title: Hardware for seizure prediction: towards wearable devices to support epileptic people.
abstract: This paper presents the hardware developed for the EPILEPSIAE project (www.epilepsiae.eu), focused on epileptic seizure prediction. A portable low power acquisition system for EEG signals, called LTM-EU (Long Term Monitoring), with 64 channels and 2048 Hz sampling rate each and a safe (high isolation) PC interface on a PCIe bus specifically designed for this task, is described. The acquisition system, designed for a rapid commercialization, though used for research purposes, got the CE certification. The signal from the patient, on each channel, is amplified, converted in digital form and stored into a local flash memory (SD-MMC, 4 GB). Data are then formatted into a serial stream at 4 Mb/s and sent through a half-duplex RS485 link to the host where a specifically designed PCIe (BQPCIe) interface receive them and release the information to the OS (Windows or Linux). The amplifier runs with a couple of AA battery for more than 15 hours (300 mW). If a wireless link is established (Bluetooth), a bandwidth limited stream of data (or a subset of channels) is sent for monitoring purposes. The mission is to support the researchers of the consortium with a suitable hardware to have a real time seizure prediction system for algorithms tests. In the experimental phase all algorithms run on a portable PC, wire or wireless connected to the acquisition system.
authors.affiliation: Technical Director at Micromed SpA, Treviso, Italy.
authors.forename: Cipriano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Castellaro
authors.forename: Gianpietro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Favaro
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salemi
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarto
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rizzo
mesh_terms: D003020:Clothing; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation*