Wearable Sleepcare Kit: Analysis and Prevention of Sleep Apnea Symptoms in Real-Time

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), although it is a common symptom for ordinary people, is a serious issue in that it can lead to chronic and degenerative brain disease. However, these sleep disorders and apnea symptoms are difficult to diagnose at home or to recognize and cope with severe apnea situations. In response to this, we developed a Sleepcare Kit, an integrated wearable device. The Sleepcare Kit is a wearable distributed system in which the PAAR band and the bio-cradle are combined in the form of a hot plug-in without pre-setting. The PAAR band serves as a gateway for wireless communication with external devices and adjusts initial setting values for various sensors of the bio-cradle. Bio-cradle continuously measures/stores multiple bio-signals (PPG/SPO2, respiration, 3axis-acc, and body temperature) and analyzes the signal data to determine sleep quality and emergency situation in real-time. Although it is a set of small wearable devices, the kit itself diagnoses sleep quality on a real-time base without any external computing assistance while he/she is asleep. Simultaneously, it analyzes the gathered hypopnea and apnea data in real time and calculates the apnea risk phase. Moreover, according to the apnea risk phase, it can inform the wearer or guardian about the danger through the smartphone or smart-speaker. In this paper, we will discuss the algorithm that is used for the detection of sleep apnea in Sleepcare Kit, as well as the software platform for continuous measurement and synchronization of various bio-signals in real time. Moreover, we evaluated the accuracy of the system by comparing the obtained results with the polysomnography equipment used in hospitals.

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DL-Tags: DLT and Smart Tags for Decentralized, Privacy-Preserving, and Verifiable Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management enhanced by the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions integrate special tags (e.g., RFID, NFC, and QR-codes) with products to create Smart Tags, in addition to storing supplemental information about a product, which is also used to track products during their lifecycle. However, a product consumer has to implicitly trust the Smart Tag creator and other stakeholders within the supply chain that they are providing authentic data within a product’s tag. The DL-Tags solution steps into this environment to offer a decentralized, privacy-preserving, and verifiable management of Smart Tags during a product’s lifecycle. The solution is based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) and uses the Ethereum blockchain to mediate interactions between the stakeholders during a product’s exchange process. By reaching a consensus on the product’s description and state logged on the blockchain, all involved stakeholders and product consumers can verify the product’s authenticity without revealing their identity. The paper describes the DL-Tags solution and includes a cost analysis of all implemented transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. The proposed solution provides evidence of the product’s origin and its journey across the supply chain while preventing tag duplication and manipulation. It is among the first documented practical solutions using DLT and IoT for supply chain management, which is designed to be distributed ledger agnostic.

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