A Wireless Body Area Network for Remote Observation of Physiological Signals

The objective of this work is to describe the design process of a wireless body area network (WBAN) for the remote observation of multiple physiological signals from a patient. Various sensors such as temperature, heart rate monitor utilizing electrocardiography, and accelerometer to detect fall and seizure conditions were integrated in the WBAN. Sensed data is wirelessly transmitted to the central control unit (CCU) that is associated with a remote base station. For benchmarking, medically certified sensors were employed to validate wearable sensors data. The sensor information can be ported in the cloud environment using CCU-based gateway with Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) modem capability. This mechanism is facilitating remote access to sensors information. To connect Radio Frequency (RF) units wirelessly, Zigbee mesh topology was adopted. In this way, they can be remotely overseen, managed and controlled by assigned staff. The presented prototype featuring the desired WBAN system performance was evaluated with different human postures and moving scenarios.