Wearable Wireless Body Area Network Research Articles

EcoSync: An Energy-Efficient Clock Discipline Data Synchronization in Wi-Fi IoMT Systems

The growth of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and healthcare data analytics allows wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) and ambient sensors to collect the large quantities of physiological signals necessary for better patient diagnostics and treatments. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms frequently require precisely synchronized signals from multiple sensors, which in turn require time-consuming and energy-inefficient synchronization methods with constant wireless network connectivity. We propose ecoSync, a highly energy-efficient time synchronization algorithm for Wi-Fi devices in IoMT applications. We demonstrated that ecoSync can correct the time difference error to ±42 µs with an hour between resynchronizations, using only 658 millijoules of energy. This is an 87% improvement in time difference error and a 99.93% reduction in energy usage over using TSF for synchronization alone over a 1 h period. Wireless synchronization of sensors allows placement of physiological sensors on objects of everyday use (Smart Stuff), which in turn allows seamless collection of physiological status data every time we interact with smart objects in an IoMT environment.

Enhanced model for improving QOS in wireless sensor networks for healthcare monitoring application

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is made up of numerous sensor nodes that are dispersed at random and form themselves into a cooperative network. WSN fulfils the three basic tasks of communication, computation, and sensing. WSN research and analysis have grown into a significant exploratory field of healthcare monitoring, particularly because of the difficulties they can address. Current technologies on healthcare system focus on the wearable and implantable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), which are a subclass of WSNs. A medical sensor implanted in or attached to the body using a wireless media forms the basis of a WBAN. This technology allows the collection of physical information about the human body. The WBAN network is made up of different node coordinators that gather data from the devices (e.g. Heartbeat sensor) and transmit it to the closest access point (AP) of the healthcare system. Maintaining the Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as delay, throughput, energy consumption in the real or active environment caused by different activity of human motion are the main issues faced by body area networks. In this research, we combine Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) with Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA/CA)to propose a Combined Enhanced Multiplexing Algorithm (CEMA). With the implementation of this strategy, performance of the MAC protocol in congested networks can be enhanced. An improvement in the performance of the MAC protocol in WBAN was observed considering multi-channel transmission by integrating two algorithms.

Performance Evaluation of an On-Body Wireless Body Network Based on an Ultra-Wideband Physical Layer under a Dynamic Channel Model

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) are attracting attention as an important technology for realizing the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). In addition, ultra-wideband (UWB) is one of the wireless communication technologies suitable for the IoMT and WBANs. Our previous study investigated the feasibility of WBANs utilizing UWB under ideal and static wearable WBAN channel models. The present research applies a dynamic on-body UWB channel model to a WBAN as a more realistic channel model. The feasibility of a high-reliability UWB-WBAN is demonstrated by evaluating the physical layer performance. Numerical results reveal the maximum number of retransmissions needed to achieve the desired transmission failure ratio for each link type and the corresponding energy efficiency and average number of retransmissions. These findings contribute to the realization of a highly reliable IoMT utilizing UWB-WBANs in a practical environment.

A Survey on Wireless Wearable Body Area Networks: A Perspective of Technology and Economy.

The deployment of wearable or body-worn devices is increasing rapidly, and thus researchers’ interests mainly include technical and economical issues, such as networking, interoperability, security, power optimization, business growth and regulation. To address these issues properly, previous survey papers usually focused on describing the wireless body area network architecture and network protocols. This implies that deployment issues and awareness issues of wearable and BAN devices are not emphasized in previous work. To defeat this problem, in this study, we have focused on feasibility, limitations, and security concerns in wireless body area networks. In the aspect of the economy, we have focused on the compound annual growth rate of these devices in the global market, different regulations of wearable/wireless body area network devices in different regions and countries of the world and feasible research projects for wireless body area networks. In addition, this study focuses on the domain of devices that are equally important to physicians, sportsmen, trainers and coaches, computer scientists, engineers, and investors. The outcomes of this study relating to physicians, fitness trainers and coaches indicate that the use of these devices means they would be able to treat their clients in a more effective way. The study also converges the focus of businessmen on the Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) and provides manufacturers and vendors with information about different regulatory bodies that are monitoring and regulating WBAN devices. Therefore, by providing deployment issues in the aspects of technology and economy at the same time, we believe that this survey can serve as a preliminary material that will lead to more advancements and improvements in deployment in the area of wearable wireless body area networks. Finally, we present open issues and further research direction in the area of wireless body area networks.

