Signal and Information Processing for Sensing Systems

Dr. Marco, Santiago
Group Leader


Torre I - Planta 9 | Baldiri Reixac, 4 | 08028 | Barcelona
Email : smarcoibecbarcelona.eu

Research Topics

Biologically inspired signal and data processing / Development of smart chemical instruments / Statistical signal processing and chemometrics / Image processing / Chemical sensor arrays / Miniaturised infrared spectrometers / Ion mobility spectrometry / Odour perception

Artificial olfaction (AO) systems are intelligent chemical instruments for the detection of volatile compounds and smells. These systems usually combine an array of nonspecific chemical sensors with a pattern recognition system. The emphasis is not on the identification and quantification of the individual components – as is the case with analytical instruments – but rather on the overall evaluation of the odour. Moreover, AO systems tend to favour miniaturised devices capable of analyzing an odour in seconds. The focus of our research in this field is the development of signal and data processing systems inspired by the neuronal processing of the biological olfactory pathway.

Neuromorphic Odor robot including chemical sensor arrays and embedded computational models of the insect olfactory system developed in the NEUROCHEM project (joint development with UPC and UPF)

Our research in 2012 included the following:

Analysis of olfactory bulb activity maps:

• We have done a cluster analysis of the activity of the olfactory bulb in response to a large set of odorants. Clustering results show only a minor number of stable clusters that subdivide hierarchically in finer cluster with lower stability.
• From glomerular activity maps in the olfactory bulb, we have studied the distribution of receptive ranges. The olfactory bulb displays a large diversity of receptive ranges, from very selective to broadly tuned receptors. The study using information theory tools shows that sets of broadly selective sensors with low correlation values are the optimum setup for chemical coding.

Ion Mobility Spectrometry:

• We have proposed a blind source separation technique (NMF) for preprocessing non-linear ion mobility spectra and after building quantitative multivariate models.
• We have explored the detection of TCA in wine (cork taint) and biogenic amines with ion mobility spectrometers and we have determined the limits of detection that can be achieved without any preconcentration.

Genomic signals:

• We have proposed a detector of transcription factor binding sites in genomic sequences based on numerical coding of DNA followed by multivariate statistics. The method improves on PSSM methods and equals methods that consider interdependences with a much lower computational cost.

Ultraviolet-Ion Mobility Spectrometer from GAS, Germany

• Dr. Santiago Marco | Group Leader
• Dr. Agustín Gutiérrez | Senior Researcher
• Milad Avazbeigi | PhD Student
• Ariadna Bartra | PhD Student
• Lluís Fernández | PhD Student
• Ana Verónica Guamán | PhD Student
• Sergio Oller | PhD Student
• Víctor Pomareda | PhD Student
• Dr. Juan Manuel Jiménez | Laboratory Technician
• Nil Franch | Undergraduate Student

