Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is a private university located in&nbsp;Tamil Nadu, India. Founded in 1984, as Vellore Engineering College, the institution offers 20 undergraduate, 34 postgraduate, four integrated and four research programs. It has campuses in Vellore, Amravati, Bhopal and Chennai.

VIT is one of the top ranked private universities in India according to NIRF, THE and QS Rankings.&nbsp;Govt. of India has recognized&nbsp;VIT, Vellore as an&nbsp;Institution of Eminence. This has allowed VIT to take independent quality initiatives and move up in world ranking.

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VIT University

Department of Sensor and Biomedical Technology

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is effectively used in healthcare to increase the value of the patient's life and also the value of healthcare services. The biosensor based approach in medical care system makes it difficult to respond to the patients with minimal response time. The medical care unit does not deploy the accessing of ubiquitous broadband connections full time and hence the level of security will not be high always. The security issue also arises in monitoring the user body function records. Most of the systems on the Wireless Body Area Network are not effective in facing the security deployment issues. To access the patient's information with higher security on WBAN, Game Theory with Stackelberg Security Equilibrium (GTSSE) is proposed in this paper. GTSSE mechanism takes all the players into account. The patients are monitored by placing the power position authority initially. The position authority in GTSSE is the organizer and all the other players react to the organizer decision. Based on our proposed approach, experiment has been conducted on factors such as security ratio based on patient's health information, system flexibility level, energy consumption rate, and information loss rate. Stackelberg Security considerably improves the strength of solution with higher security. © 2015 M. Somasundaram and R. Sivakumar.

World University root node

School of Electronics Engineering

Vellore Campus

Fulltext

Scientific World Journal

Game Theory Based Security in Wireless Body Area Network with Stackelberg Security Equilibrium

A recent study showed that fingertip pads’ tactile sensation can improve by applying imperceptible white-noise vibration to the skin at the wrist or dorsum of the hand in stroke patients. This study further examined this behavior by investigating the effect of both imperceptible and perceptible white-noise vibration applied to different locations within the distal upper extremity on the fingertip pads’ tactile sensation in healthy adults. In 12 healthy adults, white-noise vibration was applied to one of four locations (dorsum hand by the second knuckle, thenar and hypothenar areas, and volar wrist) at one of four intensities (zero, 60%, 80%, and 120% of the sensory threshold for each vibration location), while the fingertip sensation, the smallest vibratory signal that could be perceived on the thumb and index fingertip pads, was assessed. Vibration intensities significantly affected the fingertip sensation (P < 0.01) in a similar manner for all four vibration locations. Specifically, vibration at 60% of the sensory threshold improved the thumb and index fingertip tactile sensation (P < 0.01), while vibration at 120% of the sensory threshold degraded the thumb and index fingertip tactile sensation (P < 0.01) and the 80% vibration did not significantly change the fingertip sensation (P > 0.01), all compared with the zero vibration condition. This effect with vibration intensity conforms to the stochastic resonance behavior. Nonspecificity to the vibration location suggests the white-noise vibration affects higher level neuronal processing for fingertip sensing. Further studies are needed to elucidate the neural pathways for distal upper extremity vibration to impact fingertip pad tactile sensation. © 2015 The Authors.

Physiological Reports

Application of vibration to wrist and hand skin affects fingertip tactile sensation

Random vibration applied to skin can change the sense of touch. Specifically, low amplitude white-noise vibration can improve fingertip touch perception. In fact, fingertip touch sensation can improve even when imperceptible random vibration is applied to other remote upper extremity areas such as wrist, dorsum of the hand, or forearm. As such, vibration can be used to manipulate sensory feedback and improve dexterity, particularly during neurological rehabilitation. Nonetheless, the neurological bases for remote vibration enhanced sensory feedback are yet poorly understood. This study examined how imperceptible random vibration applied to the wrist changes cortical activity for fingertip sensation. We measured somatosensory evoked potentials to assess peak-to-peak response to light touch of the index fingertip with applied wrist vibration versus without. We observed increased peak-to-peak somatosensory evoked potentials with wrist vibration, especially with increased amplitude of the later component for the somatosensory, motor, and premotor cortex with wrist vibration. These findings corroborate an enhanced cortical-level sensory response motivated by vibration. It is possible that the cortical modulation observed here is the result of the establishment of transient networks for improved perception. © 2015 The Authors. Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Physiological Society and The Physiological Society.

Effect of imperceptible vibratory noise applied to wrist skin on fingertip touch evoked potentials – an EEG study

Abstract Here we investigate the feasibility of using quartz tuning forks (QTFs) modified with nanostructure decorated polymer wires as potential gas sensors. The sensing parameters of different sensors for various volatile organic compounds like ethanol, methanol, chloroform and acetone were investigated. The exposure of the functionalized QTF sensors to VOC vapours induces a change in the mass as well as the mechanical properties of the polymer wire due to which the resonant frequency of the system changes. The dependence of the general behaviour and the frequency response of the sensors on both mass loading and spring loading effect was investigated and verified experimentally. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

Sensors and Actuators, B: Chemical

Investigation of QTF based gas sensors

Recently, the application of vibrotactile noise to the wrist or back of the hand has been shown to enhance fingertip tactile sensory perception (Enders et al 2013), supporting the potential for an assistive device worn at the wrist, that generates minute vibrations to help the elderly or patients with sensory deficit. However, knowledge regarding the detailed physiological mechanism behind this sensory improvement in the central nervous system, especially in the human brain, is limited, hindering progress in development and use of such assistive devices. To enable investigation of the impact of vibrotactile noise on sensorimotor brain activity in humans, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-compatible vibrotactile system was developed to provide vibrotactile noise during an MRI of the brain. The vibrotactile system utilizes a remote (outside the MR room) signal amplifier which provides a voltage from -40 to +40 V to drive a 12 mm diameter piezoelectric vibrator (inside the MR room). It is portable and is found to be MRI-compatible which enables its use for neurologic investigation with MRI. The system was also found to induce an improvement in fingertip tactile sensation, consistent with the previous study. © 2015 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.

