Fault tolerance challenges in wearable computing for vital applications: a survey

Abstract

Wearable computers can be used in different domains including healthcare. However, due to suffering from challenges such as faults their applications may be limited in real practice. So, in designing wearable devices, designer must take into account fault tolerance techniques. This study aims to investigate the challenging issues of fault tolerance in wearable computing. For this purpose, different aspects of fault tolerance in wearable computing namely hardware, software, energy, and communication are studied; and state of the art research regarding each category is analysed. In this analysis, the performed works using the fault tolerance techniques are included in the form of 25 components and referred to as “fault tolerance plan”. Using this fault tolerance plan and the appropriate profile, the fault tolerance of any wearable system can be evaluated. In this article, fault tolerances of several of the most prominent works conducted in the field of wearable computing were evaluated. The obtained results, with the medical profile, showed that only one wearable system had a fault tolerance of 91%, with the other systems having a fault tolerance of 24% or less. Also, the results obtained from evaluating these works, with the military profile, showed that only one wearable system had a fault tolerance of 76%, with the other systems having a fault tolerance of 19% or less. These mean that few studies have been conducted on the fault tolerance of wearable computing.