Health
FPGA for Healthcare and Wellness
AP041 »
Real-time analysis of medical diagnostics using AI is crucial in healthcare systems. Advanced sensors with deep learning networks need to analyze the diagnostics in set time constraints. The need for high-speed real-time systems is imperative. Generic computer architecture slows down this process. Using low-latency networks with FPGAs will decrease the analysis time by reducing idle cycles, and working on resource utilization. Digital image processing (DIPs) fares better on FPGAs.
Through time, FPGAs are increasingly being used for computationally intensive tasks. Image processing is one such task. To improve the performance of Digital Image Processing systems, it is necessary to implement them on hardware instead of software. FPGAs are inherently good in parallel processing because of the architecture. Incidentally, image processing tasks like feature detection and extractions are highly parallelizable-which makes FPGAs the ideal candidates for this task. We have seen how the healthcare systems had been overwhelmed during the pandemic. Early detection plays a crucial role during the onslaught of highly contagious diseases. Containment and early diagnosis can reduce the losses inflicted during a pandemic. Using the FPGAs and cloud storage, the team can create a robust image detection system to detect the presence of the disease, and use the cloud to distribute relevant information to the concerned doctors. Image detection with CT, MRI, X-Ray scans helps in detecting the disease earlier instead of later. The same image detecting algorithm can be used for similar respiratory diseases that have overlapping symptoms, with minimal changes. Additionally, the cloud ensures that data from across the world is shared with the relevant specialists-removing barriers in healthcare. The accelerometers and sensors will be used to get general information about the body which is important for overall health; for example- temperature sensors to detect temperature, accelerometers for gait analysis and mobility(mobility and gait are important factors to ensure the health and well-being of older patients- fall risk assessment and balance evaluation being a few examples) etc. All the sensors will be used to monitor important aspects of the patient’s health.
This project is a step towards a broad spectrum well-being platform for patients from all walks of life, making healthcare more accessible among the masses.
Food Related
SmartCook
AP042 »
Cooking is a strenuous, complex, and tedious process. We often tend to keep something to cook and forget. And sometimes when just beginning to learn cooking we don't exactly know that which dish takes what time to cook. Whatever the case, these result in the charring of the food in simpler cases and kitchen fires in the more appalling ones. So why not make it more advanced and simple for the user by automating it? The project idea focuses on the development of a product that will act as a monitoring and alert system for cooking processes. Though there are many existing products like automatic rice cookers, microwave ovens, etc. But all of them are application-specific, bulky, and expensive. There are also hazards associated with many of them thus making the user skeptical about using them. Our product is an add-on plug-and-play device that you can use with any of your existing utensils, thus making it a cheaper, more user-friendly, and versatile option. The design of the clipper is one of its unique features which have been applied for a patent. The uniquely designed clipper will have an in-built microcontroller and various sensors to monitor the food item being cooked. Depending on the sensor data and factors like the quantity of the food item, type, etc. the device will ring a buzzer to alert the user and also send a notification on the Smartphone. This will make arduous and complex cooking procedures simple for beginners. The user needs to plug or attach the device to the utensil in which they are going to cook the food item by simply clipping it on the wall of the vessel. Then, the user can select the parameters of the dish he/she wishes to cook from an app on the Smartphone. Then the magic of Internet-of-things comes into play. The device is all set to accomplish its task and will alert the user whenever the food requires attention, whether it is stirring in the middle, reducing the flame, or turning the gas off as the dish is ready. It will prevent unnecessary wastage of food due to getting burnt, prevent unfortunate fires in the household, and lead to a more comfortable experience for the user. Controlling the flame and auto-turning off of the gas stove is also an added feature that can be utilized as a part of cooking automation also allowing to remotely controlling the device. This device makes use of modern-day advanced technologies like the internet of things, automation, and furthermore like machine learning to make it more adaptable. The best part about the device as a solution to this frequent problem is not just its cost-effectiveness and simplicity of use, but sustainability and eco-friendliness. The device is powered by a small battery and does not consume a lot of power. It can further be made completely eco-friendly by removing the battery and using technology to draw power from the ambient heat around the stove which essentially gets wasted, enabling the use of a wasted energy form. It will be a great everyday product with all the households as target customers due to its price and ease of use.
Smart City
Realtime energy monitoring and reporting
AP043 »
This project aims to develop an always-on device that measures raw energy usage at the ingress power line (current, voltage), processing of this realtime data (PF etc.) and transmitting the processed data via WiFi to the internet or locally.
