This paper presents a novel, wearable navigation system for visually impaired and blind pedestrians that combines a global positioning system (GPS) for user outdoor localization and tactile-foot stimulation for information presentation. Real-time GPS data provided by a smartphone are processed by dedicated navigation software to determine the directions to a destination. Navigational directions are then encoded as vibrations and conveyed to the user via a tactile display that inserts into the shoe. The experimental results showed that users were capable of recognizing with high accuracy the tactile feedback provided to their feet. The preliminary tests conducted in outdoor locations involved two blind users who were guided along 380–420 m predetermined pathways, while sharing the space with other pedestrians and facing typical urban obstacles. The subjects successfully reached the target destinations. The results suggest that the proposed system enhances independent, safe navigation of blind pedestrians and show the potential of tactile-foot stimulation in assistive devices.

The huge spreading of Internet of things (IoT)-oriented modern technologies is revolutionizing all fields of human activities, leading several benefits and allowing to strongly optimize classic productive processes. The agriculture field is also affected by these technological advances, resulting in better water and fertilizers’ usage and so huge improvements of both quality and yield of the crops. In this manuscript, the development of an IoT-based smart traceability and farm management system is described, which calibrates the irrigations and fertigation operations as a function of crop typology, growth phase, soil and environment parameters and weather information; a suitable software architecture was developed to support the system decision-making process, also based on data collected on-field by a properly designed solar-powered wireless sensor network (WSN). The WSN nodes were realized by using the ESP8266 NodeMCU module exploiting its microcontroller functionalities and Wi-Fi connectivity. Thanks to a properly sized solar power supply system and an optimized scheduling scheme, a long node autonomy was guaranteed, as experimentally verified by its power consumption measures, thus reducing WSN maintenance. In addition, a literature analysis on the most used wireless technologies for agri-food products’ traceability is reported, together with the design and testing of a Bluetooth low energy (BLE) low-cost sensor tag to be applied into the containers of agri-food products, just collected from the fields or already processed, to monitor the main parameters indicative of any failure or spoiling over time along the supply chain. A mobile application was developed for monitoring the tracking information and storing conditions of the agri-food products. Test results in real-operative scenarios demonstrate the proper operation of the BLE smart tag prototype and tracking system.

The demand for wearable devices to measure respiratory activity is constantly growing, finding applications in a wide range of scenarios (e.g., clinical environments and workplaces, outdoors for monitoring sports activities, etc.). Particularly, the respiration rate (RR) is a vital parameter since it indicates serious illness (e.g., pneumonia, emphysema, pulmonary embolism, etc.). Therefore, several solutions have been presented in the scientific literature and on the market to make RR monitoring simple, accurate, reliable and noninvasive. Among the different transduction methods, the piezoresistive and inertial ones satisfactorily meet the requirements for smart wearable devices since unobtrusive, lightweight and easy to integrate. Hence, this review paper focuses on innovative wearable devices, detection strategies and algorithms that exploit piezoresistive or inertial sensors to monitor the breathing parameters. At first, this paper presents a comprehensive overview of innovative piezoresistive wearable devices for measuring user’s respiratory variables. Later, a survey of novel piezoresistive textiles to develop wearable devices for detecting breathing movements is reported. Afterwards, the state-of-art about wearable devices to monitor the respiratory parameters, based on inertial sensors (i.e., accelerometers and gyroscopes), is presented for detecting dysfunctions or pathologies in a non-invasive and accurate way. In this field, several processing tools are employed to extract the respiratory parameters from inertial data; therefore, an overview of algorithms and methods to determine the respiratory rate from acceleration data is provided. Finally, comparative analysis for all the covered topics are reported, providing useful insights to develop the next generation of wearable sensors for monitoring respiratory parameters.

In this study, a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) energy model is proposed by defining the energy consumption at each node. Such a model calculates the energy at each node by estimating the energy of the main functions developed at sensing and transmitting data when running the routing protocol. These functions are related to wireless communications and measured and compared to the most relevant impact on an energy standpoint and performance metrics. The energy model is validated using a Texas Instruments CC2530 system-on-chip (SoC), as a proof-of-concept. The proposed energy model is then used to calculate the energy consumption of a Multi-Parent Hierarchical (MPH) routing protocol and five widely known network sensors routing protocols: Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV), Dynamic Source Routing (DSR), ZigBee Tree Routing (ZTR), Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH), and Power Efficient Gathering in Sensor Information Systems (PEGASIS). Experimental test-bed simulations were performed on a random layout topology with two collector nodes. Each node was running under different wireless technologies: Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy, and LoRa by WiFi. The objective of this work is to analyze the performance of the proposed energy model in routing protocols of diverse nature: reactive, proactive, hybrid and energy-aware. Experimental results show that the MPH routing protocol consumes 16%, 13%, and 5% less energy when compared to AODV, DSR, and ZTR, respectively; and it presents only 2% and 3% of greater energy consumption with respect to the energy-aware PEGASIS and LEACH protocols, respectively. The proposed model achieves a 97% accuracy compared to the actual performance of a network. Tests are performed to analyze the consumption of the main tasks of a node in a network.

In recent years, the growing number of vehicles on the road have exacerbated issues related to safety and traffic congestion. However, the advent of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) holds the potential to transform mobility, enhance traffic management and safety, and create smarter, more interconnected road networks. This paper addresses key road safety concerns, focusing on driver condition detection, vehicle monitoring, and traffic and road management. Specifically, various models proposed in the literature for monitoring the driver’s health and detecting anomalies, drowsiness, and impairment due to alcohol consumption are illustrated. The paper describes vehicle condition monitoring architectures, including diagnostic solutions for identifying anomalies, malfunctions, and instability while driving on slippery or wet roads. It also covers systems for classifying driving style, as well as tire and emissions monitoring. Moreover, the paper provides a detailed overview of the proposed traffic monitoring and management solutions, along with systems for monitoring road and environmental conditions, including the sensors used and the Machine Learning (ML) algorithms implemented. Finally, this review also presents an overview of innovative commercial solutions, illustrating advanced devices for driver monitoring, vehicle condition assessment, and traffic and road management.