Physiological Measurement

An MRI-compatible hand sensory vibrotactile system

Autism is a neurological and and developmental disorder caused due to malfunction in brain development. It is an emerging field in child psychiatry in the world. Moreover in developing countries like India there is a need for awareness regarding autism among the medical professionals. The proposed research was to investigate variation in the physiological parameters between autism and normal children. Eighty Indian Children subjects (40 Normal and 40 Autism) from a special school participated voluntarily in this study with age group ranging from 8–13 years. Photoplethysmograph (PPG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) signal were recorded during mental task through clue cards with visual like alphabets, numbers, fruits, colors, and animals. The experiment was performed during the forenoon session for both normal and autism children. The task performance is measured by calculating the error of commission and omission. PPG and GSR signal are pre-processed, and dicrotic notch, heart rate (HR) and GSR feature are extracted from the acquired signal. The nonparametric Mann- Whitney-U tests were performed. The heart rate, dicrotic notch, and GSR were significantly (p&lt;0.05) high for the autism group when compared to control children. The current study result implies that PPG and GSR signals recorded for the autistic children are high in comparison with normal children. © 2015, Scientific Publishers of India. All rights reserved.

Department of Integrative Biology

School of Bio Sciences and Technology

Biomedical Research (India)

Analysis of physiological signal variation between autism and control group in south indian population

Biofouling is a critical concern in several environmental conditions and hence significant economic resources have been dedicated to the development of effective biofouling monitoring and preventive strategies. The present study focused on isolation, characterization and evaluation of compounds from various medicinal and common plants and seaweed which are found to be inhibiting biofilm formation, using FTIR and GC-MS. The solvent extracts were scanned by using the KBr pellet method and the characteristic peaks were detected. For GC-MS analysis, ethanol, chloroform, ethyl acetate, water and methanol extracts were used. The compound detection employed the NIST Ver. 2.0 library.The FTIR spectrum confirmed the presence of functional groups such as carbonyls, amines, alcohol, alkene and aromatic compounds in different plant and seaweed extracts. The results of the GC-MS analysis provided different peaks determining the presence of several compounds with different therapeutic activities. Thus this study creates a platform to screen many bioactive components to act as a biofouling agent. © 2015, Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology

Characterization of antibacterial compounds from plants by FTIR and GC-MS analyses

ABSTRACTDirect Methanol Fuel Cell, DMFC, technology, can be used for fabrication of sensors for volatile organic compounds like alcohols. A fundamental limitation in DMFC is methanol crossover. In this process methanol diffuses from the anode through the electrolyte to the cathode, where it reacts directly with the oxygen and produces no electrical current from the cell. This also results in poisoning of the cathode catalysts. The designed and fabrication of the sensor is by means of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication technology with electrochemical inputs. To achieve this we have used a passive mode design protocol using COMSOL Multiphysics. The design and simulation would involve optimization of various parameters, in the construction of the cell. We can optimize the overall power density and hence the sensitivity of the sensor by the modification of various parameters like the area of the working electrodes, separation distance and the electrode-electrolyte interface. A passive mode design protocol, for a cm cell area, using various parametric functions, and interfacing Darcy’s law of fluidic flow through a porous medium, under specific pressure and temperature, was applied. The designing involves the construction of gas diffusion layers using carbon cloth for anode and cathode with various parametric variations. Nafion membrane was selected as proton exchange membrane for the construction with different interface structure to analyze the sensor’s performance. Platinum and various alloy catalysts like Pt-Ru, Pt-Fe, Pt-Sn and Pt-Mo was chosen as the working catalysts. The parametric functions of the cell were optimized for ampherometric detection. It is proposed to design a MEMS based sensor with microfludic interconnects and its response characteristics will be studied.

VIT Unitversity

MRS Proceedings

Design and Simulation of methanol sensing devices using DMFC technology

Medical sensor networks play a vital role for real-time health care monitoring of telemedicine based applications. Telemedicine provide specialized healthcare consultation to patients in remote locations. We use electronic information and communication technologies to provide and support healthcare when the distance separate the participants. In order to ensure the privacy and security of patient's critical health information, it is essential to provide efficient cryptography scheme. This paper presents a novel Mamdani based Bio-Key Management (MBKM) technique, which assures real time health care monitoring without any overhead. We present the simulation results to show that the proposed MBKM scheme can achieve greater security in terms of performance metrics such as False Match Rate (FMR), False Non Match Rate (FNMR), and Genuine Acceptance Rate (GAR) than other recent existing approaches. © 2015 IEEE.