3.3 Asedios a Roberto López
3.3.4 De la pastelería al Bowling de Miraflores
For health care monitoring the use of wireless wearable sensor is getting popular. These wireless sensor networks provide continuous monitoring regardless of a caregiver’s location and activity [53]. The Body Sensor Network (BSN) consists of collection of mobile sensor nodes which are worn on the elder’s body. These mobile sensors are usually equipped with temperature sensors, pulse sensor, accelerometer and even ECG, EMG, EEG etc. Different sensors can be used for people with different disabilities.
For example CustoMed [54], discusses about implementation of a personal sensor network for health care monitoring using smart sensor nodes and a control node based on Bluetooth piconet. Some of the implementation issues like self-organization capability, data centric approach and flexibility are discussed in good detail. This system is proposed to be used in many applications including portable health monitors like ECG, intelligent control of medication delivery and also for battlefield soldier monitoring. Wireless body area sensor networks are increasingly used in medicine to improve quality and efficiency in health care processes [55, 56]. In [57], a remote health care system based on wireless sensor network is designed and implementation of a two-tiered sensor network based on embedded Web Server was discussed. The
proposed system can be placed in a hospital or at patient’s house. The sensor nodes collect some of the physiological indexes of the patients and also monitor the running state of the medical devices to transmit the data to the sink node or the local computer. The wireless sensor network then sends the data to a remote central server as shown in Figure 2.1.
Figure 2.1: Structure of the health care system based on wearable sensors [57] Body area network (SG-BAN), a new study group, established by IEEE 802.15 working group, to develop short range wireless communication technology in and around human body. [58] introduced the IEEE SG-BAN and also investigated the performance of 802.15.4b and 802.15.4a for wearable healthcare applications in the heterogeneous networks environment. Topics including how and where to implement BAN, scalability issues, asymmetric clear channel assessment (CCA) abilities among different types of wireless technology are explained in detail. This paper [57] gave guidelines for using wireless technologies for medical device communications in
The use of ZigBee communication technology based on wireless standard 802.15.4 in medical care and monitoring is getting popular in the recent times. It is an extension of the WPAN. Omeni O.C. et at., proposed a new energy-efficient MAC protocol [58], designed for wireless body area network (WBAN) to provide services on universal health care application.
Figure 2.3: Body Area Network Architecture of health-care system [62]
Cavallo F [59] introduced an intelligent rehabilitation system based on the ZigBee network. This system improves the independent living of the elderly and people with disabilities. The system consists of various sensors, a coordinator, a promote node to identify and manage the patient's ability, when confronting urgent requests by sending warning message to the medical staff. The ZigBee system proposed by Jung et al. [60], discusses about a dynamic medical management system, the data from the sensor device is sent to mobile system via wireless personal area networks, in order to gather the biological or environmental information. A system proposed by Sugano Masashi in [61] is capable of capturing diabetes pathology and recording information, such as weight, blood pressure and other data of a person. This system does not need special computer settings to get the necessary information, which can be a great
advantage for elder users. Moreover the system is capable of quickly setting up its ZigBee-based home network using sensor information network services.
[62] proposed a project to integrate the technologies of wireless sensor networks and public communication networks to construct an efficient healthcare system for elderly at home without interfering their daily activities. This system shown in figure 2.3 consists of four main functionalities like indoor monitoring, outdoor monitoring, activity and health state decision, emergency decision and alarm. The system automatically measure and collect body and home parameters and send the data to the central server over different public networks, wired or wireless.
This system is able to provide an interconnection platform, and a service management platform to support distant healthcare for elderly. In [63] Sugano et al, proposed a concept of an online medical diagnosis system for ubiquitous health care using a
wireless ECG sensor as shown in Figure 2.4.
Figure 2.4: Monitoring physiological parameters by a wireless wearable sensor
developing a wireless BAN (body area network) using a machine measuring the human acceleration and electrocardiogram readings.
More Research is being done on wearable technologies, which are able to collect, process, store, and transmit (and receive) information about the wearer’s body vital signs, wirelessly to (and from) any remote location. These portable, versatile medical devices can be moved in a homecare setting [65]. Also in [66] a discussion on the applications and impact of this kind of technology in the continuum of life for independent living for senior citizens was done. The field of smart textile-based wearable biomedical systems (ST-WBSs) started generating a lot of interest in the academic research areas. The key components in a ST-WBS include sensors to capture/measure vital body parameters, thus providing a pervasive healthcare [67, 68]. Even though the wearable technology provides safety, help and transforms the healthcare by enhancing the quality of life for senior citizens there are many drawbacks associated with it. These kinds of sensor are needed to be in contact with the body of the individual at all times, which can cause discomfort. Because of this discomfort many users do not feel like wearing them, which can hinder the reliability of the system. Since this kind of wireless devices are close to the body they may interfere with other devices like pace maker etc. [69].