Utilization of wireless sensor network for health monitoring in home environment

The health care costs in developed countries are increasing fast due to the aging of the population. In-home monitoring of health is becoming more and more attractive both because of expected cost-savings and technical development of suitable measurement devices and wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we present on-going work about embedding health monitoring devices into ordinary homes. The developed system is targeted both for monitoring elderly and for monitoring rehabilitation after hospitalization period. The paper presents the utilized sensor network implementation, chosen set of sensors for the first test trial, as well as other design choices for the trial. In addition, further objectives about concentrating on one special case, the ubiquitous heart rate measurement, are discussed. Our objective is to install several non-contact heart rate monitors into a home environment. The designed system performed well during the trial. However, some issues, such as sensor addressing in WSN and user identification, will be better taken into account in the next trials.