Scope is as below,
FPGA:
- Code that collects and process raw values from ADC.
- Code that interfaces with the ESP32
ESP32:
- Code that interfaces with the cloud
Server backend:
- Code that runs on the cloud that collects data from these ESP32s.
Frontend:
- Simple dashboard that displays current and historical energy usage.
Hardware scope is as bellow:
1. Analog interfacing circuit that interfaces the FPGA to the powerline.
Other: Forest (Biodiversity) conservation
Wildfire Prevention - Way to Conserve Biodiversity
AP044 »
Background: From past decade, ecological imbalance is causing huge impact on biodiversity of the planet earth. To ensure sustainable future for our next generations, biodiversity conservation is an important task. According to the FAO's Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020, the world has a total forest area of 4.06 billion hectares (10.0 billion acres), which is 31% of the total land area. More than half (54%) of the world's forests is found in only five countries (Brazil, Canada, China, Russia and the USA). One among the major reasons of ecological imbalance is caused by wildfires. Human caused wildfires (Global warming, Electric line & Camp fire) and Natural wildfires (Lightning, Thunderstorms & Dead trees rubbing) are the types of wildfires. The wildfires in the above listed countries have greater impact globally. Uncontrolled wildfires cause huge threats. Fast spreading wildfires take lot of time to combat and result in huge loss of flora and fauna of the particular region and thus cause ecological imbalance. On average, more than 100,000 wildfires clear 9-10 million acres (3.6-4 million hectares) of land in the world every year. In recent years, wildfires have destroyed 12-13 million acres (4.8-5 million hectares) of land. Furthermore, there are ecological, economical & social impacts as well. Wildfires also causes rise in Global warming & respiratory disorders. There have been lot of concerns and discussions regarding this recently and the researchers are still in the process to find effective and ecofriendly, cost effective approaches to prevent and detect the occurrence of wildfire. At present there are systems that are practically implemented to detect the wildfire. These systems successfully detect forest fire but are inefficient to prevent them in advance. These systems are failing miserably to combat wildfires. Hence there is a need to raise a concern regarding the prevention of wildfire by observing the climate changes in the region and monitoring the forests. We believe our approach to this problem helps in addressing this global concern to help conserve the rich culture of wildlife.
Other: Internet of Things : Home/Industrial Automation and Security system on FPGA with hardware acceleration
AI based Smart Home Assistant and Security System
AP045 »
With the rapid emergence of IoT-based technologies in the recent era, the need for high-performance edge computing to handle data and run AI-based algorithms has increased. The objective of moving the computation from the cloud to the edge devices for compute-intensive tasks, provides increased reconfigurability, low latency, and scalability. In this project, we use Intel’s DE-10 Nano SoC FPGA, by leveraging the ARM Processor to run Linux Server, Docker containers, etc., required to host the IoT system for the premise, we offload the AI-based object detection task from the HPC to the FPGA to accelerate it. The system design uses the ARM Processor to run the Linux Server and connect to the home network hosting the Home-assistant framework, NodeRED, Grafana, and other services. On the other hand, every switch box in the house is equipped with a Wi-Fi-based Custom ESP8266 based Relay switches running Tasmota firmware which is connected to the same network. Similar edge deployments are made for getting temperature, water level in tanks, etc., All these data are communicated to the Home Assistant server running on the HPC. Using Azure Event hub integration we send the data to the Azure IoT Hub. The security system consists of CCTV Cameras which are connected to DVR and using ONVIF the stream is captured in our application for object detection and processing. We use the FPGA for Accelerating the YOLOv2 object detection algorithm. We process the results and in the event of an intruder/vehicle/motion detection, the necessary alarms/lightings/or any other actions like email/SMS/mobile alerts, etc. can be set up according to the end-user requirements. The use of FPGA in this kind of security system allows to train new data sets for uses cases like but not limited to automatic distinguished detection of house members to perform actions like opening the garage doors/preventing false-positive security alarms/ lighting based on motion detection etc., We believe that by using SoC FPGAs especially DE-10 Nano, along with Microsoft Azure IoT, we would be able to accomplish a reconfigurable, scalable and low-cost IoT setup that can be deployed in real-time.
Water Related
Smart Water Conservation System
AP046 »
The project is aimed to improve water distributor's capacity so everyone can use water even during dry and drought season.
