New Wireless Strain Gauge Module

January 26, 2012

Shimmer Research, a leader in wearable wireless sensing is launching a Strain Gauge module to add to its extensive range of wireless sensing capabilities for the Shimmer platform.

The Shimmer Strain Gauge is ideal for all load, weight, force, torque, and pressure measurements through the connection of a user-supplied strain gauge load cell. The Strain Gauge module detects variance in resistance values when force is applied to the load cell. The Strain Gauge expansion module contains a bridge amplifier, excitation source, and connector or wire soldering points enabling force measurement with Shimmer.

Keeping with Shimmer’s focus on wearable sensing, the unit is small (53mmx32mmx23mm), and lightweight (29 grams), allowing for measurements free from wired constraints and enabling the wearer to perform their natural range of motion. With the ability to stream direct to a host device without the need for an intermediate receiving unit, and the option to act as an autonomous data logger, the Shimmer Strain Gauge allows for measurement outside of a dedicated lab setting.

Image illustrates the Shimmer Strain Gauge connected to a Futek Grip and Pinch Load Cell

The Strain Gauge will be particularly useful to customers focusing on Strength Capacity, Rehabilitation, Muscular-skeletal Clinical Research, and Sports Training. Keeping in line with our open source philosophy the Strain Gauge provides raw data, with no proprietary software or predefined analysis parameters to allow the user to interpret and analyse data specific to their application requirements.

The Strain Gauge module is supported in the Shimmer LabVIEW Library and the ShimmerConnect applications. Driver and test application code are available in the TinyOS Sourceforge/Googlecode repositories, with a user manual available to new and existing customers via the download section of the website.

There is a limited number of Strain Gauge modules presently available – and the module can be purchased via our online store. For further information contact us via info@shimmer-research.com

Watch the Strain Gauge Tutorial – or skip to the 4.25 mark to see the Strain Gauge Streaming data in real-time.

Visit the product page:

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Coming Soon – Shimmer Solutions

October 25, 2011

New Shimmer Applications and Solutions

Shimmer Research will soon launch ‘Shimmer Solutions’ via our website and online store. Adding to our current range of Shimmer products, OEM, and consultancy services, Shimmer Research is now developing tools and solutions for specific end user applications.

What to Expect?

We will be adding a ‘Solutions’ tab to our website and online store that will offer tools and solutions to meet specific end user application requirements. The first solutions to be released will focus on the areas of multi-Shimmer management and synchronisation, closely followed by a complete suite of tools for motion analysis and complex motion sensing.

Whilst there will be new application specific solutions, we will still continue to develop generic platform tools and applications that will be made freely available to the Shimmer user’s community. Users can expect the release of a more comprehensive kinematic calibration tools, and support for an ECG feature extraction application in the near future. Work is also being carried out to provide supporting applications for MATLAB and Android.

Know of a Solution that Everyone Needs?

At Shimmer Research we have always looked to our user community to help guide the development of our platform. If you know of a potential solution that there is a real need for we’d be happy to hear from you. From Gait Analysis, Falls Detection, Muscle Fatigue, or Object Usage Tracking, if there is a significant need for a solution we are open to investigating the possibility of development.

Keep track of our website for the upcoming changes or sign up to our RSS feed to keep informed of announcements.

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ACM SenSys 2011 – Knee Joint Demo

Shimmer Research is very pleased to be attending the ACM SenSys conference in Seattle, WA next month. It is the 9th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems and is packed full of interesting workshops and keynote sessions.  Shimmer Research will be on hand to demo a ‘Real-Time Joint Angle Measurement’ Application. The demonstration will be taking place on Tuesday the 1st of November at 14.15pm as part of the mHealthSys workshop.

This application will form the basis for applications to assist medical professionals in the assessment of joint angles in areas such as monitoring of joint disorders and rehabilitation programs. For the purposes of this demonstration we have focused on lower leg joint analysis. From Sports Injury to Occupational Health accurate detection of lower leg joint disorders is crucial to the eventual recovery and rehabilitation of the patient.

About the Application

The lower leg joint application uses a single Shimmer 9DOF unit placed on each body segment of interest. For the assessment of a single joint, two Shimmers are required. Each Shimmer 9DOF unit contains a tri-axial accelerometer, a tri-axial gyroscope and a tri-axial magnetometer. The Shimmer unit transmits the data from each sensor axis in real-time to a host PC. A Kalman filter based algorithm derives the three dimensional orientation of the body segment from the streamed data to the point where a physician can see the data on the ‘Real-time Joint Angle Measurement’ Application.

