Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society of the IEEE

Washington, DC / Northern Virginia Chapter

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Past Event Details

March 2009

AnthroTronix, Inc. iGlove/AcceleGlove™:

As discussed during a recent IEEE EMBS lecture, AnthroTronix, Inc. is preparing to release an instrumented glove product. Developed with SBIR grants from the U.S. Army and Department of Education, the AcceleGlove™ instrumented gesture recognition glove is the iGlove for DoD/NIH applications. The iGlove is a low cost gesture recognition system based on patented accelerometer technology detecting the individual motions of the finger, hand, wrist, and arm. The iGlove is being further refined under a grant from the National Institutes of Health to assist with physical therapy, and the Office of Naval Research for robot control and military communications. The iGlove, as a robot controller, uses the natural movements of the operator’s hand/arm as the input device to control both the movement of a robot itself, as well as the movement of ancillary devices such as grasping and lifting arms. US Patent is pending. For further details on purchasing an iGlove, contact AnthroTronix Inc,

IEEE EMBS Administrative Meeting for 2009

The Washington DC/Northern Virginia chapter of IEEE EMBS elected officers for the 2009 calendar year; the meeting was held on December 9, 2008.

Innovative Next-Generation Remote Health Monitoring and Alerting
Ms. Cindy Crump

Abstract: Wearable wireless monitors, combined with powerful analysis software and global networks are showing enormous potential to improve the lives of the aging and other high-risk populations.  Continuous 24/7 remote monitoring of patients in the home, outpatient rehabilitation, and institutional long term care will fill the gaps between office visits and provide a true safety net for individuals with chronic issues.
Practitioners raise a number of practical questions that need to be answered.  How would a monitor be made that is effective, non-intrusive and attractive so that my patients will want to wear it 24/7?  Can I incorporate a monitor into a therapy program as a real-time feedback loop? These are some of the questions that come to mind.
These and other questions are being addressed in two studies sponsored by National Institute of Health (NIH) and Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA).  The DARPA work is entitled "Non-Intrusive Health Monitoring for Post-Battle Wellness Management" being conducted by AFrame Digital, Inc. under a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract.  In Phase I, it was shown that advanced analysis of multiparameter time-series data and a Bayesian network can provide highly predictive qualities for medical support systems, while generating fewer false alarms.  The NIH study is entitled "Non-intrusive Locomotion and Gait Stability Analysis Monitoring System for the Elderly".  This is an SBIR Phase I project to determine the feasibility of using non-intrusive, wearable monitors to derive gait analysis parameters in real-time during normal activities of daily living.  The goal is to alert caregivers to deterioration in the gait stability of individuals and detect falls automatically with minimal false alarms.

Speaker:  Ms. Cindy Crump founder and CEO of AFrame Digital, Inc. Falls Church VA, is a research-based health technology company developing novel wireless remote health monitoring applications to address the needs of elders and other at-risk populations.  
Prior to starting AFrame Digital, Cindy worked for over 20 years in the network technology industry, dividing her time between financial institutions, network service providers, and network equipment manufacturers. Most recently Cindy was responsible for all Federal Sector and North America as the Sales Director for Caspian Networks where she signed the largest deal in the company's history at the time with the DoD and Northrop-Grumman.  Prior to that, she worked directly for the founder of Caspian Networks.  Cindy also held executive level positions with MCI Metro leading the Information Systems Development and Production Systems Operations divisions.  Cindy was also Sr. Director, Systems Development, Finance and Trading Systems at Freddie Mac where her teams delivered state of the art trading room systems and financial services for Freddie Mac, Wall Street and 4000 financial institutions.  Cindy holds an M.A. in Economics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a B.A. in Economics from George Mason University.

Meeting held September 16, 2008.

Applications and Demonstration of Lightglove, A New User Interface
Bruce Howard

Abstract:  Lightglove is a new technology worn underneath the wrist that optically images the shape of the hand in real time. Narrow beams of IR scan the hand, and reflections are sensed in the Lightglove. Solid state accelerometers and gyroscopes track hand motion, completing a Virtual Reality Glove function without a physical glove. The resulting data sets are transmitted wirelessly (Bluetooth) to a host computer, entertainment center or smart-home controller. A device driver synthesizes user actions from glove-hand emulations of mouse, joystick, gaming controller and keyboard functions.