Food Related
Smart and Safe Livestock Farm Monitoring System
AP047 »
The project aims to provide real time counting and monitoring of poultry or livestock which are freed to graze on the farm's grass. Using FPGAs parallel execution, the system will be able to automate the farm operations. With image processing, the farm will also identify and alarm for any predators coming inside the farm such as snakes, lizards or wolves. The system will connect to Microsoft Azure where it sends those head count for real time information to the owner. The system will also connect to cloud services to get the weather conditions and keep the farm animals safe.
Water Related
Sustainable Aquaphonics
AP048 »
Singapore is a highly industrialized country which is one of the top countries with high population density. Trees and vegetation can be found in every block but is limited in every multi-storey residential building like HDBs and Condominiums. The projects aims to promote local hdb/condo residents to implement and improve their existing aquariums into a sustainable aquaponics which helps to reduce the carbon footprint and reduce the water usage.
Health
MANASIK SWASTHYA YANTRAM : SoC based mental health monitoring and recommender system
AP049 »
Mental and behavioural problems are increasing part of the health problems the world over. The burden of illness resulting from psychiatric and behavioural disorders is enormous. Although it remains grossly under-represented by conventional public health statistics, which focus on mortality rather than morbidity or dysfunction. The psychiatric disorders account for 5 of 10 leading causes of disability as measured by years lived with a disability. The overall DALYs burden for neuropsychiatric disorders increased to 15% in the year 2020. At the international level, mental health is receiving increasing importance as reflected by the WHO focus on mental health as the theme for the World Health Day (4th October 2001), World Health Assembly (15th May 2001) and the World Health Report 2001 with Mental Health as the focus.
Let’s consider Covid-19 pandemic situation, opportunities to monitor psychosocial needs and deliver support during direct patient encounters in clinical practice are greatly curtailed in this crisis by large-scale home confinement. Psychosocial services, which are increasingly delivered in primary care settings, are being offered by means of telemedicine. In the context of Covid 19, psychosocial assessment and monitoring should include queries about Covid-19 related stressors (such as exposures to infected sources, infected family members, loss of loved ones, and physical distancing), secondary adversities (economic loss, for example), psychosocial effects (such as depression, anxiety, psychosomatic preoccupations, insomnia, increased substance use, and domestic violence), and indicators of vulnerability (such as pre existing physical or psychological conditions). Some patients will need referral for formal mental health evaluation and care, while others may benefit from supportive interventions designed to promote wellness and enhance coping (such as psychoeducation or cognitive behavioral techniques). In light of the widening economic crisis and numerous uncertainties surrounding this pandemic, suicidal ideation may emerge and necessitate immediate consultation with a mental health professional or referral for possible emergency psychiatric hospitalization.
We believe that Big Problems have Simple Solutions. If someone is always monitoring you and giving you timely recommendations/suggestions it can help in a very positive way. In this project we are trying to solve this problem with a lot of positivity which is actually very important in anyone's life. Our project consists of a device connected to human body which consists of sensors which monitor different parameters from human body, gas sensor inside the living room to monitor the pollution/toxic gases in the environment, a recommender system which uses the captured images of human/video and uses ML algorithms uses Cloud and Cloud connectivity kit to monitor human behavior. Data from sensors and machine learning algorithms are put together and timely recommendation is given to the people.
Other: SGP-Sustainable Agriculture
Smart and sustainable agriculture using FPGA
AP050 »
“Farm at ease” (Technology to farming):
To meet the growing population of the world, some serious reforms are required in the agricultural sector to ensure that our food system is ready to meet the upcoming challenges. This pushes us to shift from traditional/conservative agricultural practices to sustainable practices. Further, these sustainable practices are integrated with technological advancements, the major challenges of the agriculture/farming across the world can be resolved in an efficient and effective manner.
The following are some of the key challenges posed by the agricultural sector:
1. There is a considerable gap between the adoptions of technology in the agricultural sector when compared to the non-agricultural sectors especially in third world countries.
2. Mismanagement in crop planning without the proper analysis of soil.
3. Overutilization/underutilization of fertilizers.
4. Mismanagement in irrigation and thereby the water scarcity/wastage may occur.
5. Delay in identification of weeds/pests.
6. Unable to adopt the best practices of agriculture in the other regions.
Proposed solution:
To address above challenges, we are proposing for a design of a system (IOT based with Mobile/Web application development/Message alert system) which will aid the farmer in the following way:
1. Crop recommendation based on the soil condition, climate and water availability of that region.
2. Automatic irrigation system depending upon the crop requirement.
3. Recommendation of organic means of agriculture practice in place of fertilizers to the most possible extent.
4. Disease detection in crops using image processing.
5. Recommendation/alert system will be made in a simple manner and if possible, voice instructions will be given in regional languages.
