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Engineer explores underwater wireless communications

Engineer explores underwater wireless
communications
Underwater sea mines. Photo: Istock/Bruce Johnstone
(PhysOrg.com) -- Milica Stojanovic says the best way to think about the need for better underwater
communications is to consider the Titanic.
After the passenger liner sank in April 1912, its exact whereabouts remained a mystery until 1985, when
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s imaging vehicle finally located the wreckage.
When the robotic vehicle honed in on the craft, its success underscored a greater need for better underwater
communications, especially those that would require no cables. Wireless communications, signal
processing and detection underwater are the areas of specialty for Stojanovic, a newly hired electrical
engineering associate professor at Northeastern.
“When the Titanic sank, people knew approximately where it went down, but it wasn’t until Woods Hole
designed that small robotic vehicle that we knew the truth,” Stojanovic said. “When that robot was sent
down, it was attached to a long cable connecting it to a surface ship. The cables are very expensive and
heavy, and they limit the movement of the robot. There are applications that would greatly benefit from the
ability to communicate underwater without cables.”
Future applications could enhance myriad industries, ranging from the offshore oil industry to aquaculture
to fishing industries, she noted. Additionally, pollution control, climate recording, ocean monitoring (for
prediction of natural disturbances) and detection of objects on the ocean floor are other areas that could
benefit from enhanced underwater communications.
“Oceans cover about 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, and much of this vast resource remains to be
explored,” Stojanovic said. Unlike above-water communications developments, which have brought us
instantaneous cell phone conversations, wireless Internet and myriad other advances, underwater
communications lags behind.
Her research focuses on finding better ways of transmitting acoustical signals in hopes of improving
capacity to the point where underwater robots no longer have to be chained by a heavy, expensive
communications cable, but can instead transmit their readings to other robots, or to shipboard researchers.
“There is a need to improve the wireless communication capacity of underwater robots. Just think about the

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dangers of landmines. We also have underwater mines. We need robots that can find and neutralize the
mines beneath the water” without endangering humans, she said. “These robots need to be able to talk to
each other if they are going to perform their task efficiently.”
Yet, water puts a damper on communication capacity, slowing down the signal propagation and creating
background noise and echoes—all problems she trains her analytical mind toward solving. Among other
research areas, Stojanovic focuses her energies on creating clearer signals through “equalization” to solve
the echo problem.
Further research interests take her into creation of underwater networks. For underwater instruments to
communicate underwater, they must mimic the communication networks on land. Yet, the slow speed at
which signals travel would turn an underwater conversation into garble, she said. “If multiple people talk at
the same time, their signals will collide,” she said. “We need protocols that will orchestrate multiple
conversations.”
Stojanovic, who received her master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern,
began her research focus while working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution. She jokes that she “never surfaced” from her earliest underwater communications work.
Growing up in Serbia, she received her undergraduate degree at the University of Belgrade, and also met
her future husband. Together, she and Zoran Zvonar came to Northeastern to study electrical engineering.
Prior to joining the faculty, where her courses include undergraduate communications systems and linear
systems, she was a principal scientist at the MIT Sea Grant College and the MIT Department of
Aeronautics and Astronautics.
She has produced numerous published works, and most recently was a guest editor for “IEEE
Communications Magazine,” for the feature story “Underwater Wireless Communication and Networks,”
2009.
Reflecting on her career in undersea communications, Stojanovic said the passion found her. “I’m not sure
we ever decide what we want to be,” she said. “Things just happen that way.”
Provided by Northeastern University (news : web)
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may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Smart Home Testbed for Disabled People

ABSTRACT: Due to advances in technology, particularly wireless technology, the “Home of the Future” is now not
only a possibility but a reality. Smart home technology is a collective term for information- and communication
technology (ICT) as used in houses, where the various Multi-Agent Systems are communicating via a local network.
The technology can be used to monitor, warn and carry out functions according to selected criteria by the disabled
people. Smart home technology also makes the automatic communication with the surroundings possible, via the
Internet, ordinary fixed telephones or mobile phones.
This paper will take an in-depth look at smart homes. By doing this, we will define the term smart home, define the
logical reasons for using a smart home, explain the technologies that control a smart home, and explain the
applic ations used within a smart home.
Keywords—Smart Home, Elderly and Disabled Users, Social Issues, Assistive Technology.
WHAT IS SMART HOME?
mart home environments are an interesting development
and research application problem using Multi-Agent
Systems (MAS) for disabled people. A multi-agent system
(MAS) is a system composed of several software agents,
collectively capable of reaching goals that are difficult to
achieve by an individual agent or monolithic system. In the
Smart Home project we have designed a set of distributed
autonomous home control agents and planned to deploy
them in a simulated home environment.
