and testing of instruments used in the field of health has been one of the areas of interest in metrology science in recent years. While the metrology approach in measurements is strong enough in military and industrial fields, the same cannot be said for the health field. It is well known that patient safety is the priority for measurements in the medical device industry and the health

Heart rate (HR) monitoring is a significant task in many medical, sports and aged care in assisted living applications, among other disciplines. In the literature, several works have reported effectiveness in addressing the measurement of HR using contact sensors such as adhesive or dry electro-conductive electrodes. However, there are several issues associated with contact sensors like portability

Across the globe, legislation surrounding the application of cannabinoid compounds towards human health is gaining momentum. Corresponding with new regulations is a dramatic increase in cannabinoid-based treatment options—from just a few drugs in the early 2000s to now over 300 medical products currently in human trials for ailments such as post-traumatic stress disorder, nervous system degeneration

The application of Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) has attracted more and more attention, but the energy efficiency cannot be high due to the inevitable loss. Energy efficient WPT is increasingly demanded especially in implantable devices due to their wireless inefficiency nature. In addition, many implantable devices include digital circuits such as a Microcontroller Unit (MCU) in which the supply

The worlds of human care and measurements have always been linked. It is certainly not a piece of news: no one would be surprised if I said that human care depends heavily on measurements, and that conversely, the world of measurements finds in human care one of the most flourishing and interesting applications and research fields. In fact, it is constantly evolving and increasingly linked to technology

Real time monitoring of temperature and humidity of the air conditioned by Heat and Moisture Exchangers (HMEs) and delivered to patients in intensive care units (ICU) is highly demanded by physicians. As demonstrated by recent literature, only in vivo monitoring of HMEs performances with compact portable measuring systems suitable for ICU routines could provide reliable results. One of the main challenges

This paper presents relations between real-world phenomena, sensors and measurement methods that without applied simplifications are generally nonlinear. The article is built upon real-world examples which directly affect quality of human life or straightforwardly refer to life itself. First, the health of a human being is investigated. Next, attention is moved towards measurements of water and air

Pico Technology Ltd announces the Pico-Scope 6000E Series FlexRes¯ oscilloscopes, featuring 8 channels with 500 MHz bandwidth, 16 digital channels, and resolution of 8, 10 or 12 bits. The products work with PicoScope 6 application software, which takes full advantage of the latest PC performance and display capabilities, showing clean, crisp waveforms on screens of any size and resolution. The top-of-the

Dear Readers, It is a real pleasure for me to welcome you to this special issue of the Magazine on “Instrumentation and Measurement in 2020.”

The field of Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) is constantly and rapidly changing. These changes manifest themselves as evolutions of technologies and techniques but also as innovations. They come from the technical creativity of people in this field and also from advances in other fields. Conversely, advances in I&M also lead to advances in other fields. Given this two-way relationship, while

2019 was a big year for metrology. The international system of units was revised on World Metrology Day, May 20 th , that year [1]. What will 2020 bring? In this article we discuss five promising advances that we have on a watchlist for 2020. First, we describe the measurement of volume and gas pressure using electromagnetic waves. These measurements rely on the fixed value of the speed of light in

It is rare for someone in the engineering or science fields not to have heard of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT has been disrupting many industries by providing an unprecedented approach for a (potentially large) number of distributed components connected over a network to collect data, collaborate, and perform tasks with almost no human intervention. Spending in IoT is forecasted to reach US $1

Recently, we have observed an impressive evolution in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) which aims to reach any area of human activities to reduce the efforts of people related to boring daily jobs. AI is defined as the capacity of a computer to perform tasks commonly associated with human beings.

Currently, size of data is celebrated while only their usefulness in decision-making is actually important. Principles, methodologies and techniques of metrology are crucial to ensure proper and effective collection and use of data. Unfortunately, the fundamentals of metrology are seldom offered in educational degree programs, including those in scientific and technological subjects. Consequently,

In this paper, we explain how the requirements for rigorous, well-defined standard operating procedures, and simple, robust, inexpensive and easy-to-use detection equipment affect key aspects of instrumentation and measurement (I&M) systems applied to landmine detection in humanitarian demining. We also show how fundamental knowledge in physics and I&M, as well as industry's practical know-how (accumulated

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In the world of globalization, it is always interesting to exchange best practices, to build synergies and to create a common framework for a better fertilization. And this is particularly true in the research field where a constructive contamination could be the means for a disruptive activity.

