A smartphone-centric platform for personal health monitoring using wireless wearable biosensors

The body area sensor network is widely regarded as a key technology that holds promise of enabling low-cost healthcare to be accessible to the fast growing aging sector of the population. The popularity of smartphones with their open operating systems provides a powerful platform for developing very low-cost personalized healthcare applications. In addition to the requirement of low cost, the limited battery life and the implementation of bio-signal processing software in resource-constrained smartphone platforms are two practical challenges. In this work, we present the design and implementation considerations of such a smartphone-centered platform for low-cost continuous health monitoring based on commercial-off-the-shelf wireless wearable biosensors, which are anticipated to proliferate in the market in the near future. As a case study, this platform approach has been implemented utilizing photoplethysmographic biosensors and different smartphones to measure heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen saturation, and estimate obstructive sleep apnea. The two aforementioned practical challenges have been addressed in detail from a system-level design perspective. The case study result confirms the many advantages of the suggested system, including the closed loop control capability, portability and upgradability. ©2009 IEEE