Wearable Metasurface Antenna based on Electrically‐small Ring Resonators for WBAN Applications

This letter proposes a novel wearable metasurface antenna (MSA) based on electric ring resonators (ERR) for 5.8 GHz wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. All substrates of the proposed design are made from the semi-flexible Rogers RT5880 material. To achieve size miniaturization, 6 × 8 ERR elements are placed on a flat surface connected through a corporate-feed network. The total dimensions of the proposed MSA are 120 × 90 × 1.574 mm3 (2.2λ0 × 1.69λ0 × 0.029λ0). Furthermore, an average efficiency of 79.9%, and a peak gain of 12.82 dBi with a stable radiation pattern have been realized in the operating band. The performance of the proposed MSA is analyzed in close proximity to the human body tissue. The experimental results show good agreement with the numerical data. With all these features, the proposed design is a good candidate for wearable WBAN applications.

Wearable Wireless Body Area Networks for Medical Applications.

In recent times, there has been a significant growth in networks known as the wireless body area networks (WBANs). A WBAN connects distributed nodes throughout the human body, which can be placed on the skin, under the skin, or on clothing and can use the human body's electromagnetic waves. An approach to reduce the size of different telecommunication equipment is constantly being sought; this allows these devices to be closer to the body or even glued and embedded within the skin without making the user feel uncomfortable or posing as a danger for the user. These networks promise new medical applications; however, these are always based on the freedom of movement and the comfort they offer. Among the advantages of these networks is that they can significantly increase user's quality of life. For example, a person can carry a WBAN with built-in sensors that calculate the user's heart rate at any given time and send these data over the internet to user's doctor. This study provides a systematic review of WBAN, describing the applications and trends that have been developed with this type of network and, in addition, the protocols and standards that must be considered.

Bending and SAR analysis on UWB wearable MIMO antenna for on-arm WBAN applications

Abstract Here, a planar Ultra-Wideband (UWB) wearable Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna is designed for on-arm wearable Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) applications. This antenna is designed on a 100% cotton cloth substrate. The two-port MIMO antenna has a dual spinning wheel shape like radiators with the partial ground and microstrip feedings. The two partial grounds are connected to a rectangular strip to have common ground. The complete surface area of the antenna is 40 × 70 mm2. In comparison with recently published papers in the same research area, the bending and SAR analysis are also done to estimate the performance of this wearable antenna, which is the novelty of this research work. For entire UWB bandwidth, S–parameters, gain, efficiency, and diversity parameters (Channel Capacity Loss [CCL] and Envelope Correlation Coefficient [ECC]) and far-field simulations are done for all cases such as flat, bend, on body antenna, which demonstrates the appropriateness of the presented antenna to be operated to the human arm.

A Dual-band Monopole Antenna with EBG for Wearable Wireless Body Area Networks

This paper proposes a dual-band wearable monopole antenna adopting an electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure, which operates at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz ISM bands and is suitable for wearable applications. Both the monopole antenna and the EBG structure are fabricated on an F4B semi-flexible substrate having a dielectric constant of 2.2. The EBG structure effectively isolates the human body from the radiation of the antenna and reduces the specific absorption rate (SAR) of it by more than 97.5%. This improves the antenna gain and the peak gain reaches 9.1 dBi at 5.8 GHz. The wearable performance of the antenna showed that it can sustain good performance even under realistic human body loading. Besides, the antenna has a small size, which makes it ideal for wearable applications.

