A prototype on RFID and sensor networks for elder healthcare

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and sensor networks are both wireless technologies that provide limitless future potentials. While the industry has witnessed rapid growth in developing and applying RFID technology, and the network research community has devoted tremendous efforts in sensor networks, these two communities would benefit greatly by learning from each other. In pursuing this effect, a project utilizing and integrating both technologies is described. The goal is to build an in-home elder healthcare system that monitors patients' medication in take. This would help addressing the challenge of a growing aging population.

Energy Efficient Sleep/Wake Scheduling for Multi-Hop Sensor Networks: Non-Convexity and Approximation Algorithm

“…In many sensor systems [28], [29], the BS is a Pentium level PC, which has a high computational capability and sufficient memory compared to the sensor nodes. Further, the BS is often connected to an unlimited power supply.…”

Wireless Healthcare Monitoring with RFID-Enhanced Video Sensor Networks

“…In the first category, the applications try to identify and differentiate the everyday activities of the patients and the elderly, such as watching television, sleeping, and ironing, and be able to detect odd conditions [8,9]. Location tracking, the medication intake reminder, and monitoring systems can help cognitively impaired people to survive independently [10][11][12]. Medical care applications make use of biosensors and environmental sensors in order to obtain comprehensive health status information of the patients, including ECG, heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, and oxygen saturation [13].…”

RFID-based Semantic-enhanced Ubiquitous Decision Support System for Healthcare

“…The integration of RFID with other pervasive computing technologies -such as wireless protocols and sensor networks-is leading to further innovative applications in the tele-medicine area, particularly for ubiquitous persistent monitoring of elderly or disabled people as well as for patient follow-up during rehabilitation phase [9,11]. Context-awareness is the key aspect of such approaches to improve quality of healthcare services.…”

“…The use of lightweight wireless computing infrastructures and of widely-adopted KR technologies can promote interoperability and integration of solutions designed for hospital centres hosting tele-medicine applications. Finally, as pointed out in [9], ubiquitous computing technologies allow the capture of health data at an unprecedented scale: knowledge-based approaches can assist in the management, analysis and interpretation of such data for research purposes and/or to improve clinical best practices.…”