The pervasive healthcare system focus towards achieving two specific goals: the availability of eHealth applications and medical information anywhere and anytime and the invisibility of computing. Furthermore, pervasive health system encompasses new types of sensing and communication of health information as well as new type of interactions among health providers and people, among patients, among patients and researchers and patients and corporations.

This book aims at promoting the discussion on current trends in technologies and concepts that help integrate health monitoring and healthcare more seamlessly to our everyday lives, regardless of space and time, but also present cutting edge perspectives and visions to highlight future development. The book presents not only the state of the art technologies and solutions to tackle the critical challenges faced by the building and development of the pervasive health system but also potential impact on society at social, medical and technological level.

1;Guest Editorial;5 2;Contents;10 3;Pervasive Sensing and M-Health: Vital Signs and Daily Activity Monitoring;16 3.1;Introduction;17 3.2;Healthcare Challenges;18 3.3;Is Pervasive Health Monitoring Possible?;20 3.3.1;Smart Wrist Worn Device for Vital Signs and Motor Activity Monitoring;26 3.3.2;Smart Wheelchair for Vital Signs and Daily Activity Monitoring;30 3.3.3;Smart Walker for Motor Activity Analysis;35 3.3.4;Pervasive Sensing of Environmental Impact Factor on Health;36 3.4;mHEALTH;38 3.5;Pervasive Computing;52 3.6;Conclusion;56 3.7;References;56 4;Are Technologies Assisted Homes Safer for the Elderly?;65 4.1;Introduction;65 4.2;On-Going Researches on Smart Home Technology;67 4.3;Directions of Elder-Care;69 4.4;Technology Assisted Home Monitoring System;69 4.5;Wellness Determination of the Elderly;72 4.6;Human Emotion Recognition System;77 4.7;Practical Issues in Implementation;79 4.8;Conclusions and Future Works;80 4.9;References;80 5;A Large-Area Sensor System Underneath the Floor for Ambient Assisted Living Applications ;83 5.1;Introduction;83 5.2;SensFloor Principle;83 5.3;Capacitive Proximity Sensors;85 5.4;Presence Detection and Tracking;88 5.5;Smart Textile Fabrication;89 5.6;SensFloor Installation;93 5.7;Functions for Ambient Assisted Living;96 5.8;Results;97 5.9;Conclusions;99 5.10;References;100 6;Footwear-Based Wearable Sensors for Physical Activity Monitoring;102 6.1;Introduction;102 6.2;Sensor System;104 6.3;Human Studies;105 6.4;Models for Posture and Activity Recognition;108 6.5;Detection of Temporal Gait Parameters;111 6.6;Estimation of Caloric Energy Expernditure;116 6.7;Conclusions;121 6.8;References;121 7;Continuous-Wave Photoacoustic-Based Sensor for the Detection of Aqueous Glucose: Towards Non-invasive and Continuous Glycemia Sensing;124 7.1;Introduction;124 7.2;Continuous-Wave Photoacoustic (CW-PA) Procedure;126 7.2.1;Frequency Shift (FS) Protocol;128 7.2.2;Optical Power Balance Shift (OPBS) Protocol;134 7.3;FS+OPBS Combi ination;140 7.3.1;Comparison of t the Two Approaches;140 7.3.2;Creation of Linear System;141 7.3.3;Solution to Multi-parameter Problem;144 7.4;Conclusions;144 7.5;References;145 8;From Handheld Devices to Near-invisible Sensors: The Road to Pervasive e-Health;148 8.1;Introduction;148 8.2;Why Is a Sensor Network Important?;150 8.2.1;Wireless Sensor Networks;151 8.2.2;Body Sensor Networks;152 8.3;What Does a Medical Pervasive Sensor Look Like?;155 8.3.1;Major Design Challenges;157 8.4;Improved Pervasive Sensing with Wearable Bioimpedance-Based BSN;159 8.4.1;Opportunities of Bioimpedance Technology;160 8.4.2;EBI-BSN: New Perspectives for Bioimpedance Applications;161 8.5;Conclusions;166 8.6;References;166 9;A Universal Wireless Device for Biomedical Signals Recording;170 9.1;Introduction;170 9.2;Wireless Technologies - Selected Issues;171 9.2.1;Cellular Network Standards;172 9.2.2;ISM Networks;173 9.3;A Reconfigurable Device for Bioelectric Signal Acquisition;175 9.3.1;Non-invasive Methods for Assessing the Patient's Health;175 9.3.2;Wireless Recorder Description;176 9.4;Application of the Device;180 9.4.1;ECG Configuration;181 9.4.2;EGG Registration;181 9.4.3;EOG Configuration;182 9.4.4;Multi-parameter Bioelectric Signals Registration;184 9.4.5;Signal Quality Monitoring;185 9.5;Conclusions;185 9.6;References;186 10;Wireless Sensing System for Healthcare Monitoring Physiological State and Recognizing Behavior in Daily Life;188 10.1;Introduction;189 10.2;Motivation;190 10.3;Wireless Sensing System;191 10.3.1;Ear-Worn Temperature Sensor;193 10.3.2;Thermo-hygrom meter and Skin Temperature Sensor;194 10.3.3;ECG Sensor wit th Accelerometer and Thermometer;194 10.4;Application of System;196 10.5;Conclusion;205 10.6;References;206 11;Automatic Sensing of Speech Activity and Correlation with Mood Changes;207 11.1;Introduction;207 11.2;Detecting Speech Activity with an Accelerometer;209 11.2.1;Privacy Issues in Interaction Data Collection;209 11.2.2;Our Approach;209 11.2.3;Data Analysis;210 11.