• Karpas, Z., Guamán, A. V., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. (2013). Comparison of the performance of three ion mobility spectrometers for measurement of biogenic amines. Analytica Chimica Acta, 758, 122-129.
• Pomareda, V., Lopez-Vidal, S., Calvo, D., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. (2013). A Novel Differential Mobility Analyzer as VOCs detector and multivariate techniques for identification and quantification. Analyst, e-pub ahead of print.
• Ziyatdinov, A., Fernandez Diaz, E., Chaudry, A., Marco, S., K., P. & Perera, A. (2013). A software tool for large-scale synthetic experiments based on polymeric sensor arrays. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 177, 596–604.
• Pairó Castiñeira, E., Maynou, J., Marco, S. & Perera, A. (2012). A subspace method for the detection of transcription factor binding sites. Bioinformatics, in press.
• Fonollosa, J., Gutiérrez, A. & Marco, S. (2012). Quality Coding by Neural Populations in the Early Olfactory Pathway: Analysis Using Information Theory and Lessons for Artificial Olfactory Systems. PLoS ONE, in press.
• Fonollosa, J., Fernández, L., Huerta, R., Gutiérrez, A. & Marco, S. (2012). Temperature optimization of metal oxide sensor arrays using Mutual Information. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.
• Karpas, Z., Guamán, A. V., Calvo, D., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. (2012). The potential of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) for detection of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (2,4,6-TCA) in wine. Talanta, 93, 200–205.
• Udina, S., Carmona, M., Alfonso Pardo, W., Calaza, C., J., S., Fonseca, L. & Marco, S. (2012). A micromachined thermoelectric sensor for natural gas analysis: Multivariate calibration results. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, in press, 166–167, 338–348.
• Falasconi, M., Gutiérrez, A., Leon, M., Johnson, B. & Marco, S. (2012). Cluster Analysis of Rat Olfactory Bulb Responses to Diverse Odorants. Chem. Senses, 37(7), 639-653.
• Guamán, A. V., Carreras, A., Calvo, D., Agudo, I., Navajas, D., Pardo, A., Marco, S. & Farré, R. (2012). Rapid detection of sepsis in rats through volatile organic compounds in breath. Journal of Chromatography B, 881-882, 76-82.
• Padilla, M., Marco, S. & Fonollosa, J (2012). Improving the robustness of odor sensing systems by multivariate signal processing. In Nakamoto, T. (editor), Human Olfactory Displays and Interfaces: Odor Sensing and Presentation. IGI Global.
• Bennetts, V. H., Lilienthal, A. J., Khaliq, A., Pomareda, V. & Trincavelli, M (2012). Gasbot: A mobile robotic platform for methane leak detection and emission monitoring. In Workshop on Robotics for Environmental Monitoring, October 7, 2012.
• Garrido-Delgdo, R., Arce, L., Guamán, A. V., Pardo, A., Marco, S. & Valcárcel, M. (2011). Direct coupling of a gas-liquid separator to an Ion Mobility Spectrometer for the classification of different white wines using quemometrics tools. Talanta, 84(2), 471-479.
• Calvo, D., Tort, N., Salvador, J., Marco, M.-P., Centi, F. & Marco, S. (2011). Preliminary study for simultaneous detection and quantification of androgenic anabolic steroids using ELISA and pattern recognition techniques. Analyst, 136(19), 4045-4052.
• Fonollosa, J., Gutiérrez, A., Lanser, A., Martinez, D., Rospars, J., Beccherelli, R., Perera, A., Pearce, T., Vershure, P., Persaud, K. & Marco, S (2011). Biologically Inspired Computation for Chemical Sensing. In Procedia Computer Science 7, pages 226–227.
• Auffarth, B., Gutiérrez, A. & Marco, S. (2011). Continuous spatial representations in the olfactory bulb may reflect perceptual categories. Front Syst Neurosci., 5(82).
• Auffarth, B., Gutiérrez, A. & Marco, S. (2011). Statistical analysis of coding for molecular properties in the olfactory bulb. Front Syst Neurosci., 5(62).
• Fernández, L., Gutiérrez, A., Fonollosa, J. & Marco, S (2011). A biomimetic gas sensor array system designed to test computational olfaction models. In 20th Congress of European Chemoreception Research Organization (ECRO-2010). Avignon, France (2010). Published by Oxford Univ. Press (2011/01/01).
• Ziyatdinov, A., Marco, S., Chaudry, A., Persaud, K., Caminal, P. & Perera, A. (2010). Drift compensation of gas sensor array data by common principal component analysis. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 146(2), 460 - 465.
• Perera, A., Pardo, A., Barrettino, D., Hierlermann, A. & Marco, S. (2010). Evaluation of fish spoilage by means of a single metal oxide sensor under temperature modulation. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 146(2), 477-482.
• Montoliu, I., Tauler, R., Padilla, M., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. (2010). Multivariate curve resolution applied to temperature modulated metal oxide gas sensors. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 146(2), 464-473.
• Falasconi, M., Gutiérrez, A., Pardo, M., Sberveglieri, G. & Marco, S. (2010). A stability based validity method for fuzzy&clustering. Pattern Recognition, 43(4), 1292-1305.