The application implements the Joint Co-ordinate System standard of the International Society of Biomechanics to provide the angle of flexion, angle of rotation and angle of inversion for the joint of interest.

Shimmer-Research is excited by the potential of this application as a starting point for developers to realise more practical clinical applications. We are delighted to have the opportunity to showcase this application at ACM SenSys 2011 with a view to more applications of this nature being released in the future.

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Irish Student wins European Young Scientist Award with Wireless Sensing Project

Dublin Student Alexander Amini (16) was this year’s winner of the European Union contest for Young Scientists 2011. The competition which took place in Helsinki, Finland, was filled with aspiring young scientists from across 37 countries, but it was Alexander’s project “Tennis Sensor Data Analysis” which scooped the top prize.

The project which impressed the international judging panel incorporates wearable wireless sensing devices which were supplied by Shimmer-Research. Shimmer units are used to capture data from 15 tennis strokes in total, allowing coaches to assess the motion of each one in real-time. Included as part of the system, is Alexander’s own classification software analysing tennis motion data with accuracy levels of 98%. This application is particularly interesting as it is a major improvement on similar applications that already exist. Previously one could only measure two motion classes (forehand and backhand).

A Screen Shot of Alexander Amini’s Project

While this kind of application would be applicable to other sports it was Alexander’s particular interest in Tennis that compelled him to base his application around the sport. The application delivered by the young scientist works dynamically in a plug and play fashion as opposed to other applications which require the user to notify the application that they are about to hit a specific stroke. This coupled with the ability to offer real-time feedback makes it a novel and very effective system overall.

Alexander was awarded €7,000 in prize money from a total prize pool of €51,500 and is thrilled to have won the competition outright. He will now go forward to attend the London International Youth Science Forum and also plans to improve his application and algorithm by adding a chest sensor to the system as well as introducing mobile phone integration at some point. When asked why he chose Shimmer sensors for the system he maintained it was because of their small and lightweight form factor.

The use of Biosensors in sport has really begun to gather momentum of late –the recent release of Moneyball, staring Brad Pitt, a movie that highlights computer modelling of baseball player’s statistics to gain an edge makes it yet more topical.

We would like to congratulate Alexander and wish him every success with the further development of his application in the future!

If you would like to read more about Alexander’s project … please visit the project’s website: http://www.tennistek.webs.com

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Quantified Self – Shimmer Research Collaborates with Artists for Innovation Dublin

October 13, 2011

As part of Innovation Dublin 2011, Shimmer Research has collaborated with Dublin City Council’s The LAB Gallery and a number of artists to explore and develop the ‘Quantified Self’.

Working with artists Michelle Brown, Cliona Harmey, Saoirse Higgins and Bea McMahon, films, drawings, and sculptures were developed using the Shimmer’s wearable wireless sensing technology. Quantified Self is a theme that explores how people can capture, monitor, and interpret personal and sensed data to make better decisions and engage with their health, behaviour, environment and personal outcomes.

The exhibition will be held at The LAB Gallery, located on Foley Street, Dublin 1, opening with a reception on Tuesday the 18th of October from 6pm to 8pm. The reception will include a programme of events and a discussion curated by Rachel O’Dwyer, and is open to the general public. The Exhibition will run until the 3rd of December, and feature applications including Equine Dressage, Stress Biofeedback, and Heart Rate Monitoring.

For more information – visit the webpage.

About Innovation Dublin

Launched in 2009, Innovation Dublin is a Creative Dublin Alliance Project coordinated by Dublin City Council (Economic Development Unit) and  is partnering with eight cities in the north west of Europe to develop open innovation models through transnational collaboration, to maximise European level synergies and development potential in the knowledge economy.

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IEEE SENSORS 2011 Conference

October 5, 2011

Visit Shimmer Research at the IEEE SENSORS 2011 Conference from October 28th – 31st. The University of Limerick in Ireland is the venue for the event, and Shimmer Research will have a stand located at the main entrance next to the Registration Desk. We will have information, equipment, and some application demos at the stand throughout the event, and visitors will have the opportunity to meet with our engineers and discuss potential applications.

The IEEE SENSORS Conference provides a common forum for research scientists, engineers and practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research findings ideas, developments and applications in the area of sensors and sensing technology. IEEE SENSORS 2011 Conference will include keynote addresses by eminent scientists as well as Invited Speakers for the Topical Special sessions.

