Design and Fabrication of Low Power Sensor Network Platform for Ubiquitous Health Care

Nowadays, a low power sensor network technology is very important in wireless communication technology. Wireless sensor network are often used in remote monitoring control applications, health care, security and environmental monitoring. [1] Wireless sensor networks are an emerging technology consisting of small, low-power [4], and low-cost devices that integrate limited computation, sensing, and radio communication capabilities. With the maturity of sensing and pervasive computing [3] techniques, extensive research is being carried out in using sensor networks for health care. The concept of ubiquitous health care is to use unobtrusive sensors that are placed around the person’s to form a wirelessly connected network. [2] Figure 1 shows system configuration of Ubiquitous health care. The health parameters of human body were monitored via internet /IEEE 802.11(WLAN) from PC or PDA. The system consists of a sensor node, base-station and display unit from PC or PDA. The sensor node, capable of supporting multiple sensors, in attached to a subject for monitoring health parameters, and the data from the sensor unit is sent to the base-station via a RF transmitter. One of the major design issues addressed for the sensor node was to develop a small size, low power wireless sensor node [6] which can be strapped on the body of the person. The base-station is a stand-alone unit, which is able to receive the data from sensor node using a RF receiver, store it and also transfer it to a mobile unit using Internet/IEEE 802.11(WLAN). Design and Fabrication of Low Power Sensor Network Platform for Ubiquitous Health Care