Heterogeneous Sensor Data Fusion for Human Falling Detection

With the continuous improvement of human living standards, population aging has become a global development trend. At present, China has entered an aging society, the health and safety of the elderly have become the focus of social concern. Due to the aging of physiological structure and the decline of physical function, the probability and frequency of accidental falls in the elderly are very high. Under the above background, the purpose of this study is based on a heterogeneous sensor data fusion algorithm in an intelligent wearable sensor network. This article proposes a heterogeneous sensor data fusion algorithm based on wearable wireless body area network technology, and constructs a high-precision and stable wearable elderly activities of daily living (ADLs) and fall monitoring system. We first select the three-axis acceleration sensor, three-axis magnetic sensor, and three-axis angular velocity sensor to monitor the activities of the elderly. Then, we use Bluetooth to transmit the data collected by heterogeneous sensors to smartphones, and communicate with service centers and users through the mobile phone communication network, Family members interact to form a wireless city network based on wearable technology. Our proposed data fusion approach is based on the Kalman filter algorithm, which can reduce the system noise and improve the stability of the system. The experimental results demonstrate that the fall detection system proposed and implemented in this study can well detect accidental falls in the daily activities of the elderly, the sensitivity and specificity of the fall detection system are 98.7% and 98.5% respectively. The study in this article has a high research value and practical application significance in protecting the healthy life of the elderly.

Design of CPW fed multiband antenna for wearable wireless body area network applications

This communication presents a multiband on-body conformal and wearable antenna for Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) applications. The suggested wearable CPW-fed slot dipole antenna is incorporated with inductively coupled meander shape, T and O shaped resonators that lead to provide multiband operation. The resonant frequency is controlled by a definite resonant path, which leads to high degree of freedom in design paradigm. The proposed wearable antenna covers the 2.4 GHz/5.2 GHz/5.8 GHz WLAN, 3.5 GHz WiMAX, and 4.4 GHz C-bands and has an overall dimension of 60 × 40 × 0.254 mm3. The SAR analysis has also been presented for the antenna at several resonant frequencies which are well under the normal SAR criteria of 1.6 W/kg that suggests that the model performs satisfactorily for wearable applications. To characterize the performance of the antenna, the specimen of the antenna is rigorously tested in terms of antenna gain, S-parameters and flexibility under different bending configurations for radii values ranging from 90 to 30 mm. The reflection coefficient of the suggested antenna is also evaluated and the outcomes are compared under distinct on-body circumstances. Measured and simulated results of S11, radiation pattern and gain are in good agreement.

A low‐profile dual‐band omnidirectional Alford antenna for wearable WBAN applications

AbstractA low‐profile omnidirectional antenna based on folded Alford loop is proposed for wireless body area network (WBAN) applications in industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM, 2.4‐2.4835 GHz and 5.725‐5.875 GHz) bands. By fabricating two complementary symmetrically folded Alford loops on both sides of a round Roger substrate, the proposed antenna has small volume and omnidirectional radiation capability in both bands. Since the omnidirectional radiation plane is parallel to the human body surface, low specific absorption rate (SAR) can be obtained. The proposed antenna has a profile of 0.639 mm and occupies an area of π × 302 mm2, along with a measured peak gain of 6.1 dBi and 14.1% impedance bandwidth (BW) at 2.45 GHz and peak gain of 2.2 dBi and 6.7% impedance BW at 5.8 GHz. Simulated and measured results reveal that the antenna has good omnidirectional radiation in both bands. Moreover, the bending sensitivity study and SAR analysis prove that it is a good candidate for wearable WBAN devices.

