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Smart Sensors Architecture for Health Status Assessment of Wheelchair Users

Postolache, O. ; Girão, P.M.

Smart Sensors Architecture for Health Status Assessment of Wheelchair Users, Proc Conf. on Telecommunications - ConfTele, Castelo Branco, Portugal, Vol. 1, pp. 1 - 6, May, 2013.

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Abstract
Embedding sensing and computing devices in daily used objects to monitor health status done in a non-invasive and unobtrusive way is an interesting solution but also an important challenge. This article presents a prototype of a monitoring system for wheelchair users characterized by multi-sensing, embedded processing and IEEE 802.15.4 wireless communication capabilities. Special attention was granted to interoperability of the developed sensing module, thus an IEEE1451.4 for smart sensor protocol was considered.
Wired and wireless connectivity was considered for the developed system. Thus, the smart sensors are connected in a wired network connected to an embedded platform that performs acquisition and processing of physiological parameters associated with photoplethysmogram (PPG), ballistocardigram (BCG) and skin conductivity signals. An electronic health record procedure was implemented. The assessed wheelchair user is identified using LF RFID technology.
Regarding the wireless communication, the data acquired and processed by the embedded platform is then transmitted to a coordinator computer. The coordinator computer runs an application developed in C# associated with graphical user interfacing (GUI), data management and data communication. The designed and implemented smart wheelchair system was tested and experimental results are included in the paper.