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Bioengineering
Special Issues
Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications
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Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications

A special issue of Bioengineering (ISSN 2306-5354). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosignal Processing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2026) | Viewed by 13286

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Milad Zamani

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
ICELab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark
Interests: integrated circuits and systems for biomedical applications; brain–computer interfaces (BCIs); neuromorphic computing; system-on-a-chip
Prof. Dr. Dante Mantini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Movement Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Interests: brain imaging; neural engineering; neuroinformatics; motor control; neurorehabilitation; wearable devices; biomedical signal processing; digital biomarkers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The healthcare industry has recently seen a rising demand for miniaturization, low power consumption, rapid treatments, and minimally invasive and non-invasive clinical methods. To meet these needs, researchers are exploring new technological paradigms that enhance diagnostic accuracy while ensuring patient compliance. Neuromorphic engineering, which utilizes neural models in hardware and software to mimic brain-like behaviors, can revolutionize medicine by offering low power, low latency, compact, and high bandwidth solutions. Implementing neuromorphic computing in wearable or implantable devices—where biological data such as cardiac or brain signals are sensed and transmitted—can significantly minimize power consumption, extend battery life, reduce device size, and add intelligent features to the system. Additionally, it enables quicker decision-making through edge computing (edge AI) and allows the system to learn and adapt independently of individual patients.

Therefore, this Special Issue on “Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications” will focus on original research papers and comprehensive reviews, dealing with circuits and systems techniques for intelligent wearable and implantable devices. A system such as this includes not only neuromorphic computing but also its interface and front-end design. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Bio-inspired and neuromorphic circuits and systems;
  • Spiking neural networks and temporal processing;
  • Brain–computer interfaces;
  • Emerging technologies for neuromorphic computation;
  • Implantable and wearable health devices and systems;
  • Biosensor and interface circuits;
  • Biotelemetry circuits and systems;
  • Bioelectronics;
  • Electrical stimulation, neuromodulation, and closed-loop systems;
  • Organic semiconductors.

Dr. Milad Zamani
Prof. Dr. Dante Mantini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Bioengineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bio-inspired and neuromorphic computation
  • spiking neural networks
  • biosensor devices and interface circuits
  • bioelectronics
  • biosensors
  • biotelemetry

