Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
5.1.2.
Sensors for monitoring persons
In the field of human activity (Logan, 2007) and status recognition, we can distinguish
systems that use wearable sensors and contactless sensors with sensors mounted in the
environment, like cameras or motion sensors.
The development of wearable sensors is spreading more and more due to the
technological improvements in terms of miniaturization and energy consumption.
These sensors are really useful in an AAL context, because permits the daily
continuous monitoring of various physiological and biomechanical parameters with
low invasiveness and high comfort. Further they are used for behaviour and activity
recognition, both for indoor and outdoor scenarios.
Research and development of sensors are a very wide and complex themes and
reserve many technologies for various applications. A relevant application for tele-
monitoring of congestive heart-failure patients is the monitoring and processing of
heart vibrations with a 1D or 3D accelerometer implanted under the skin which allows
detection of atria and ventricle contractions, aortic and mitral flows which gives an
hemodynamic status of the patient. Another challenges is represented from MEMS-
based sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and physiological or
biometric sensors), worn on different parts of the body, used for recognition of such
activities as walking, running and climbing up stairs, or physiological parameters. Also
textile sensors are becoming an interesting promise for daily monitoring of vital signal:
they could be integrated in smart shirt with both physiological ECG and physical
activity detectible sensors to improve the accuracy of the patient diagnosis (Lee, 2009).
R&D trends in this important class of enabling technologies include also the
development of new families of contactless sensors, such as 3D CMOS image sensors.
In surveillance and reconnaissance applications, CMOS image sensors are able to
extract visual information from the geometry of visible surfaces, interpret the 3D
coordinate data, and capture both colour and depth images simultaneously
(Suntharalingam, 2009). Other typical (non vision based) environmental sensors for
activity detection are simple infrared motion detectors (reed switches on doors and
cupboards) and RFID tags on objects.
R
oadmap 8.
Sensing.
Short term (2015)
Mid term (2020)
Long term (2025)
Tele-monitoring
of patient status
ECG, EEG, acceleration,
movements, weight, pressure,
temperature, heart sounds,
respiration body worn and
subcutaneous
Ingestible capsule for pH,
temperature, pressure, heart sounds,
blood flows, respiration
Cellular phone wireless connected to
sensors body worn or ingestible
or subcutaneous
Sensor tags capable of storing a
series of measurements
Biomarkers external
Wireless
biomarkers
implanted
Wearable multi-
sensor platforms
Sensors power supplied by
rechargeable batteries
Sensors power supplied
by energy scavengers
Leadless ECG and respiration
Sensors wireless
powered