IMPAIRMENTS COVERED BY SMART HOME
TECHNOLOGY
Smart home technology covers five basic impairments—
visual, hearing, mobility, cognitive, and normal aging.
Those who are visually impaired have devices in their
smart home that are voice activated, and those who are
hearing impaired have systems that alert them visually with
a touch screen. Mobility impairments cover not only those
who are in wheelchairs or use mobile assistance, but also
people who suffer from arthritis. In this case, devices which
are networked in the home can be controlled without
actually having to touch a button. Another way in which
smart home technology can assist those who are mobility
impaired is through the use of handheld PCs. In this case,
handheld personal computers can activate technology from
anywhere in the house. The PC then is networked to other
devices which it can control.
In this paper, we presented five major converging
applications in smart home like,
· Human-Machine interface,
· Door entry system,
· Environmental Control Systems,
· Rest Room & Lift Control.
Human-Machine Interface
A communication support interface controlled by eye
movements and voluntary eye blink has been developed for
disabled individuals with motor paralysis who cannot
speak. Horizontal and vertical electro-oculograms (EOG)
were measured using two surface electrodes attached above
and beside the dominant eye and referring to an earlobe
electrode and amplified with AC-coupling in order to
reduce the unnecessary drift. Four directional cursor
movements—up, down, right, and left—and one selected
operation were realized by logically combining the two
detected channel signals based on threshold settings
specific to the individual. Letter input experiments were
conducted on a virtual screen keyboard. As a result,
operatablility, accuracy, and processing speed were
improved using this method.
Door Entry Systems
The entrance to the smart home is a motorized door with an
electronic lock and a fingerprint scanner. Approved users
can open the door by placing their thumb on the scanner. A
welcoming message will sound from the speaker above the
door and the door will open. On the inside, a control panel
can be used to control the lights in the apartment. When
coming home, all lights can be turned on with a single key
press. Likewise when leaving the home there are no worries
about forgetting something when all lights can be turned
off at once.
In addition to buttons and control from the computer we
utilize speech control, a more natural way of controlling the
S
106 Mobile and Pervasive Computing (CoMPC–2008)
home. With a small, wireless handheld microphone the user
can talk to the computer and use appropriate commands to
control the devices in the apartment. After a command is
given, the computer will respond either by performing an
action or by giving vocal feedback from the several
speakers installed in the ceiling. The microphone has a
built-in locationing device, and the sound will follow the
user into whatever room he is using the microphone in. The
sound commands can be used to control lights, A/V
equipment and curtains and to ask temperatures, date, time,
location, etc.
Fig. 1: Speech Control
Environmental Control Systems
The different devices and sensors in the home are
connected to each other and the controlling PC with wired
serial links or wireless RF. The link is rather simple and
low cost; there is no need of broadband or complex data
transfer technologies.
Fig. 2: Windows and Curtain Control
In this paper, we make a division between smart home
technology, conventional installations and environmental
control systems, even if environmental control systems
strictly speaking are conventional installation. Environmental
control systems are most often operated by a remote
control, often through one command from the user resulting
in one response from the system. Environmental control
systems can be used without attaching to smart home
technology. If a network or a data bus is installed, the
integration of the two systems should be considered.
Conventional installations and environmental control
systems cannot monitor incidents in the house or effectuate
automatic actions, as the integrated smart home technology
can.
Rest Room and Lift Control
Using the rest room is part of everyone's daily routine, and
people usually do not think too much about it until their
routine is disturbed because they cannot see, move, hear,
understand or act as they are used to or would like to. This
can be caused by illness, an accident or, in most cases, by
simply getting older. Here we are aimed to develop a
prototype model for user-friendly rest room mainly for
elderly and persons with limited abilities, allowing them to
regain greater autonomy, independence, s elf-esteem,
dignity, safety, improved self-care and, therefore, enjoy a
higher quality of life.
This prototype model features some of the techniques
like remote control of the toilet by speech recognition in
addition to manual control (handheld unit), Fall detection
system to generate alarms if the user falls off the toilet and
cannot getup again. In this paper, we also proposed the lift
model controlled by voice and sensor control panel [7]. The
model is constructed by using controller with voice
recognition capability, programmable terminal and logical
lift program, which connect them all. This system is helpful
especially for disabled people.
