title: Optical wireless connected objects for healthcare.
abstract: In this Letter the authors explore the communication capabilities of optical wireless technology for a wearable device dedicated to healthcare application. In an indoor environment sensible to electromagnetic perturbations such as a hospital, the use of optical wireless links can permit reducing the amount of radio frequencies in the patient environment. Moreover, this technology presents the advantage to be secure, low-cost and easy to deploy. On the basis of commercially available components, a custom-made wearable device is presented, which allows optical wireless transmission of accelerometer data in the context of physical activity supervision of post-stroke patients in hospital. Considering patient mobility, the experimental performance is established in terms of packet loss as a function of the number of receivers fixed to the ceiling. The results permit to conclude that optical wireless links can be used to perform such mobile remote monitoring applications. Moreover, based on the measurements obtained with one receiver, it is possible to theoretically determine the performance according to the number of receivers to be deployed.
authors.affiliation: XLIM UMR7252 , University of Limoges , Limoges 87068 , France.
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Toumieux
authors.affiliation: XLIM UMR7252 , University of Limoges , Limoges 87068 , France.
authors.forename: Ludovic
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chevalier
authors.affiliation: XLIM UMR7252 , University of Limoges , Limoges 87068 , France.
authors.forename: Stéphanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sahuguède
authors.affiliation: XLIM UMR7252 , University of Limoges , Limoges 87068 , France.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Julien-Vergonjanne
keywords: acceleration measurement; accelerometer data; accelerometers; biomedical measurement; body sensor networks; communication capabilities; custom-made wearable device; electromagnetic perturbations; experimental performance; health care; healthcare; medical disorders; mobile remote monitoring applications; optical transceivers; optical wireless connected objects; optical wireless links; optical wireless technology; packet loss; patient environment; patient mobility; patient monitoring; physical activity supervision; post-stroke patients