Design idea:
The above-proposed idea will be designed initially as a real-time prototype device where FPGA board will be integrated with sensors such as NPK sensor, humidity sensor, temperature sensor, water level monitoring sensor, etc., Further, a communication shall be established between the FPGA board and mobile phone using FPGA virtues, Azure cloud, etc., This prototype device will be tested in a real-time agricultural field and based on the feedback/recommendations of the user (farmers) a robust system may be developed in future.
Autonomous Vehicles
Enhancing Vehicular Safety Using Cloud Based IOT
AP051 »
In this project we propose to build smart vehicle monitoring and assistance systems using cloud computing in vehicular Ad Hoc networks. Increasing number of on road vehicles has become a major source of unintended accidents. Developing intelligent transportation system using cloud based connected vehicular networks can provide better estimate of time of arrival and localization matrix of vehicles in a given range of interest. We propose to build a safety enhancement feature to cater to accidents that occur due to random stoppage of vehicles and random opening of doors. Sensors will be used to detect and estimate events related to stoppage and door opening and create an event token. This event token will be correlated with the time of arrival and localization matrix of vehicles in a given radius of the vehicle from where the token was generated. Based upon this correlation a warning system and door enable disable system will be implemented to avoid collision. Additionally, temperature and humidity sensors will be deployed inside the vehicle to automatically or partially open the windows for maintaining proper air flow and ventilation.
Other: Agriculture
Pursuit Futurology in Smart Agriculture using FPGA
AP052 »
The proposed system is a system which will closely monitor the parameters of a field on a regular basis round the clock for cultivation of crops or specific plant species which could maximize their production over the whole crop growth season and to eliminate the difficulties involved in the system by reducing human intervention to the best possible extent.
We mainly have Two Blocks for this Project:
a. HPS (Hard Processor System):
Our system will take multi-inputs from multiple sensors such as humidity, light intensity, temperature and IR sensor and give those parameters as input to the HPS automatic training module (as initial values). For certain time the process of taking multiple input will be repeated over time. These will be an input to the HPS. Post processing the data will give as input to the FPGA part.
b. FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array (Terasic DE10-Nano FPGA)):
By taking the input data in HPS as input to the FPGA part of the board, the system will pre-process the data. Then, it compares both the data and make the result. The result will be sent to the display as a message
Our main aim of the Digital Farming is to improve agricultural yield and reduce potential environmental risks, while benefits are:
1. Water level sensing.
2. Atmospheric temperature sensing.
3. Atmospheric humidity sensing.
4. Detection of pest in the field and automatically start the pest repeller if pest is detected using IR sensor.
5. Suggest best measures to be taken by the farmer.
1. Water Level Sensing:
An advanced water level sensing sensor will be fixed in the field for monitoring the water level. Based on the information given to the system, our system will alert the farmer along with the water level percentage through message.
2. Atmospheric Temperature sensing:
A temperature sensing device will be fixed at the field for checking the temperature of the present atmosphere. Our employed FPGA will decide whether the atmospheric temperature is sufficient for field growth or not and send the information through message.
3. Atmospheric Humidity sensing:
An atmospheric humidity sensing sensor will be placed at the field for checking the humidity present in the atmosphere. The output of the sensor will be given as input to FPGA for checking humidity is high or normal for crops growing. Our system will send this Atmospheric humidity level to the farmer through message.
4. Detection of pests such as rodents:
Here using IR sensors detects the entry and exit of unwanted pests such as rodents.
5. Diagnosis and Suggest some measure to be taken by farmer:
After detecting the sensor inputs from the field, our system will send the actions to be taken and suggest some precautionary measures.
This project is divided into four phases: -
Identifying the appropriate sensor for measuring temperature and relative humidity. Temperature sensor to be used is RTD so that low-cost aim can be successful with best stability.
Design of controller using FPGA, sensor interface card, isolation circuit for input and output, output relay card.
Identify if there any pests enter into the premisses/field and take the necessary action if so.
Development of a user interface and the controlling software.
Since a FPGA(Terasic DE10-Nano FPGA) is used as the heart of the system, it makes the set-up low-cost and effective nevertheless. As the system also employs an LCD display for continuously alerting the user about the condition inside the greenhouse, the entire set-up becomes user friendly.