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES WITH AMBIENT
INTELLIGENCE FOR ELDERLY AND
DISABLED USERS
Location Technology
Location technology has first and foremost been used in
globally, long-distance contexts like GPS-based GIS for
observation and control of natural resources, surveying,
military use, road finding and other geographically oriented
applications. GPS-based applications can only be used
outdoor, because of the satellite based location technique,
and give a precision of about 1 meter. Many disabled and
elderly users need to be precisely located for safety reasons.
Therefore, location technology for Ambient Intelligence is
mostly oriented to indoor use and with a much higher
precision [3]. This also opens up for completely new
application areas in education, entertainment, healthcare,
and other indoor activities, based in new concepts such as
tangible [4] and ubiquitous and context aware [5]
computing.
Emergency Calls/Alarm Systems
Alarm systems played a very important role in smart home
applications. However, the systems, existing so far, are
very often too complicated or not reliable enough.
Frequently the bottleneck lies in the triggering of the alarm.
Speech
Recognition
System
Electronic
Lock
Door
Command Input
over Voice
Microcontroller
Remote Transceiver
control
Stepper
Motor
Window/curtain
Smart Home Testbed for Disabled People 107
If the user has an accident (fall, injury, a fire, unconsciousness…),
there is normally no time or possibility to operate
a telephone or even an alarm button on her/his wrist or
around her/his neck. Although many useful alarm systems
and several research projects exist, there is still a large
knowledge gap on how persons react in a dramatic
situation, for instance, being in panic or having a collapse
or simply because they are in confusion or have memory
problems (not remembering that they wear an alarm
button). The best solution for this case is probably passive
alarms. Passive means a remote control based on polling
methods. For example, vital functions (pulse, blood
pressure, etc.) are read out in short time intervals using a
wrist transmitter with a probe. The information is sent to an
evaluation system, which automatically sends an alarm
signal to the emergency service station, in case of strong
deviations of standard values. It is important to state that
this type of remote monitoring has also many ethical
questions [6]. For this reason, it can be only acceptable for
specific cases in special conditions and it should be avoided
as a general solution.
Wearable Computers and Smart Clothes
Very small computers, which can be embedded in clothing
or carried in some other unobtrusive way, are essential to
the development of a flexible smart home infrastructure.
Carrying, somehow, a small, personalized device that can
communicate with the network infrastructure (home, office,
global…) can be very helpful to tailor the environment to
user preferences, and to help the user whenever this is
required. As an example, passive alarm systems (as
mentioned before) that fire when some set of biomedical
parameters are out of range and call a support center if
necessary are just a very simple example of a wearable
computer. It is clear that this area will greatly develop in
the near future as small more personalized devices
substitute current generation mobile phones, PDAs and
remote controllers. The possibilities that these types of
devices have for helping disabled and older users.
CONCLUSION
The degree of confidence in Smart Home technologies is
inadequate largely because lack of awareness and
understanding of its value. An integrated communications
infrastructure is the essential foundation in the efficient use
of Smart Home Systems. The housing developers should
incorporate affordable smart home features in their
developments. Smart home system designers and
manufacturers need to design system, which are cost
effective, reliable, flexible and adaptable using sustainable
technologies, open architecture and standards.
REFERENCES
[1] Kayama, K., Yairi, I.E. and Igi, S. “Semi-Autonomous
Outdoor Mobility Support System for Elderly and Disabled
People”, International Conference on Intelligent Robots and
Systems, 2003, pp. 2606–2611.
[2] Pingali, G. and Jain, R., “Electronic Chronicles:Empowering
Individuals, Groups, and Organisations”, IEEE International
Conference on Multimedia and Expo, 2005, pp. 1540–1544.
[3] Hightower, J. and Borriello, G. “Location Systems for
Ubiquitous Computing,” IEEE Location Aware Computing,
Aug. 2001.
[4] Ullmer, B. and Ishii, H., “Emerging frameworks for tangible
user interfaces”, IBM systems journal, Volume 39, Numbers
3 & 4, 2000.
[5] Want, R. and Weiser, M., “Activating everyday objects”.
Xerox PARC, Elizabeth Mynatt College of Computing,
http://sandbox.xerox.com/want/papers/ aeo-nist -jul98.pdf
[6] Abascal, J., “Ethical and social issues of the ‘teleservices’
for disabled and elderly people” in Berleur, J. and
Whitehouse, D. (Eds.) “The Ethical Global Information
Society. Culture and democracy revisited”. Chapman and
Hall, 1997.
[7] Intelligent control of the lift model Cernys, P., Kubilius, V.,
Macerauskas, V., Ratkevicius, K. Intelligent Data
Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology
and Applications, 2003. Proceedings of the Second IEEE
International Workshop on Volume, Issue, 8–10, Sept. 2003.

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