Enhancing the quality of life through wearable technology

Author

Park, Sungmee ; Jayaraman, Sundaresan

Author_Institution

Sch. of Textile & Fiber Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

22

Issue

3

fYear

2003

Firstpage

41

Lastpage

48

Abstract

An overview of the key challenges facing the practice of medicine today is presented along with the need for technological solutions that can "prevent" problems. Then, the development of the Wearable Motherboard™ (Smart Shirt) as a platform for sensors and monitoring devices that can unobtrusively monitor the health and well being of individuals (directly and/or remotely) is described. This is followed by a discussion of the applications and impact of this technology in the continuum of life-from preventing SIDS to facilitating independent living for senior citizens. Finally, the future advancements in the area of wearable, yet comfortable, systems that can continue the transformation of healthcare - all aimed at enhancing the quality of life for humans - are presented.

Keywords

biomedical telemetry; biomedical transducers; knowledge based systems; medical diagnostic computing; patient monitoring; reviews; telemedicine; SIDS; Smart Shirt; Wearable Motherboard; health monitoring; independent living; monitoring devices; personalized wearable intelligent information infrastructure; quality of life; senior citizens; sensors; wearable technology; well being monitoring; Aging; Biomedical monitoring; Clothing; Costs; Heart; Hospitals; Humans; Medical services; Pediatrics; Senior citizens; Adult; Artificial Intelligence; Child; Clothing; Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; Equipment Design; Humans; Monitoring, Ambulatory; Quality of Life; Telemedicine; Textiles; Transducers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0739-5175

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MEMB.2003.1213625

Filename

1213625