This book presents fundamental requirements, electrical specification, and parameter tradeoffs of wearable EEG acquisition circuits, especially those compatible with dry electrodes for user-friendly recordings. The authors introduce active electrode, the most promising solution for dry electrodes-based EEG measurement. This architectural concept has been combined with various, innovative circuit design techniques to illustrate structured IC design methodologies for high performance EEG recording. This book also gives examples on the design, implementation and evaluation of three generations of active electrode ICs.

Advances in technology have produced a range of on-body sensors and smartwatches that can be used to monitor a wearer’s health with the objective to keep the user healthy. However, the real potential of such devices not only lies in monitoring but also in interactive communication with expert-system-based cloud services to offer personalized and real-time healthcare advice that will enable the user to manage their health and, over time, to reduce expensive hospital admissions. To meet this goal, the research challenges for the next generation of wearable healthcare devices include the need to offer a wide range of sensing, computing, communication, and human–computer interaction methods, all within a tiny device with limited resources and electrical power. This Special Issue presents a collection of six papers on a wide range of research developments that highlight the specific challenges in creating the next generation of low-power wearable healthcare sensors.

This Research Topic is dedicated to Raja Parasuraman who unexpectedly passed on March 22nd 2015. Raja Parasuraman’s pioneering work led the emergence of Neuroergonomics as a new scientific field. He combined his research interests in the field of Neuroergonomics which he defined as the study of the human brain in relation to performance at work and everyday settings. Raja Parasuraman was a pioneer, a truly exceptional researcher and an extraordinary person. He made significant contributions to a number of disciplines, from human factors to cognitive neuroscience. His advice to young researchers was to be passionate in order to develop theory and knowledge that can guide the design of technologies and environments for people. His legacy, the field of Neuroergonomics, will live on in countless faculties and students whom he advised and inspired with unmatched humility throughout the whole of his distinguished career. Raja Parasuraman was an impressive human being, a very kind person, and an absolutely inspiring individual who will be remembered by everyone who had the chance to meet him. About this Research Topic Since the advent of neuroergonomics, significant progress has been made with respect to methodology and tools for the investigation of the brain and behavior at work. This is especially the case for neuroscientific methods where the availability of ambulatory hardware, wearable sensors and advanced data analyses allow for imaging of brain dynamics in humans in applied environments. Methods such as: electroencephalography (EEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and stimulation approaches like transcranial direct-currrent stimulation (tDCS) have made significant progress in both recording and altering brain activity while allowing full body movements outside laboratory environments. For neuroergonomics, the application of brain imaging in real-world scenarios is highly relevant. Traditionally, brain imaging experiments in human factors research tend to avoid active behavior for fear of artifacts and a contaminated data set that would provide limited insight into brain dynamics in real working environments. To overcome these problems new analyses approaches have to be developed that identify artifacts resulting from hostile recording environments and movement-related non-brain activity stemming from eye-, head, and full-body movements. The application of methodology from the field of Brain-Computer Interfacing (BCI) for neuroergonomics is one approach that has significant potential to enhance ambulatory monitoring and applied testing. Passive BCIs allow for assessing aspects of the user state online, such that systems can automatically adapt to their user. This neuroadaptive technology could lead to highly efficient working environments, to auto-adaptive experimental paradigms and to a continuous tracking of cognitive and affective aspects of the user state. Hence, deployment of portable neuroimaging technologies to real time settings could help assess cognitive and motivational states of personnel assigned to perform critical tasks. This Research Topic gathers submissions that cover new approaches in neuroergonomics. Different article type cover advanced neuroscience methods and neuroergonomics techniques as well as analysis approaches to investigate brain dynamics in working environments. The selection of papers provides insights into new neuroergonomic research approaches that demonstrate significant advances in brain imaging technologies that become more and more mobile, Moreover, a strong trend for new analyses approaches and paradigms investigating real work settings can be seen. Together, this unique collection of latest research papers provides a comprehensive overview on the latest developments in neuroergonomics.

This book provides a collection of comprehensive research articles on data analytics and applications of wearable devices in healthcare. This Special Issue presents 28 research studies from 137 authors representing 37 institutions from 19 countries. To facilitate the understanding of the research articles, we have organized the book to show various aspects covered in this field, such as eHealth, technology-integrated research, prediction models, rehabilitation studies, prototype systems, community health studies, ergonomics design systems, technology acceptance model evaluation studies, telemonitoring systems, warning systems, application of sensors in sports studies, clinical systems, feasibility studies, geographical location based systems, tracking systems, observational studies, risk assessment studies, human activity recognition systems, impact measurement systems, and a systematic review. We would like to take this opportunity to invite high quality research articles for our next Special Issue entitled “Digital Health and Smart Sensors for Better Management of Cancer and Chronic Diseases” as a part of Sensors journal.

Designing EEG Experiments for Studying the Brain: Design Code and Example Datasets details the design of various brain experiments using electroencephalogram (EEG). Providing guidelines for designing an EEG experiment, it is primarily for researchers who want to venture into this field by designing their own experiments as well as those who are excited about neuroscience and want to explore various applications related to the brain. The first chapter describes how to design an EEG experiment and details the various parameters that should be considered for success, while remaining chapters provide experiment design for a number of neurological applications, both clinical and behavioral. As each chapter is accompanied with experiment design codes and example datasets, those interested can quickly design their own experiments or use the current design for their own purposes. Helpful appendices provide various forms for one's experiment including recruitment forms, feedback forms, ethics forms, and recommendations for related hardware equipment and software for data acquisition, processing, and analysis. - Written to assist neuroscientists in experiment designs using EEG - Presents a step-by-step approach to designing both clinical and behavioral EEG experiments - Includes experiment design codes and example datasets - Provides inclusion and exclusion criteria to help correctly identify experiment subjects and the minimum number of samples - Includes appendices that provide recruitment forms, ethics forms, and various subjective tests associated with each of the chapters

This book provides a candid assessment and practical knowledge about the current technological advancements of the wireless healthcare system. This book presents the competencies of modeling e-health framework, medical wireless body sensor networks, communication technologies for mobile health, nanotechnology innovations in medicine, security issues for medical records, personalized services in healthcare applications, and Big Data for wireless health. This book covers multiple research perspectives in order to address the strong need for interdisciplinary research in the area of wireless health, such as the interactive research among biomedical sensor technology, intelligent textiles and advanced wireless network technology. The interactions involve experts from multidisciplinary fields including medical, information technology and computing fields. Designed as a study tool for graduate students, researchers, and medical professionals, this book is also valuable for business managers, entrepreneurs, and investors within the medical and healthcare industries. It is useful for anyone who cares about the future opportunities in healthcare systems.

This book explores the design of ultra-low-power radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), with communication distances ranging from a few centimeters to a few meters. The authors describe leading-edge techniques to achieve ultra-low-power communication over short-range links. Many different applications are covered, ranging from body-area networks to transcutaneous implant communications and smart-appliance sensor networks. Various design techniques are explained to facilitate each of these applications.