Research in sensory information technologies and implementation in sleep disorder monitoring

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Strategic research is proposed in the key areas: 1. Innovative sensor technologies and information acquisition; 2. Information processing, fusion, and decision making using Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing (CC); 3. Optimization and power management, in information and communication technologies (ICT) and Mechatronics contexts. In the short term, technologies will be developed for an innovative wireless, wearable, light, fast, accurate, convenient, and low-cost device for sleep disorder monitoring in a home environment. The long-term objective is to extend the developed technologies to broader applications of health monitoring such as telehealth/telemedicine and homecare. The proposed research, product design, system development, testing, and evaluation all will be carried out in close collaboration with the industrial partner, Clinical Sleep Solutions, who has committed to commercializing the product. Portable devices are commercially available for Level III monitoring (obstructive sleep apnea). The proposed work will lead to a wearable device for Level I monitoring (the gold standard) of a broad range of sleep disorders (including central sleep apnea). The device will be incorporated into a scalable and flexible system framework of IoT, CC, and data mining. The proposed research will address several key issues: 1. Needed sensor technologies and their specifications; commercial availability; what sensors and hardware need to be newly designed and developed; characteristics of the sensor signals; and how is the sensory information acquired; 2. For signals from disparate sensors in different forms, what types of signal processing are needed, to make them consistent and to extract relevant information; appropriate decision making methodologies; how multi-sensor data fusion may be used to improve the decision quality and to diagnose sensor faults; 3. Suitable sensor network at the device level; how is the device powered; best design for the device with regard to both ICT and Mechatronics; design constraints. In view of many practical advantages, the developed technologies will have substantial positive impact on the quality of life, the healthcare industry, and the Canadian economy.