• Padilla, A., Perera, A., Montoliu, I., Chaudry, A., Persaud, K. & Marco, S. (2010). Drift compensation of gas sensor array data by Orthogonal Signal Correction. CHEMOMETRICS AND INTELLIGENT LABORATORY SYSTEMS, 100(1), 28-35.
• Pomareda, V., Calvo, D., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. (2010). Hard modeling Multivariate Curve Resolution using LASSO: Application to Ion Mobility Spectra. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 104(2), 318 - 332.
• Salleras, M., Carmona, M. & Marco, S. (2010). Issues in the Use of Thermal Transients to Achieve Accurate Time-Constant Spectrums and Differential Structure Functions. IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging, 33(4), 918-923.
• Palacio, F., Cano, X., Gómez, J., Vilar, C., Scorzoni, A., Cicioni, M., Abad, E., Juarros, A., Gómez, D., Nuin, M., González, A., Becker, T. & Marco, S. (2009). Radio Frequency Identification Semi-Active Tag with Sensing Capabilities for the Food Logistic Chain. Sensor Letters, 7, 942-951(10).
• Abad, E., Palacio, F., Nuin, M., Zárate, Juarros, A., Gómez, J. M. & Marco, S. (2009). RFID smart tag for traceability and cold chain monitoring of foods: Demonstration in an intercontinental fresh fish logistic chain. Journal of Food Engineering, 93(4), 394-399.
• Fonollosa, J., Halford, B., Fonseca, L., Santander, J., Udina, S., Moreno, M., Hildenbrand, J., Wöllenstein, J. & Marco, S. (2009). Ethylene optical spectrometer for apple ripening monitoring in controlled atmosphere store-houses. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 136(2), 546 - 554.
• Fonseca, L., Rubio, R., Santander, J., Calaza, C., Sabaté, N., Ivanov, P., Figueras, E., Gràcia, I., Cané, C., Udina, S., Moreno, M. & Marco, S. (2009). Qualitative and quantitative substance discrimination using a CMOS compatible non-specific NDIR microarray. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 141(2), 396 - 403.
• Fonollosa, J., Carmona, M., Santander, J., Fonseca, L., Moreno, M. & Marco, S. (2009). Limits to the integration of filters and lenses on thermoelectric IR detectors by flip-chip techniques. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 149(1), 65 - 73.
• Fonollosa, J., Rubio, R., Hartwig, S., Marco, S., Santander, J., Fonseca, L., Wöllenstein, J. & Moreno, M. (2008). Design and fabrication of silicon-based mid infrared multi-lenses for gas sensing applications. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 132(2), 498 - 507.
• Zampolli, S., Elmi, I., Cozzani, E., Cardinali, G., Scorzoni, A., Cicioni, M., Marco, S., Palacio, F., Gómez-Cama, J., Sayhan, I. & Becker, T. (2008). Ultra-low-power components for an RFID Tag with physical and chemical sensors. Microsystem Technologies, 14, 581-588.
• Udina, S., Carmona, M., Carles, G., Santander, J., Fonseca, L. & Marco, S. (2008). A micromachined thermoelectric sensor for natural gas analysis: Thermal model and experimental results. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 134(2), 551 - 558.
• Sayhan, I., Helwig, A., Becker, T., Mueller, G., Elmi, I., Zampolli, S., Padilla, M. & Marco, S. (2008). Discontinously operated metal oxide gas sensors for flexible tag microlab applications. IEEE Sensor Journal, 8, 176-181.
• Pardo, A., Cámara, L., Cabré, J., Perera, A., Cano, X., Marco, S. & Bosch, J. (2006). Gas measurement systems based on IEEE1451.2 standard. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 116(1-2), 11 - 16.
• Gutiérrez, A., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. (2006). Information-theoretic analysis of odor intensity at the olfactory epithelium. Chemical Senses, 31(8), E3-E4.
• Padilla, M., Montoliu, I., Pardo, A., Perera, A. & Marco, S. (2006). Feature extraction on three way enose signals. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 116(1-2), 145 - 150.
• Montoliu, I., Pardo, A., Persaud, K. C. & Marco, S. (2006). Study of Olfactory Bulb time response by using multivariate image analysis tools. Chemical Senses, 31(8), E33-E34.
• Perera, A., Papamichail, N., Barsan, N., Weimar, U. & Marco, S. (2006). On-line novelty detection by recursive dynamic principal component analysis and gas sensor arrays under drift conditions. IEEE Sensors Journal, 6(3), 770-783.
• Marco, S. & Lansner, A. (2006). Exploratory analysis of the rat olfactory bulb activity. Chemical Senses, 31(8), E73-E73.
• Rubio, R., Santander, J., Fonollosa, J., Fonseca, L., Gràcia, I., Cané, C., Moreno, M. & Marco, S. (2006). Exploration of the metrological performance of a gas detector based on an array of unspecific infrared filters. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 116(1-2), 183 - 191.
• Kuske, M., Padilla, M., Romain, A. C., Nicolas, J., Rubio, R. & Marco, S. (2006). Detection of diverse mould species growing on building materials by gas sensor arrays and pattern recognition. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 119(1), 33 - 40.
• Pomareda, V., Guamán, A. V., Mohammadnejad, M., Calvo, D., Pardo, A. & Marco, S. Multivariate Curve Resolution of nonlinear Ion Mobility Spectra followed by Multivariate Nonlinear Calibration for Quantitative Prediction. Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, in press.