Visit the IEEE Sensors 2011 – Conference Website

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Shimmer Research and the University of Wollongong Signs Strategic Relationship

September 29, 2011

A strategic relationship has been forged between ACES and Irish wearable sensor company, Shimmer Research, which will lead to wearable bionic devices used post operatively to improve patient recovery times.

Further proof that the University of Wollongong’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Sciences (ACES) is at the Australian forefront of medical bionics was cemented yesterday (14 September) with the signing of a joint international collaborative research agreement.

Signing the formal agreement between Shimmer Research and ACES are Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Judy Raper and Keiran Daly from Shimmer. Watching on are Professor Peter Choong (St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne) and Professor Gordon Wallace

Patients undergoing treatments such as orthopaedic surgery will be able to reduce their stay in hospital by wearing sensors strapped to their bodies which will feed vital rehabilitation information back (via a software program)to the patient and hospital.

The collaboration brings together the new materials and fabrication expertise at ACES, with the wearable wireless communication technology of Shimmer Research. A leading company in its field, Shimmer Research currently ships products to more than 50 countries worldwide.

The Executive Research Director of ACES and Director of the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Professor Gordon Wallace, said that with input from ACES members (including world renowned orthopaedic clinicians from St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne) the agreement will allow work on building bionics devices that will improve the quality of life for a large number of elderly people and those recovering from injury.

“This is an exciting day striking up this collaboration which I believe will work very effectively,” Professor Wallace said.

His thoughts were echoed by Dr Keiran Daly, Vice-President of Business Development from Shimmer Research, who said the collaboration would be a long-term alliance that would have a tangible and direct impact for the quality of patient care.

ACES Associate Director of Strategic Development, Dr Bridget Munro, said the wearable devices would be used in post operative and diagnostic applications to improve patient recovery times, reduce hospital stay times and enable patients to be proactive about their own care.

“This will ultimately allow older people to live their dream of being healthy while living at home, reducing the strain on government resources,” she said.

Professor Peter Choong who is an international leader in the fields of musculoskeletal oncology and orthopaedic surgery also addressed the collaborative launch.

As well as his role as Head of Department of Surgery, Professor Choong is also the Professor/Director of Orthopaedics at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and Chair of the Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcome Service at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

He said that St Vincent’s was most enthusiastic to be part of this overall group highlighting how the need for orthopaedic surgery worldwide was growing rapidly.

“I am glad to be part of a team which is helping to solve a global health problem,” Professor Choong said.

Source: University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus News Feed - View Original Article


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EMBC Conference 2011

September 16, 2011

Shimmer Research was at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston this year for IEEE EMBC 2011. The event, which took place Tuesday 30th of August through Saturday 3rd of September was a roaring success and was full of exciting key notes and workshop demonstrations.

On Wednesday Shimmer hosted its own workshop in the Marriott Hotel inviting all attendees to come and see a full demonstration of the Shimmer platform and to ask any questions they may have. Presenting to a full house the workshop proved to be a very informative session for those in attendance and it gave users and prospective users alike an insight into Shimmer’s full suite of capabilities.

Shimmer team members were available to take questions as were Shimmer commercial partners Biosensics who gave a brief introduction into their Shimmer based PAMSys for activity monitoring and classification.

Alongside the main EMBC 2011 event, the organisers also hosted the first EMBC UnConference. Aimed at bringing people together in an innovative and unique atmosphere, the UnConference focused on the key challenges in the translation of technology from the lab to the field around wearable and ubiquitous technology for health and wellness.

The consensus from the full compliment of attendees was that the UnConference delivered on its promise, and is certainly a format and an event we would love to see again in the future. Shimmer Research was delighted to be involved by sponsoring the UnConference’s Wearable Technology Demo Competition, which attracted some excellent and engaging entries. We would like to extend congratulations all the entrants and to the eventual winners:

‘MusicGlove: A Music-Based Device for Hand Rehabilitation and Quantitative Assessment of Hand Function’ – Friedman, Nizan

‘The SWORD ambulatory rehabilitation system’ – Bento, Virg

The complete list of submitted abstracts can be found by clicking the following link.

Thanks again to all the attendees who dropped by our stand and we hope to see you all again soon.

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Shimmer Research attending EMBC 2011

August 26, 2011

Shimmer Research will be in Boston at the end of this month for EMBC 2011 at the Boston Marriott Hotel in Copley Place. The conference runs from August 30th through till September 3rd and various members of the Shimmer team will be available to meet at Booth 2, the Westin Copley Hotel (beside the poster session) as well as at many of the events taking place throughout the conference. The event itself is brimming with invited sessions, plenary lectures, oral and poster sessions as well as hosted workshop sessions.