Nowadays, Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) play a very important role in all science domains and industry. The involved researchers around the world from universities, metrology institutes, and industry work on the development of new accurate measurement techniques, very low uncertainty instruments, and smart sensors and the evaluation of their performances. Also, current measurement standards

This paper presents a brief overview of the current state-of-the-art of Josephson junctions for Quantum-based Voltage Standards fabricated with High-Temperature Superconductors (HTS). A short introduction on the history and technical evolution of Low Temperature Superconductors (LTS) technology is provided for non-specialists. Then HTS technology is summarized and discussed in the context of quantum

The number of measurements performed in an airport is probably countless and of paramount importance for airport and flight security and safety. Measurements are performed following strict rules and best practice in metrology, otherwise our skies would not be as highly safe as they are. However, there is a small number of measurements, related to passengers' luggage that have a non-negligible and sometimes

Oceans exploration and inspection are a great challenge for the industry nowadays. The underwater instrumentation and measurements are improving due to the current technologies, or by development of new ones, to cover the demand of the new industry offshore. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), a subcategory of submarine, is used to perform subaquatic tasks. This vehicle provides advantages for

Spectrum Instrumentation has added six new Arbitrary Waveform Generators (AWGs) to its recently released M2p.65 xx series of PCIe cards. The new AWGs extend the product families' capabilities by boosting the available output range, so that waveforms can be generated with amplitude swings of up to ±12 V into 1 MΩ or ±6 V into 50 Ω. To achieve the higher output voltage ranges, the cards have been fitted

Presents a listing of the editorial board, board of governors, current staff, committee members, and/or society editors for this issue of the publication.

Measuring receivers are used for measurement of radio disturbance in the frequency range typically 9 kHz to 18 GHz. Such receivers can be either electromagnetic interference (EMI) receivers or spectrum analyzers with the quasi-peak (QP) detector [1], [2]. Requirements for measuring receivers are discussed in European CISPR documents (Comité International Spécial des Perturbations Radioélectriques)

Teaching activities in the Instrumentation and Measurement (I&M) field, for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the engineering domains, should be correlated with the industry requirements [1]—[3]. In this way, students can understand actual industry needs and gain skills in solving I&M problems occurring in associated activities.

Smart environmental monitoring networks are a growing part of the Internet of Things (IoT). They are useful to detect, forecast and assess human impacts on the environment as well as the effects of climate change on society. As climate uncertainty grows, we will increasingly rely on these networks to address significant societal challenges including the reduction of available drinking water, diminished

To grow crops in areas with arid climates, porous karst soils, or increasingly unpredictable seasonal droughts, farmers struggle for their yield and spend precious water resources on irrigation. This ecological and economic problem of excessive water usage in agriculture may be alleviated by application of precision irrigation techniques. Precision irrigation implies precise spatial and temporal control

For more information on the meetings, please go to the I&M Society Web site at www.ieee-ims.org.

The IEEE 21450 standard family [1] has been developed to ease the use of smart transducers in various applications. The transducer electronic datasheet (TEDS) defined in the standards provides descriptions of the sensor and actuator channels in terms of physical quantities, data representation, measurement range, uncertainty, calibration, etc. Consequently, such electronic datasheets can be seen as

Almost all time keeping laboratories maintain the 5071A Cesium (Cs) frequency standard for generating their national time scales. The frequency stability of this standard is limited by different types of noise, especially the White Frequency Modulation noise. These noise types affect the stability of the resultant average Time Scale (TS). Kalman Filter (KF) is still applied until now within the time

Measurement systems suffer from problems due to the imperfectness of sensory devices and measuring channels, and the shortage of available information concerning the investigated phenomena itself. This imperfectness and shortage result in unwanted alterations and perturbations of the measured values and/or signals. Better results can be achieved if these alterations and perturbations are counteracted

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating new dimensions and redefining the concept and meaning of work in industrial settings. Documented success has been reported where AI is transforming industrial scenes such as scaling large operation processes, speed of execution, flexibility of processes where rigid manufacturing by dumb robots is replaced with smart individualized production

Cell exposure to high-voltage, short-duration electric pulses can lead to temporary formation of hydrophilic pores in the plasma membrane and an increase in the membrane's permeability which consequently increases the transmembrane transport of molecules that are otherwise unable to cross the membrane. This phenomenon, termed membrane electroporation, is currently an applicable technique in different

Smart Metrology is the subject of a work we wrote and published with the Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR, French Standardization Association) in 2016 [1]. In this new work, we offer a very different vision of the role of metrology in industry from the traditional view, which tends to focus on the management of a stock of measuring instruments. The emergence of Big Data and Artificial

This issue of I&M Magazine is dedicated to IEEE Region 8 that includes Europe, the Middle-East and the African continent. Looking at the map reported on the dedicated website (www.IEEER8.org), you can realize that it is the largest IEEE Section.

Coins are used as a measure of size in scientific publications. Over one hundred examples are collected. Although standardized procedures for using coins as a measure of size do not exist, use among scientists is so widespread that some form of consensus has formed in the community. Contemporary usage patterns of coins as a measure of size are analyzed qualitatively. Several rules and predictions are

The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem states that if all that you know about a signal is that its highest frequency is no greater than B, then if you want to sample the signal without any loss of information, you must sample it at a rate that is greater than 2B. If we call the rate at which we sample Fs, then we find that B < Fs/2, and Fs/2 is called the Nyquist frequency. For a simple proof of the