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 19739 KB  
Article
Towards Wideband Characterization and Modeling of In-Body to On-Body Intrabody Communication Channels
by Matija Roglić, Yueming Gao and Željka Lučev Vasić
Bioengineering 2026, 13(1), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering13010042 - 30 Dec 2025
Viewed by 671
Abstract
Implantable intrabody communication (IBC) is a method that enables low-power, high-security communication between implanted in-body devices that could track biomedical signals and an on-body receiver by using the human body as a communication medium. As the human body consists of various tissues that [...] Read more.
Implantable intrabody communication (IBC) is a method that enables low-power, high-security communication between implanted in-body devices that could track biomedical signals and an on-body receiver by using the human body as a communication medium. As the human body consists of various tissues that each have different conductivity, this paper explores the effects of the conductivity of the communication medium on the channel gain over a wide frequency range from 10 MHz up to 300 MHz through the measurements and two models: an electrical circuit model and a FEM simulation model. Measurements are conducted using a liquid phantom with varying conductivity values from 0 S/m up to 1 S/m, covering most human tissues in the frequency range of interest. The circuit and FEM models are designed to mimic the measurement setup in order to verify the measurement results. Results show that the circuit model predicts the communication channel characteristics well at lower frequencies but cannot account for the influence of the measurement setup at higher frequencies. The influence of wire inductances, which can cause a resonant behavior when measuring at frequencies above 100 MHz, was observed using the FEM model. The results also show that the higher the conductivity of the tissue in which the device is implanted, the lower the gain of the signal, with the difference in gain being more prominent when capacitive termination with a high-impedance load is used instead of low-impedance termination. These findings provide valuable insight for selecting the appropriate interface (low-impedance vs. high-impedance termination) across specific frequency ranges for in-body to on-body (IB2OB) communication devices, while illustrating the effect of tissue conductivity on an IBC channel, thereby supporting the optimized design and implementation of reliable IB2OB communication systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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31 pages, 3819 KB  
Article
Accurate OPM–MEG Co-Registration via Magnetic Dipole-Based Sensor Localization with Rigid Coil Structures and Optical Direction Constraints
by Weinan Xu, Wenli Wang, Fuzhi Cao, Nan An, Wen Li, Baosheng Wang, Chunhui Wang, Xiaolin Ning and Ying Liu
Bioengineering 2025, 12(12), 1370; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering12121370 - 16 Dec 2025
Viewed by 785
Abstract
Accurate co-registration between on-scalp Optically Pumped Magnetometer (OPM)–Magnetoencephalography (MEG) sensors and anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) remains a critical bottleneck restricting the spatial fidelity of source localization. Optical Scanning Image (OSI) methods can provide high spatial accuracy but depend on surface visibility and [...] Read more.
Accurate co-registration between on-scalp Optically Pumped Magnetometer (OPM)–Magnetoencephalography (MEG) sensors and anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) remains a critical bottleneck restricting the spatial fidelity of source localization. Optical Scanning Image (OSI) methods can provide high spatial accuracy but depend on surface visibility and cannot directly determine the internal sensitive point of each OPM sensor. Coil-based magnetic dipole localization, in contrast, targets the sensor’s internal sensitive volume and is robust to occlusion, yet its accuracy is affected by coil fabrication imperfections and the validity of the dipole approximation. To integrate the complementary advantages of both approaches, we propose a hybrid co-registration framework that combines Rigid Coil Structures (RCS), magnetic dipole-based sensor localization, and optical orientation constraints. A complete multi-stage co-registration pipeline is established through a unified mathematical formulation, including MRI–OSI alignment, OSI–RCS transformation, and final RCS–sensor localization. Systematic simulations are conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the magnetic dipole approximation for both cylindrical helical coils and planar single-turn coils. The results quantify how wire diameter, coil radius, and turn number influence dipole model fidelity and offer practical guidelines for coil design. Experiments using 18 coils and 11 single-axis OPMs demonstrate positional accuracy of a few millimeters, and optical orientation priors suppress dipole-only orientation ambiguity in unstable channels. To improve the stability of sensor orientation estimation, optical scanning of surface markers is incorporated as a soft constraint, yielding substantial improvements for channels that exhibit unstable results under dipole-only optimization. Overall, the proposed hybrid framework demonstrates the feasibility of combining magnetic and optical information for robust OPM–MEG co-registration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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19 pages, 5533 KB  
Article
An Innovative Coded Language for Transferring Data via a Haptic Thermal Interface
by Yosef Y. Shani and Simon Lineykin
Bioengineering 2025, 12(2), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering12020209 - 19 Feb 2025
Viewed by 1116
Abstract
The objective of this research was to develop a coded language, similarly to Morse or Braille, via a haptic thermal interface. The method is based on the human thermal sense to receive and decode the messages, and is to be used as an [...] Read more.
The objective of this research was to develop a coded language, similarly to Morse or Braille, via a haptic thermal interface. The method is based on the human thermal sense to receive and decode the messages, and is to be used as an alternative or complementary channel for various scenarios in which conventional channels are not applicable or not sufficient (e.g., communication with the handicapped or in noisy/silent environments). For the method to be effective, it must include a large variety of short recognizable cues. Hence, we designed twenty-two temporally short (<3 s) cues, each composed of a sequence of thermal pulses, meaning a combination of warm and/or cool pulses with several levels of intensity. The thermal cues were generated using specially designed equipment in a laboratory environment and displayed in random order to eleven independent participants. The participants identified all 22 cues with 95% accuracy, and 16 of them with 98.3% accuracy. These results reflect extraordinary reliability, indicating that this method can be used to create an effective innovative capability. It has many potential implications and is applicable immediately in the development of a new communication capability, either as a single-modality thermal interface, or combined with tactile sensing to form a full haptic multisensory interface. This report presents the testing and evaluating process of the proposed set of thermal cues and lays out directions for possible implementation and further investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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13 pages, 2944 KB  
Article
Development of a Wearable Electromyographic Sensor with Aerosol Jet Printing Technology
by Stefano Perilli, Massimo Di Pietro, Emanuele Mantini, Martina Regazzetti, Pawel Kiper, Francesco Galliani, Massimo Panella and Dante Mantini
Bioengineering 2024, 11(12), 1283; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering11121283 - 17 Dec 2024
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2374
Abstract
Electromyographic (EMG) sensors are essential tools for analyzing muscle activity, but traditional designs often face challenges such as motion artifacts, signal variability, and limited wearability. This study introduces a novel EMG sensor fabricated using Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) technology that addresses these limitations [...] Read more.
Electromyographic (EMG) sensors are essential tools for analyzing muscle activity, but traditional designs often face challenges such as motion artifacts, signal variability, and limited wearability. This study introduces a novel EMG sensor fabricated using Aerosol Jet Printing (AJP) technology that addresses these limitations with a focus on precision, flexibility, and stability. The innovative sensor design minimizes air interposition at the skin–electrode interface, thereby reducing variability and improving signal quality. AJP enables the precise deposition of conductive materials onto flexible substrates, achieving a thinner and more conformable sensor that enhances user comfort and wearability. Performance testing compared the novel sensor to commercially available alternatives, highlighting its superior impedance stability across frequencies, even under mechanical stress. Physiological validation on a human participant confirmed the sensor’s ability to accurately capture muscle activity during rest and voluntary contractions, with clear differentiation between low and high activity states. The findings highlight the sensor’s potential for diverse applications, such as clinical diagnostics, rehabilitation, and sports performance monitoring. This work establishes AJP technology as a novel approach for designing wearable EMG sensors, providing a pathway for further advancements in miniaturization, strain-insensitive designs, and real-world deployment. Future research will explore optimization for broader applications and larger populations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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Review