Shimmer will be hosting a workshop session on Wednesday the 31st which will focus on biomechanics, wearable sensing and activity classification. All conference attendees are invited to join us and those attending the workshop will see firsthand the typical applications, capabilities and various ways to work with the platform from a developer’s standpoint. Sharing their real-world experiences on developing a Shimmer based application, Biosensics LLC will close the workshop presentations by discussing the process and challenges they encountered on the road to commericalisation.

Details for the Shimmer hosted workshop session – ‘An Open and Extensible Wireless Research Platform’ can be found by following this link.

Keeping in line with the level of bustling activity at this year’s conference, EMBC will host an Unconference on Wearable Technology at the Westin Hotel, Copley Place which Shimmer Research will be attending. It is concerned with addressing and overhauling the key challenges around the translation of technology from the lab to the field in the area of ubiquitous sensing technology and health and wellness.

The unique real-time nature of the Unconference format is very exciting as well as the Wearable Technology Demo Competition which Shimmer is delighted to be involved with. The video entries for this demo can be seen by clicking this link.

Look forward to seeing you there, and if you wish meet with us during the conference email us – info’at’shimmer-research.com, or send us a direct message via Twitter @ShimmerResearch.

EMBC Boston 2011

July 20, 2011

Visit Shimmer Research at EMBC Boston 2011

Booth Location
Shimmer Hosted Session at EMBC
Shimmer Research – Proud Sponsors of the EMBS Unconference on Wearable & Ubiquitous Technology for Health & Wellness
Shimmer Research – Proud Sponsors of the Wearable Technology Demo Competition

Booth Location

Our Booth will be located beside the poster area in the American Ballroom at the Westin Copley Hotel. We will be available throughout the show to meet attendees at our stand, demonstrate the Shimmer wearable sensor platform, and discuss potential applications in academic research, clinical trials, and project development.

To arrange a meeting with us during EMBC contact us via email: info ‘at’ shimmer-research.com.

Shimmer Hosted Session at EMBC

Shimmer Research would like to invite attendees at this year’s EMBC conference to join us as we host a session on wearable wireless sensing. Designed as a workshop, the session is open to all attendees that have registered for the conference, with no additional registration/payment required.

  • When:                           13.00 – 14.30, Wednesday, August 31, 2011
  • Where:                         Mariott 3rd Floor, Berkeley
  • Find out more:        Visit our Session Webpage for further details

What can I expect?

A live demonstration of building and customizing an application will be given. A Shimmer partner – Biosensics LLC- will also present and discuss their transition from research into commercialization based on a unique activity classification solution (PAMSys) developed on the shimmer platform. PAMSys (Physical Activity Monitoring System) provides a complete and comprehensive map of individuals’ physical activity including detailed posture classification (sitting, standing, walking, lying).

We hope you can join us and look forward to seeing you at the workshop.

Proud Sponsors of EMBS Unconference


Shimmer Research is proud to be sponsoring the EMBS Unconference on Wearable & Ubiquitous Technology for Health & Wellness – Tuesday, August 30, 2011. The purpose of the day is to bring together all those who care about addressing key challenges in the translation of technology from the lab to the field around wearable and ubiquitous technology for health and wellness.

With a highly innovate format the Unconference agenda/schedule for the day will be created live the day of the event – yes this works! The real time nature means that emerging developments can be discussed and new ideas and unfolding research can be explored.  Bring your ideas, knowledge and enthusiasm to this event and you will get a lot out of it!

The Unconference will be attended by some of the leading experts in the industry, and is being organized in conjunction with Kaliya Hamlin, one of the world’s leading experts in designing and facilitating Unconferences.

Being touted as ‘one of the best conferences you ever attend’ we are proud to be sponsoring (and excited to be attending) what promises to an extremely engaging and worthwhile event.

Details:

Proud Sponsors of the Wearable Technology Demo Competition

Shimmer Research is proud to be sponsoring the Wearable Technology Demo Competition at the EMBS Unconference on Wearable & Ubiquitous Technology for Health & Wellness.

The topic for the demonstrations will be to highlight wearable sensors and systems for medical applications. Participants are encouraged to submit a video of their demonstration prior to the event, with presentations on the day in speed geeking format. Two demos will be selected for an award as the most innovative and the highest potential impact demos. The awardees will receive a check for $500 sponsored by Shimmer Research.

Best of luck to all participants and we look forward seeing a video preview of the demos online.

Further Detail: http://embc2011.embs.org/unconference/submit-an-abstract/

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