Sensium: an ultra-low-power wireless body sensor network platform: Design & application challenges

• Published in: 2009 Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Vol. 2009; pp. 6576 - 6579
• Main Authors: Wong, A.C.W., McDonagh, D., Omeni, O., Nunn, C., Hernandez-Silveira, M., Burdett, A.J.
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States IEEE 01-01-2009
• Subjects: Body sensor networks; Electric Power Supplies; Electrocardiography; Electrodes; Electromagnetic Fields; Electronics; Energy Metabolism; Equipment Design; Hardware; Heart rate measurement; Humans; Media Access Protocol; Microprocessors; Monitoring, Physiologic - instrumentation; Sensor systems; Static Electricity; System-on-a-chip; Telemetry - instrumentation; Transceivers; Wireless application protocol; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 1094-687X; 1557-170X; 1558-4615
• DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5334001

In this paper we present a system-on-chip for wireless body sensor networks, which integrates a transceiver, hardware MAC protocol, microprocessor, IO peripherals, memories, ADC and custom sensor interfaces. Addressing the challenges in the design, this paper will continue to discuss the issues in the applications of this technology to body worn monitoring for real-time measurement of ECG, heart rate, physical activity, respiration and/or skin temperature. Two application challenges are described; the real-time measurement of energy expenditure using the LifePebble, and; the development issues surrounding the `Digital Patch'.