Smart Wearable Devices for Medical Applications

First Speaker: Mr Riza Bashri (IMNS PhD student)
Title: Wearable Microwave Head Imaging for Medical Applications

Abstract: This talk will outline the development of a wearable radar-based ultra-wideband (UWB) microwave imaging technology. The project aim is to realise an almost real time detection of brain diseases such as cancer and stroke where microwave tomography methods are severely hindered due to their very high computational requirement. The proposed wearable imaging system will utilise several conformal antennas placed around the head on a cap-like structure. Compared to other research work on microwave head imaging, this system will have significant advantages since it would cover most part of the brain area due to the use of conformal antenna systems as well as removing the need for mechanical rotational platform to rotate the antenna around the head making it a very convenient imaging tool for patients. For our tests, an artificial phantom has been designed and is being fabricated using safe and low cost materials.

Second Speaker: Mr Fengzhou Wang (IMNS PhD student)
Title: Portable and Wearable Devices for Breast and Lung Cancer Diagnosis

Abstract: Microwave imaging for cancer diagnosis is a fast growing research area which works by detecting a tumor according to dielectric contrast between malignant and healthy tissues at microwave frequencies. The talk will describe two detection systems based on UWB frequency antenna arrays: the first a robotic-station based on a single antenna-pattern; the other based on a wearable antenna array. The detection of breast and lung cancers is being investigated in this research. Completed work on the development of a mould-based artificial phantom for breast cancer detection will be presented, as well as details of a more realistic human chest phantom currently being developed using a combination of 3D printing and microfluidics technology.