Implementation of a wireless sensor network for heart rate monitoring in a senior center.
OBJECTIVE
Wearable sensor systems are widely used to monitor vital sign in hospitals and in recent years have also been used at home. In this article we present a system that includes a ring probe, sensor, radio, and receiver, designed for use as a long-term heart rate monitoring system in a senior center. The primary contribution of this article is successfully implementing a cheap, large-scale wireless heart rate monitoring system that is stable and comfortable to use 24 h a day.


METHODS
We developed new finger ring sensors for comfortable continuous wearing experience and used dynamic power adjustment on the ring so the sensor can detect pulses at different strength levels.


RESULTS
Our system has been deployed in a senior center since May 2012, and 63 seniors have used this system in this period. During the 54-h system observation period, 10 alarms were set off. Eight of them were due to abnormal heart rate, and two of them were due to loose probes. The monitoring system runs stably with the senior center's existing WiFi network, and achieves 99.48% system availability. The managers and caregivers use our system as a reliable warning system for clinical deterioration.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the year-long deployment show that the wireless group heart rate monitoring system developed in this work is viable for use within a designated area.
1Sport Information and Communication Department, National Taiwan University of Sport, Taichung, Taiwan.
Jyh-How
JH
Huang
2Taiwan Telemedical Device Company, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Tzu-Yao
TY
Su
3Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Paweeya
P
Raknim
3Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Kun-Chan
KC
Lan
D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D064407:Senior Centers; D017216:Telemedicine; D013686:Telemetry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D059015:Wireless Technology
e-health; heart rate monitoring; home health monitoring; sensor technology; telehealth; wireless sensor networks