B. Basics of Medical Devices

Designing Ambient Assisted Living Applications

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Frank Wallhoff

According to the definition of the EC, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is an applied research topic with the aim of enhancing the quality of life of older people and strengthening the industrial base in Europe through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Therefore, driven by the demographic change in Europe, AAL is an activity that operates in the field of services and actions to enable the active ageing among the population.

Besides a strong relation to user inclusion and business models, AAL strongly bases on Assisted Technologies that itself combine novel user interfaces and a broad range of diverse applications such as service robotics, healthcare or smart homes. Typical AAL themes cover ICT based solutions for:

  • Prevention and management of chronic conditions of elderly people
  • Advancement of social interaction of elderly people
  • Advancement of older persons’ independence and participation in the "self-serve society"
  • Advancement of older persons’ mobility
  • (Self-) Management of daily life activities of older adults at home
  • Supporting occupation in life of older adults

In this course the focus will lie on the modelling of human-machine interaction. Besides gaining insight to a multi-modal representation, a small robotic solution shall be implemented during the course.  

Subjects of the course:

  • Overview of typical AAL applications
  • Modelling of human-computer interaction
  • Basics of pattern recognition technologies
  • First steps into feature extraction technologies
  • Dialog modelling using speech recognition and text-to-speech
  • Fundamental knowledge in programming embedded systems

Learning outcomes:

  • Basics of human-computer interaction
  • Basics of pattern recognition technologies for speech recognition
  • Basics of pattern recognition technologies for computer vision based systems
  • Awareness of the limitations of state-of-the-art modelling of intelligent systems
  • Implement smaller dialogs using a given tool chain
  • Demonstration via a small robotic qFix platform

Basics of Signal Processing Using Matlab

Gerardo Marx Chávez-Campos

The focus of the lecture is to introduce students to the basics of signal processing in biomedical applications, by understanding the process of signal acquisition and preconditioning in hardware, as well as digital post-processing using Matlab. The student will be introduced to the concept of one of the most powerful tools in digital signal processing, digital Fourier transform. Thus, the concepts of Fourier series and Fourier transform will be skimmed. Afterwards several practical applications will be presented for a better understanding.

Themes of the lecture:

  • Introduction to the Fourier’s series and transform
  • Basics of digital signal processing
  • Practical example: Signal analysis in Phonocardiogram (PCG)
    • Understanding the heart’s physiology
    • Designing hardware for signal acquisition
    • Signal processing using Matlab

Biomechanical Modelling of Implanted Bone Systems

Dr. Lucian Rusu, Dr. Dan Ioan Stoia

Knowledge on Modelling of Biomechanical Behaviour of Implanted Bone Systems contributes to the develop­ment of new implants/prostheses having a better long-time functionality, development of corresponding surgi­cal instruments, injury prevention, and not at least to manage with ageing.            

The course topics consist in:

  • Basic anatomical knowledge - bones, joints, muscles and possible motions in human joints;
  • Implants, prostheses, and ortheses – implant design, biomaterials, customized implant manufacturing.
  • Kinematic modelling of biomechanical systems – motion study, Denavit-Hartenberg convention.
  • Static modelling of biomechanical systems
  • Numerical analysis - basics of FEM theory and general ANSYS specific capabilities.

The course consists of theoretical sessions followed by computer simulations.