A practical indoor tracking system should be accurate, affordable, portable and easy-to-use. However, most of the current tracking applications lack in at least one of these properties. To fill this gap, we present such a 3D tracking system. Built around two to four wireless Nintendo Wii Remotes, the system can simultaneously track up to four infrared LEDs carried by multiple users. The set up and calibration takes only a few minutes. A semiautomatic calibration method is used, where the user places the infrared LED marker sequentially on the four corners of a freely defined square in the tracking area. Within a cube with an edge length of 2.5 m, the system was found to be able to track both a static and a moving target with an accuracy of 3 cm. In addition to discussing the developed system, this paper presents computational methods for improving the positioning accuracy by altering the assumed optical centers of the Wii Remote cameras, which vary due to intrinsic differences in them.

This paper describes a design and implementation of a portable physiological signal recorder. The device is designed for measuring electrocardiography, bioimpedance, and user's activity. The bioimpedance measures the dynamic changes in the impedance, and its main application is monitoring user's respiration. Activity is measured with three-axis acceleration sensor. During the design, a special attention is paid on the device's power consumption and the target has been set to a 24-h operating time. Functionality of the implemented measurement device is proven with test measurements, which include, e.g., comparison of measurement signals against reference signals, testing the device operation under vigorous upper body movements, and during a light exercise. In order to verify the device operation during real-life activities, one full day, 24-h long, measurement is carried out. The measurement system is tested with both commercial Ag/AgCl gel-paste electrodes and custom-made textile electrodes. Device is proven to be operational with both electrodes, but textile electrodes are found to be more sensitive for movement artifacts. This paper also gives a small review of other existing portable and wearable physiological measurement devices and discusses some general requirements of these devices.

Speech is a natural form of interaction for people, and smart environments offer good possibilities for experimenting with new kinds of interaction with users and devices. Speech control can offer more intuitive and easy forms of interaction with the environment compared to traditional graphical or physical user interfaces. This paper describes the development, implementation and current ongoing work on a location-aware speech control and audio feedback user interface.

Accurate, simple and affordable methods for passive indoor tracking of human beings are still missing. In this article, we describe the development of an unobtrusive two-dimensional human positioning system based on low-frequency electric fields. The system's operation is based on measuring the capacitance between multiple floor tiles and a receiving electrode. The presented system is invisible to the user and uses a single-chip solution to measure the capacitances. The implemented system is evaluated with two different types of receiving electrodes and the results are presented. With the used tiles, the system can locate a standing human with at least 15 cm accuracy and track a walking person with at least 41 cm accuracy. The update rate of the system is 10 Hz.

In this paper we describe a simple, cheap, and unobtrusive demo system that can track multiple persons with low-frequency electric fields. The system's operation is based on measuring the capacitance between multiple floor tiles and a receiving electrode. The presented system is invisible to the user and uses a single-chip solution to measure the capacitances. The system was provided for hands-on evaluation for conference attendees with a 3.0 times 1.8 m floor space. The position and the track of the persons walking on the floor were projected on a screen. The floor of the demo system is divided to two different sections that are built of two different sizes of floor tiles to show how the tile size affects the positioning accuracy and the update rate of the system.

In this paper we describe a context-sensitive way to change an active mobile phone profile. We present a method to create a proactive and adaptive phone profile control system that automatically adapts the profile to the best alternative based on the current context. The adaptation is based on recognizing patterns of human practices, which may change over time. The control system is implemented with a fuzzy controller that supports reinforcement learning. The operation of the system is demonstrated with a mobile phone that is controlled by a PC. The PC lets a user to simulate the context parameters, and the phone works as a user interface for profile selection and display.

Modem fiber techniques have enabled the implementation of truly usable smart clothes, which can aid a user to manage in specific situations by improving the functionality of the clothing.,An additional electrical heating option in the clothing widens the operating temperature range of the garment and improves the protection against cold. This paper describes the implementation of the electrical heating prototypes 1 and 2. The implementation includes also a sensor shirt for physiological signal measurements. Usability tests are made with the electrical heating prototype 1 and the results from these tests are also discussed.

Wearable computing and ubiquitous computing are the latest solutions in mobile virtual reality. These technologies together with wireless data transmission enable both augmented reality and multimedia in mobile environments. Wearable and ubiquitous computing are energetically finding their position in the future information society. This paper describes the main requirements of modern mobile VR systems and also highlights the problems of the present systems. The approach is to focus on state-of-the-art mobile VR by describing three implementation cases from Finnish industry as examples of how to use these novel concepts as building blocks for a new economy. Future expectations and development in the field are discussed.

In order to guarantee the uniform quality of paper across the whole cross-direction of the paper machine, online measurements and control equipment related to different paper quality profiles are necessary. In modern paper machines, only the basis weight, the moisture and the caliber profiles are controlled by an online control system. However, there are several important profiles that cannot be easily measured or controlled directly. As an example, the fiber-orientation profile is difficult to measure online and, in addition to this, the control mechanism is not clear. This is mainly due to insufficient knowledge about the complex relationship between the orientation profile and the other profiles. Artificial neural networks (ANNs) can be used to model such difficult complex systems where only input-output data is available. In this case study the ANN methods are applied to the fiber-orientation profile analysis and its control. The same method can be used to control other profiles as well.