Projects

• Intelligent signal processing for sensor systems in bioengineering (2009-SGR-753) Santiago Marco
• SMART-IMS: Procesado de Señal para Espectroscopia de Movilidad de Iones: Análisis de Fluidos Biomédicos y Detección de Sustancias Tóxicas MICINN. Santiago Marco
• BIOENCODE: Estudio comparativo de la capacidad de codificación de información química de sistemas biológicos y artificiales MICINN. Agustín Gutiérrez
• SOMNO-ALERT® P-10: Detección de Somnolencia Industrial project with FICOMIRRORS, S.A.

Collaborations

• Dr. Matteo Falasconi Sensor Laboratory, University of Brescia, Italy


• Prof. Marta Cascante Dept. Bioquímica I Biologia Molecular, Universitat de Barcelona


• Prof. Dr. Josep Roca Dept. Ciències Clíniques, UB-Hospital Clínic de Barcelona


• Prof. María Pilar Marco Applied Molecular Receptor group (AMRg), Insitute of Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia, Spanish Council for Scientific Research (IQAC-CSIC), Barcelona (Spain).


• Prof. Enrique Ruspini European Center for Softcomputing, Mieres, Asturias (Spain).


• Dr. Lourdes Arce Dept. Química Analítica, Universidad de Córdoba (Spain).


• Dr. Tim Pearce Neurolab, Dept. Engineering, University of Leicester (UK).


• Prof. J.P. Rospars Insect Physiology Unit, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Versailles (France).


• Dr. D. Martínez Cortex Group, LORIA, Nancy, France


• Prof. Pere Caminal CREB, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain


• Prof. Krishna Persaud Chemoreception Group, University of Manchester, Great Britain


• Prof. Anders Lansner The Brain Institute, Stockholm, Sweden


• Prof. Paul Vershure Cognitive, Perceptive and Emotive Systems, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain


• Leon and Johnson Group Dept. of Neuroscience, UC Irvine, United States

• Corona Discharge Ion Mobility Spectrometer
• Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometer (Owlstone)
• Gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (Thermoscientific) with robotic head-space sampler
• Infusion pumps K-systems
• 6 channel Owlstone vapor generator plus humidity control
• UV-IMS (ultraviolet-ion mobility spectrometry)
• Ion Mobility Spectrometer: Gas Detector Array (Airsense Analytics GmbH)

  Gas Detector Array by Airsense Analytics GmbH

• Computing and General Purpose Electronic Instrumentation

28/02/2013

"Una aplicación detecta la somnolencia al volante"

Further coverage of the driver drowsiness alerter Somnoalert® developed by IBEC and Ficosa has appeared today in El Mundo and abc.es.

27/02/2013

"Ficosa, IBEC y la UPC crean un aplicación para detectar la somnolencia al volante"

Monday's press release about the driver drowsiness alerter Somnoalert® developed by IBEC and Ficosa got lots of coverage in the news this week, including in La Vanguardia, TeleCinco and El Economista.

25/02/2013

IBEC, UB and FICOSA join forces to develop a mobile application to detect drowsiness while driving

A new technology to combat dozing off when driving developed by IBEC, UB and industry partner Ficosa will be presented at this week’s GSMA World Mobile Congress in Barcelona.

04/02/2013

A new name for the AO group

Santiago Marco’s research group at IBEC has changed its name and will now be known as the Signal and Information Processing for Sensing Systems group.

19/06/2012

How the nose knows

The mammalian sense of smell is an excellent chemical sensing system that far outshines any man-made reproduction, so researchers have long been trying to analyze and recreate the animal olfactory system to develop artificial ‘noses’. Now researchers at IBEC have shed new light on this highly efficient system that could allow better chemical sensing systems with important applications in such critical areas as health, security or the food industry.

16/05/2011

Santiago Marco elected president of ISOCS

At the General Assembly of the International Society of Olfaction and Chemical Sensing at Rockefeller University, New York, Artificial Olfaction group leader Santiago Marco was elected President of the society for a period of two years.

17/03/2011

Neurochem's Workshop on Bioinspired Computation for Chemical Sensing

Last week the University of Barcelona, as a coordinator of the  EU-FP7 Neurochem Project, joined with IBEC to organize the Workshop on Bioinspired Computation for Chemical Sensing, which was held on 9-11 March at the Hotel Senator in Barcelona. The focus of the workshop was on signal processing techniques inspired by the olfactory system and computational models of the biological olfactory pathway.

17/03/2011

Smelling by minispectrometer provides fast determination of wine origin

Wine fraud is a growing problem, with experts estimating that up to 10% of the wines offered to consumers in some European countries are of a lesser quality than the label claims. It’s an issue that affects everyone from expert collectors to average consumers, and is such a concern in some countries that drastic measures have been taken: the Italian Carabinieri Corps, for instance, has educated 25 of their officers as sommeliers.

05/10/2009

IBEC hosts Summer School 2009 of International Society for Olfaction and Chemical Sensing

The research team of Artificial Olfaction at IBEC, led by Santiago Marco, organized the Summer School of the International Society for Olfaction and Chemical Sensing (ISOCS). It was held from September 28th, to October 2nd of 2009, at Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Barcelona, Spain. This Summer School was supported by the FP7 Neurochem European project, coordinated by the IBEC’s research team.