Medical Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks: Who-Did-What - Application and Multidisciplinary Aspects of Wireless Sensor Networks - page 171

The application layer, for both cases, handles user interfaces for different applications.
This module offers support for the extended functionalities over time which may arise,
and also supports different storage modalities: databases and web-servers.
Depending on the expansion of sensor modalities, software prerequisites must
be met and it is done in form of the parsing layer. The parsing layer enables addi-
tional flexibility of including new sensor into the system by processing the raw data
generated by sensors.
The interpretation layer intends to handle different algorithms for processed data
interpretation.
For motes, the sensor layer includes three sub-layers. Firstly, there are sensor-
specific protocols which serve as filters. The filters implement data processing
algorithms, for example, in terms of energy saving, stillness detection. Under this,
the TinyOS and fundamental protocols for system's working are set. Protocols refer
to data synchronization, data logging, and upload.
At the end, on the motes' side, layer 1 is UART/RF-Radio-based. It communi-
cates to the USB/Serial port layer on the other side and enables data transfer.

Contribution

Major contribution of the Satire system is user transparency. Project's goal includes
the implementation of the service which provides information collection, storage,
and uploads without explicit input or maintenance required from the user. Satire
presents new wearable platform limited by the currently available off-the-shelf
components.

8.4.3.3 Alarm-Net

Alarm-Net is a wireless sensor network for assisted living and residential monitoring
being developed on University of Virginia. It integrates environmental and physiologi-
cal sensors in a scalable, heterogeneous architecture [ 4 ]. The focus of this network is to
provide smart environment and to secure patients' monitoring on daily basis. This proj-
ect aims to facilitate the concept of health care by including informal caregivers, such
as family, friends, and patients' themselves in the process. Early detection and preven-
tion of diseases insures cost-reducing with simultaneous care quality maintenance.

Hardware

The Alarm-Net architecture includes heterogeneous devices:

• MICAz sensor nodes

• Stargate gateways

• iPAQ PDAs

• PCs