The recent boom in the Internet of Things (IoT) will turn Smart Cities and Smart Homes (SH) from hype to reality. SH is the major building block for Smart Cities and have long been a dream for decades, hobbyists in the late 1970s made Home Automation (HA) possible when personal computers started invading home spaces. While SH can share most of the IoT technologies, there are unique characteristics that make SH special. From the result of a recent research survey on SH and IoT technologies, this paper defines the major requirements for building SH. Seven unique requirement recommendations are defined and classified according to the specific quality of the SH building blocks.

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Skin conductivity (i.e., sweat) forms the basis of many physiology-based emotion and stress detection systems. However, such systems typically do not detect the biomarkers present in sweat, and thus do not take advantage of the biological information in the sweat. Likewise, such systems do not detect the volatile organic components (VOC’s) created under stressful conditions. This work presents a review into the current status of human emotional stress biomarkers and proposes the major potential biomarkers for future wearable sensors in affective systems. Emotional stress has been classified as a major contributor in several social problems, related to crime, health, the economy, and indeed quality of life. While blood cortisol tests, electroencephalography and physiological parameter methods are the gold standards for measuring stress; however, they are typically invasive or inconvenient and not suitable for wearable real-time stress monitoring. Alternatively, cortisol in biofluids and VOCs emitted from the skin appear to be practical and useful markers for sensors to detect emotional stress events. This work has identified antistress hormones and cortisol metabolites as the primary stress biomarkers that can be used in future sensors for wearable affective systems.

Background: The idea of reusing dispensed medicines is appealing to the general public provided its benefits are illustrated, its risks minimized, and the logistics resolved. For example, medicine reuse could help reduce medicinal waste, protect the environment and improve public health. However, the associated technologies and legislation facilitating medicine reuse are generally not available. The availability of suitable technologies could arguably help shape stakeholders’ beliefs and in turn, uptake of a future medicine reuse scheme by tackling the risks and facilitating the practicalities. A literature survey is undertaken to lay down the groundwork for implementing technologies on and around pharmaceutical packaging in order to meet stakeholders’ previously expressed misgivings about medicine reuse (’stakeholder requirements’), and propose a novel ecosystem for, in effect, reusing returned medicines. Methods: A structured literature search examining the application of existing technologies on pharmaceutical packaging to enable medicine reuse was conducted and presented as a narrative review. Results: Reviewed technologies are classified according to different stakeholders’ requirements, and a novel ecosystem from a technology perspective is suggested as a solution to reusing medicines. Conclusion: Active sensing technologies applying to pharmaceutical packaging using printed electronics enlist medicines to be part of the Internet of Things network. Validating the quality and safety of returned medicines through this network seems to be the most effective way for reusing medicines and the correct application of technologies may be the key enabler.

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