Advantages of a virtual (non-contact) controller result from Lightglove's action sensing any size or shape hand comfortably and basing inputs on changes in the hand shape to detect natural intuitive gestures as though there were a physical device in or below the hand. Examples include dropping a finger down to press a mouse or keyboard button, operating the thumb as a joystick or moving the hand to direct cursor motion. Intuitive gestures may be extended to include raising or lowering the hand to raise or lower TV volume or a light dimmer. The hands may operate in any comfortable position or orientation, and may change over time to mitigate repetitive stress injury. Action trigger points may be adjusted to offer tight, fast dexterous control for 3D drawing or flight stick operation, or loose, slower input for hand-challenged or tired users and offers advanced features like processing out tremors.

The presentation will feature a hands on demonstration and a discussion of medical applications.  Pizza and light refreshments will be served.

Speaker:  Bruce Howard , Co-founder/Chief Technical Officer of Lightglove Corporation

Mr. Howard has over 22 years experience in hardware systems design and support for several prominent manufacturers. His technical expertise is concentrated in the areas of radio communications and electromagnetic interference. As an electrical engineering manager, he oversaw the design and testing of various pieces of equipment for the military, federal government, and NASA. In addition to his hardware expertise, he was responsible for both product-embedded and test software. He designed and prototyped all hardware and has written and debugged all the software and firmware associated with the Lightglove. He wrote all 4 patents for Lightglove technology. He has been involved with optical design since his undergraduate work at Virginia Tech (VPI-80), where he earned a BS in Electrical Engineering.

Having established himself as an effective leader, Mr. Howard spearheaded numerous successful teams during his career. Notable contributions include planning and execution of an EMI program for air traffic controller terminals for the FAA at Harris Electronics and establishing and maintaining electromagnetic compliance for Space Shuttle communication and telemetry modules at TRW.

Meeting held June 12, 2008.

Design for Reliability: Uncovering Elegant Solutions

This seminar was co-sponsored with IEEE Women in Engineering.

Abstract:  Is your organization is making too many specification changes? Too many design changes? Then this presentation is for you. It covers the art and science of nipping the potential system failures in the concept design, when the ROI is the highest. Examples from aerospace, medical, and automotive industry will be presented to show how thinking outside the box can yield to elegant and efficient solutions. A case history of a company that was rescued from going out of business will be covered to demonstrate the power of a reliable design.

Speaker:  Dev Raheja, a new product engineering consultant since 1981, dedicated to the Design Assurance Technologies, is Chairman of IEEE Design for Reliability Committee. He is the author of the books "Assurance Technologies Principles and Practices" and "Zen and the Art of Breakthrough Quality" His range of consulting encompasses automotive, aerospace, medical systems, defense systems, consumer products and high tech manufacturing.

Being a true international consultant, he has conducted training in several countries including Sweden Australia, Japan, Germany, UK, Singapore, Taiwan,South Africa, and Brazil. His clients include NASA, GM, Boeing, FDA, Siemens Medical Systems, Johnson & Johnson, Karl Zeiss, Nissan, Litton, General Dynamics, ITT, BAE Systems, Lockheed-Martin, IBM, Intel, Harley-Davidson, United Technologies, and the U.S. Government. Dev successively served as an executive with Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc., General Electric Health Care Systems, and Cooper Industries.

Meeting held May 20, 2008.


Spring Symposium 2008
Technology for the Golden Years: Leading an Independent Life in the 21st Century
This interdisciplinary symposium held on May 10th, 2008, at the University of Maryland explored how robotic and sensor technologies can help an aging population have a greater degree of independence in their personal and professional lives.

(link to speaker presentations and related web sites)

Meeting held on May 10, 2008.

IEEE EMBS Administrative Meeting for 2008

The Washington DC/Northern Virginia chapter of IEEE EMBS elected officers for the 2008 calendar year; the
meeting was held on January 7, 2008.

Biomedical IP Challenges for Small Business and Government

Abstract:  Drawing from a wealth of experience in private practice, government work, and scientific research, Dr. Latimer will highlight the challenges of business and government involved in biomedical Intellection Property.  These challenges follow the life cycle of initial IP protection to the concluding FDA approval process.  He will also discuss the future issues and directions of Biomedical IP and conclude with a short question and answer session.

Speaker:  Dr. Latimer has been in private law practice since 2004. Prior to that, Dr. Latimer worked as an associate attorney at the Intellectual Property law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner in their Washington, D.C. and Reston, VA, offices, and as a law clerk at the Intellectual Property law firm of Oliff and Berridge in Northern Virginia. Preceding his career in the private sector, Dr. Latimer was a patent examiner in the biotechnology group at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, where he examined patent applications directed to gene expression technology.

