Evaluation of physiological and physical activity by means of a wireless multi-sensor

Recently, an attempt to monitor elders, disabled and/or convalescent people at home has been an emerging discipline of technology and science. Especially, providing a home care based on remote sensing for single and elder persons is a challenging task. An integrated sensor for cardiac, breathing and kinetics of movement activities is developed. It enables a 24 hour monitoring of a one channel electrocardiogram (ECG), a one channel of breathing activity and three-directional accelerations. Both, the electrocardiogram and the breathing activities are measured using the same electrodes. The configuration and localization of the electrode matrix do not introduce any obstacles in the daily life activity. The recorded signals are characterized by a low level of artifacts. Thus, the proposed electrode matrix appears (to be) very resistive to artifacts arising from the movement of the monitored subject. Nevertheless, the data processing techniques and methods are also applied in order to increase the reliability of estimations. It is possible to estimate heart and breath rates. It seems that the developed wireless sensor is a reliable tool for estimating and evaluating activity during the daily life of the monitored person.