Infrared Based Multiple-Patient Monitoring in Indoor

Optical Wireless Healthcare Systems

Abstract:

Optical wireless communication (OWC) is recognized as a propitious technology

for indoor data communications. OWC offers reduced electromagnetic interference
(EMI) in sensitive indoor communication environments such as hospitals and nursing
homes, and has thus emerged as a good candidate for healthcare monitoring applications.
The use of infrared (IR) communication for multiple-patient biomedical data
transmission. InfraRed (IR) has the potential to become a complement or alternative to
RF technology. To transmit the multiple-patient data, we propose a novel periodic data
transmission (PDT) scheme with real-time experimental demonstration. The transmit
modules consist of IR light emitting diodes (LEDs) as the transmitter, and the receiver
module comprises a narrow band pass filter (BPF) followed by an IR photodiode (PD).
Biomedical signals for the transmission include electrocardiography (ECG), blood
pressure (BP), and body temperature. The use of RF technologies around the human body
can be problematic in terms of impact on health, security and confidentiality. We
consider the line-of-sight (LOS) data transmission with multiple transmitters
corresponding to each patient and a single receiver where each patient is allowed to
transmit the data periodically. OWC field for medium and low-rate medical applications,
we have developed skills and dedicated tools to address the modeling of indoor optical
wireless channels applied to Body Sensor Networks (BSN). OWC technology can be a
solution to provide low cost, efficient and safe communications for medical devices,
between medical equipment or between patients and monitoring stations
Block Diagram:

Transmitter:

POWER SUPPLY

PULSE
SENSOR

MICRO IR
CONTROLLER TRANSMITTER

TEMPERATURE
SENSOR

BLOOD
PRESSOR
SENSOR
Receiver:

LCD
DISPLAY

POWER
SUPPLY
MICRO
CONTROLLER

MONITORING
DEVICE
IR
RECEIVER