Machine learning for wearable IoT‐based applications: A survey

AbstractThis paper gives an overview about applying machine learning (ML) in wearable Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). It highlights the main challenges and open issues for deploying ML models in such sensitive networks. The WBAN is an emerging technology in the last few years, which attracts lots of interest from the academic and industrial communities. It enables a wide range of IoT‐based applications in medical, lifestyle, sport, and entertainment. WBAN are constrained in many aspects such as those related to power resources, communication capabilities, and computation power. Moreover, these networks generate ample amount of sensory data. To overcome the limitations of these networks and make use of the big data generated, artificial intelligence is the best way to deal with gigantic data and help in automating several aspects of the network and its applications. This survey paper aims at reporting numerous ways ML is used to benefit these networks, the design factors that are considered when implementing the ML algorithms, and the communication technologies used in connecting wearable WBAN in the IoT era. The reported studies are based on real overviewed experiment and extensive simulation results.

A Study on Lifetime Enhancement and Reliability in Wearable Wireless Body Area Networks

The wireless body area network (WBAN) which consists of wearable or implantable sensor nodes, is a technology that enables pervasive observing and delivery of health related information and services. The radio-enabled implantable medical devices offer a revolutionary set of applications among which we can point to precision drug distribution, smart endoscope capsules, glucose level observers and eye pressure detecting systems. Devices with WBAN are generally battery powered due to sensitivity and criticality of the data carried and handled by WBAN, reliability becomes a critical issues. WBAN loads a high degree of reliability as it openly affects the quality of patient observing. Undetected life-threatening circumstances can lead to death. A main requirement is that the health care professionals receive the monitored data correctly in emergency situations. The major objective is to achieve a reliable network with minimum delay and maximum throughput while considering power consumption by reducing unnecessary communication.

Development of a wearable wireless body area network for health monitoring of the elderly and disabled

Novel advancements in systems miniaturization, electronics in health care and communication technologies are enabling the integration of both patients and doctors involvement in health care system. A Wearable Wireless Body Area Network (WWBAN) provides continuous, unobtrusive ambulatory, ubiquitous health monitoring, and provide real time patient’s status to the physician without any constraint on their normal daily life activities. In this project we developed a wearable wireless body area network system that continuously monitor the health of the elderly and the disabled and provide them with independent, safe and secure living. The WWBAN system monitors the following parameters; blood oxygen saturation using a pulse oximeter sensor (SpO2), heart rate (HR) pulse sensor, Temperature, hydration, glucose level and fall detection. When the wearable system is put on, the sensor values are processed and analysed. If any of the monitored parameter values falls below or exceeds the normal range, there is trigger of remote alert by which an SMS is send to a doctor or physician via GSM module and network. The developed system offers flexibility and mobility to the user; it is a real time system and has significance in revolutionizing health care system by enabling non-invasive, inexpensive, continuous health monitoring.

A COMPACT DUAL BAND POLYIMIDE BASED ANTENNA FOR WEARABLE AND FLEXIBLE TELEMEDICINE DEVICES

Recent wearable health monitoring systems use multiple biosensors embedded within a wireless device. In order to reliably transmit the desired vital signs in such systems, a new set of antenna design requirements arise. In this paper, we present a flexible, ultra-low profile, and compact dual band antenna. The proposed design is suitable for wearable and flexible telemedicine systems and wireless body area networks (WBANs). The antenna is inkjet printed on a 50.8µ mP olyimide Kapton substrate and fed by a Coplanar Waveguide (CPW). The proposed design has the merits of compactness, light weight, wide bandwidth, high efficiency, and mechanical stability. The performance of the antenna is also characterized against bending and rolling effects to assess its behaviour in a realistic setup since it is expected to be rolled on curved surfaces when operated. The antenna is shown to exhibit very low susceptibility to performance degradation when tested against bending effects. Good radiation characteristics, reduced fabrication complexity, cost effectiveness, and excellent physical properties suggest that the proposed design is a feasible candidate for the targeted application.