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18 pages, 4480 KB  
Review
Wearable Near-Eye Tracking Technologies for Health: A Review
by Lisen Zhu, Jianan Chen, Huixin Yang, Xinkai Zhou, Qihang Gao, Rui Loureiro, Shuo Gao and Hubin Zhao
Bioengineering 2024, 11(7), 738; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering11070738 - 22 Jul 2024
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 7087
Abstract
With the rapid advancement of computer vision, machine learning, and consumer electronics, eye tracking has emerged as a topic of increasing interest in recent years. It plays a key role across diverse domains including human–computer interaction, virtual reality, and clinical and healthcare applications. [...] Read more.
With the rapid advancement of computer vision, machine learning, and consumer electronics, eye tracking has emerged as a topic of increasing interest in recent years. It plays a key role across diverse domains including human–computer interaction, virtual reality, and clinical and healthcare applications. Near-eye tracking (NET) has recently been developed to possess encouraging features such as wearability, affordability, and interactivity. These features have drawn considerable attention in the health domain, as NET provides accessible solutions for long-term and continuous health monitoring and a comfortable and interactive user interface. Herein, this work offers an inaugural concise review of NET for health, encompassing approximately 70 related articles published over the past two decades and supplemented by an in-depth examination of 30 literatures from the preceding five years. This paper provides a concise analysis of health-related NET technologies from aspects of technical specifications, data processing workflows, and the practical advantages and limitations. In addition, the specific applications of NET are introduced and compared, revealing that NET is fairly influencing our lives and providing significant convenience in daily routines. Lastly, we summarize the current outcomes of NET and highlight the limitations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intelligent Wearable and Implantable Devices for Biomedical Applications)
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