Dr. Latimer's scientific background includes work in prokaryotic gene expression and protein biochemistry, as well as human immune system regulation. As a graduate student, Dr. Latimer investigated the molecular organization and structure of genes involved in activation of the carbon and energy source acetate by a methanogenic Archaea. His studies also focused on identifying the biochemical properties of enzymes involved in the activation pathway. As a post-doctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute's Frederick Research Center, Dr. Latimer investigated structure-function relationships in the regulation of activity of the immune response transcription factor NFKB.

Meeting held on November 8, 2007.

The Application of a New Magnetic Resonance Imaging Technique, Tissue Specific Imaging (TSI), to Brain Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract:  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is currently the method of choice for anatomical exams in the central nervous system, since it offers excellent soft tissue contrast. However, despite being very sensitive to even small tissue differentiation, it lacks specificity, making it difficult to uniquely associate MRI changes with specific underlying pathology.  The talk will discuss the application of a new anatomical MRI technique, Tissue Specific Imaging (TSI), to brain imaging in Multiple Sclerosis. TSI gives three images, one for each major brain tissue type (gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid). By combining the information from three images, instead of just one, TSI offers a new way to characterize tissue and lesions. The proposed technique is sensitive to early tissue differentiation, but at the same time is able to distinguish more advanced tissue damage, thus combining sensitivity and specificity in tissue characterization.

Speaker:  Vasiliki N. Ikonomidou,  Research Fellow, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD).  Vasiliki N. Ikonomidou received both the Diploma in Electrical Engineering and the PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Since 2003 she has been with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD), where she is currently a Research Fellow in the Neuroimmunology Branch. Her research interests include signal processing, optimization techniques, development and diagnostic applications of magnetic resonance imaging.

Meeting held on May 15, 2007.

Development of ZnO/SiO2/Si guided shear mode surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices for biosensor applications

Abstract:  Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is a material system with a highly reactive surface and offers
the opportunity for effective bio-ZnO interfaces, thus making ZnO an excellent
template for mass based bio-sensing applications. One of the critical steps in
developing such devices is to functionalize specific proteins onto ZnO.  In our
work, we have immobilized a pro-inflammatory cytokine, namely, (Interleukin6)
IL-6, in the range of 0.276 pg/ml-10 pg/ml, on the surface of ZnO and visualized
at each stage with SEM and AFM studies. The protein-protein interactions were
measured with the antigen/antibody immunoassay of solid-phase (Enzyme Linked
Immunosorbent Assayt) ELISA.
ZnO with a high piezoelectric coefficient is capable of generating very high
frequency (GHz) surface acoustic wave devices. We have developed a ZnO/SiO2/ Si
based high frequency guided shear mode surface acoustic wave device operating as
high as 1.5 GHz. The mass sensitivities of the system have been modeled and
experimentally verified.  We find that the mass sensitivity that can be achieved
in this system is more than double that seen in a Poly Methyl Meta Acrylate
(PMMA) guiding layer based device. This SAW system has been used to detect Il-6
in trace amounts of a few fg of mass.

Speaker:  Soumya Krishnamoorthy is a PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering at
the University of Maryland College Park. Prior to that, she worked as an analog
design engineer at  Applied Micro Circuits Corp (AMCC) in their high speed
transceiver group.  Her research interests include wide band gap semiconductor based biosensor
design, custom high speed analog, and Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC)
design.

Meeting held on February 8, 2007.

Investigations into the use of Hyperspectral Analysis Techniques to replace/augment the use of chemical staining in pathology

Abstract:  Hyperspectral data has enabled the remote sensing community to discern subtle differences (for example differences in tillage practices for soybean crops) in the nature and type of vegetation on the surface of the earth from airborn and spaceborn platforms.  We have been investigating using hyperspectral data sets of unstained tissue samples to generate images from which pathologists can make accurate diagnoses.  If successful, these techniques can be used to bypass/augment current staining techniques and provide interpretable images in a matter of minutes rather than the hours to days current staining techniques require.

Speaker:  Joe Kujawski currently works for Global Science and Technology building instruments for upper atmospheric investigations for NASA.  Some of his recent missions include an instrument to measure precision Electric Fields for the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) and an Fast Plasma Imager for the Magnetosphere MultiScalar (MMS) mission.  In addition to space instruments, he has designed equipment that was fielded to the Antarctic and worked on developing fiber-optic lasers systems for space-born remote sensing instruments.  He received his BSEE from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1992.

Meeting held on January 18, 2007.


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