A cooperator-assisted wireless body area network for real-time vital data collection

Wearable wireless body area network (WBAN) has attracted considerable attention as a means to collect vital data in sports training and urgent life-critical scenarios, which requires high reliability in links from sensor nodes to a central coordinator. Herein, cooperative relaying, which means retransmission not by sensor nodes themselves but through their cooperators, works effectively, since human postures do not suddenly change the states of the links in quite a short duration such as a retransmission interval. In this paper, we propose a cooperator-assisted WBAN for real-time vital data collection. We show that the WBAN is realizable based on two kinds of medium access control (MAC) protocols such as a hybrid-time divison multiple access/carrier sense multiple access (TDMA/CSMA) and a TDMA, both of which are compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4.e standard, and evaluate the packet error rates and power consumptions for a hybrid-TDMA/CSMA-based WBAN and a TDMA-based WBAN. In the evaluation of packet error rates, we use the stored received signal strength indication (RSSI) data, which were obtained from experiments with three subjects in a realistic scenario composed of a series of different actions and postures in a mixed-indoor/outdoor environment.

Surveying wearable human assistive technology for life and safety critical applications: standards, challenges and opportunities.

In this survey a new application paradigm life and safety for critical operations and missions using wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) technology is introduced. This paradigm has a vast scope of applications, including disaster management, worker safety in harsh environments such as roadside and building workers, mobile health monitoring, ambient assisted living and many more. It is often the case that during the critical operations and the target conditions, the existing infrastructure is either absent, damaged or overcrowded. In this context, it is envisioned that WBANs will enable the quick deployment of ad-hoc/on-the-fly communication networks to help save many lives and ensuring people's safety. However, to understand the applications more deeply and their specific characteristics and requirements, this survey presents a comprehensive study on the applications scenarios, their context and specific requirements. It explores details of the key enabling standards, existing state-of-the-art research studies, and projects to understand their limitations before realizing aforementioned applications. Application-specific challenges and issues are discussed comprehensively from various perspectives and future research and development directions are highlighted as an inspiration for new innovative solutions. To conclude, this survey opens up a good opportunity for companies and research centers to investigate old but still new problems, in the realm of wearable technologies, which are increasingly evolving and getting more and more attention recently.

Identifying risky environments for COPD patients using smartphones and internet of things objects

This paper overviews the capabilities offered by the smartphones as advanced computing devices for healthcare applications, focusing on the prevention of short-term complications of chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease COPD patients, using personalised decision making. Data provided by the embedded smartphone sensors, wearable wireless body area networks and internet of things objects are incorporated in a framework that evaluates and alerts the COPD patient for potentially risky environmental conditions in the proximal area. Data processing schemas are presented, distributing the execution of the calculations between the smartphone and a cloud-hosted service, achieving the ideal equilibrium between processing speed, system scalability and battery life of the mobile devices.

Design of a Miniaturized High-Isolation Diversity Antenna for Wearable WBAN Applications

This paper proposes a miniaturized high-isolation diversity antenna for wearable wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. An inverted-F type radiating element is used to reduce the overall dimension of the proposed antenna to <TEX>$30mm{\times}30mm{\times}2.5mm$</TEX>. The antenna performance on the human body phantom is analyzed through simulation and the performance of the fabricated antenna is verified by comparing the measured data with that of the simulation when the antenna is placed on a semi-solid flat phantom with equivalent electrical properties of a human body. The fabricated antenna has a 10 dB return loss bandwidth over the Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band from 2.35 GHz to 2.71 GHz and isolation is higher than 28 dB at 2.45 GHz. The measured peak gain of antenna elements # 1 and # 2 is -0.43 dBi and -0.54 dBi, respectively. Performance parameters are analyzed, including envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), mean effective gain (MEG), and the MEG ratio. In addition, the specific absorption ratio (SAR) distributions of the proposed antenna are measured for consideration in use.

An Evaluation Method of Research on Wearable Wireless Body Area Network in Healthcare

An Evaluation Method of Research on Wearable Wireless Body Area Network in Healthcare