Sensor networks for medical care

Sensor networks have the potential to greatly impact many aspects of medical care. By outfitting patients with wireless, wearable vital sign sensors, collecting detailed real-time data on physiological status can be greatly simplified. However, there is a significant gap between existing sensor network systems and the needs of medical care. In particular, medical sensor networks must support multicast routing topologies, node mobility, a wide range of data rates and high degrees of reliability, and security. This paper describes our experiences with developing a combined hardware and software platform for medical sensor networks, called CodeBlue. CodeBlue provides protocols for device discovery and publish/subscribe multihop routing, as well as a simple query interface that is tailored for medical monitoring. We have developed several medical sensors based on the popular MicaZ and Telos mote designs, including a pulse oximeter, EKG and motion-activity sensor. We also describe a new...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: SENSYS
• Authors: Victor Shnayder, Bor-rong Chen, Konrad Lorincz, Thaddeus R. F. Fulford Jones, Matt Welsh
• Keywords: Medical Sensor Networks, Medical Sensors, Sensor Network, Sensor Networks, SENSYS 2005