IFMBE Proceedings Volume 45 Series Editor Ratko Magjarevic Deputy Editors Fatimah Binti Ibrahim Igor Lackovic´ Piotr Ładyzy˙ nski´ Emilio Sacristan Rock The International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering, IFMBE, is a federation of national and transnational organizations representing internationally the interests of medical and biological engineering and sciences. The IFMBE is a non-profit organization fostering the creation, dissemination and application of medical and biological engineering knowledge and the management of technology for improved health and quality of life. Its activities include participation in the formulation of public policy and the dissemination of information through publications and forums. Within the field of medical, clinical, and biological engineering, IFMBE’s aims are to encourage research and the application of knowledge, and to disseminate information and promote collaboration. The objectives of the IFMBE are scientific, technological, literary, and educational. The IFMBE is a WHO accredited NGO covering the full range of biomedical and clinical engineering, healthcare, healthcare technology and management. It is representing through its 60 member societies some 120.000 professionals involved in the various issues of improved health and health care delivery. IFMBE Officers President: Ratko Magjarevic, Vice-President: James Goh Past-President: Herbert Voigt Treasurer: Marc Nyssen, Secretary-General: Shankhar M. Krishnan http://www.ifmbe.org More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7403 Igor Lackovic´ · Darko Vasic´ Editors 6th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering MBEC 2014, 7–11 September 2014, Dubrovnik, Croatia ABC Editors Igor Lackovic´ Darko Vasic´ University of Zagreb University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing Zagreb Zagreb Croatia Croatia ISSN 1680-0737 ISSN 1433-9277 (electronic) ISBN 978-3-319-11127-8 ISBN978-3-319-11128-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-11128-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014949163 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London c Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. The IFMBE Proceedings is an Official Publication of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Towards New Horizons in Biomedical Engineering Welcome Message Biomedical engineering is an interdisciplinary field spanning over medicine and engineering. Design and problem solving skills of an engineer are applied to healthcare related tasks. Biomedical engineers apply engineering principles and design concepts for healthcare purposes, thus promoting both diagnosis and therapy. Biomedical engineering is a relatively new field of engineering, and though there is evidence on use of engineered tools - prosthetic devices as early as in Old Egypt about 3500 years B.C., the extensive growth of BME started after the discovery of silicon transistor and consequent integration of electronic circuits. These processes led to miniaturization and increased usabil- ity of medical devices. Two decades later, appearance of microprocessors enabled the devices making first simple decisions but with years they became more and more intelligent. A little later, with constant increasing of computational power, medical imaging experienced a new wave of its evolution and methods of rapid DNA sequencing brought medicine and biology even closer to engineering. Early in its development, BME has completed the first step of evolution becoming an independent field of engineering science. Engineering performance has been rapidly increasing also in health related applications. This field is so wide that often the team-work of biomedical engineers of different specialization is needed and today, biomedical engineering has nearly as many specializations as medicine itself. Available general purpose engineered components enable measurements with high resolution and accuracy in biology, medicine and health care. The computational power allows application of very sophisticated algorithms even in small size devices applied to health related topics. These general purpose components promote research and development in all fields of life: health, transportation, communication, energy management, entertainment, etc. The new horizon in biomedical engineering is built out of general purpose components and integrates them with the special knowledge of medicine and biology. Medical imaging is a good example. Today the images are sharp, not only static structures but also movements of organs can be visualized as well as their activity. Nevertheless medical doctors are not completely satisfied. The general purpose image enhancing algorithms may eliminate images of small anatomic body segments as if they were noise. The filtering algorithm to increase signal-to-noise ratio should be special to biological application and make use of anatomical and physiological knowledge, too. Research and development take a big share out of the work of biomedical engineers. Combining the powerful general purpose elements with the special knowledge of medicine and biology requires group work integrating experts of different fields. Today’s biomedical engineers themselves have knowledge in anatomy and physiology, and they can easily co-operate with medical doctors and biologists. We hope that EMBEC ’14 helps bringing experts from different fields of biomedical engineering closer! Ákos Jobbágy Ratko Magjarevic´ MBEC2014 Honorary Chairs Preface It is my great pleasure to welcome you at the 6th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (MBEC 2014). MBEC 2014 continues the series of well-known European IFMBE Conferences held in Budapest (2011), Antwerp (2008), Prague (2005), and two times in Vienna (2002 and 1999). Dubrovnik, the host city of the MBEC 2014, is considered to be one of the most beautiful tourist destinations in the world. Located at the far south of Croatia, Dubrovnik is known as "the pearl of the Adriatic" because of its unique beauty and out- standing architecture. A town of an exceptionally rich historical and cultural heritage and preserved monumental architecture, Dubrovnik was among the first sites to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979. This volume comprises the papers selected for presentation at the 6th European Conference of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (MBEC 2014) held in Dubrovnik from the 7th to the 11th of September 2014. The general theme of MBEC 2014 is "Towards new horizons in biomedical engineering". The conference program consists of plenary/keynote lectures, oral and poster sessions, workshops, special sessions, invited sessions, round table discussions and exhibition. Contributed papers for regular sessions included in this volume are organized in the following themes: - Biomedical Signal Processing - Biomedical Imaging and Image Processing - Biosensors and Bioinstrumentation - Bio-Micro/Nano Technologies - Biomaterials - Biomechanics, Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery - Cardiovascular, Respiratory and Endocrine Systems Engineering - Neural and Rehabilitation Engineering - Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Engineering - Bioinformatics and Computational Biology - Clinical Engineering and Health Technology Assessment - Health Informatics, E-Health and Telemedicine - Biomedical Engineering Education Special sessions part of this volume contains papers related to the following invited sessions, special sessions, workshops and roundtables organized during the Conference: - Biomimetic Organ-on-Chip Systems, organized by: Josué Sznitman and