Integration of Wearable Sensors and Positioning System for Developing Healthy Living Style

Y.C. Wu*, S. M. Liu*, C. S. Chang&

*Dept. of Electrical Engineering &Dept. of Info. Management National United University

Miao-Li, Taiwan ycwu@nuu.edu.tw

C. C. Han%, W.C. Yu#

%Dept. of Computer Science & Info. Engineering #Dept. of Business Management

National United University Miao-Li, Taiwan

Abstract—This paper proposes a health care system that could

"keep the elderly at good health before the illness occurs", including "smart phone based mobile health care for the elderly", "indoor wireless transmission network location and data acquisition" and "wireless transmission electronic scale". This system can provide a health care management environment for the elderly, facilitate their concern over self health management, reduce the medical resource expenditure, and improve the quality of life.

Index Terms—smart phone, ring-type pulse sensor, health management, exercise 333, walking 10 thousand steps daily

I. INTRODUCTION Due to the high ratio of elder population (10.4% is over 65

years old) and the trend of low birth rate in Taiwan, the ratio of productive population to the elderly population will decrease in the future, thus directly affecting the economic development of the nation. Therefore, in recent years, Taiwan has devoted to the development of telecare systems for regular or long-term monitoring, in order to achieve early prevention and to reduce medical expenditures.

According to the research of the Department of Family Medicine at Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, obesity and insufficient exercise are among the top ten risk factors [1] while obesity leads to various chronic diseases (cardiovascular disease and diabetes are among the top ten causes of death in Taiwan [2]). Therefore, personal health management should be upgraded from disease diagnosis and treatment to a preventive level. Telecare technology can be used to assist individuals in health management (e.g. cultivating healthy lifestyle, monitoring physiological signal regularly, and early detection and prevention), so as to improve the quality of life and achieve "prevention is better than cure.”

In recent years, many scholars and experts have researched and developed health care management systems, using various types of sensors, transmission modes, and applications. In order to implement the mobile physiological measurement health care system (not limited to home), a portable monitor (light and small) and an integrated platform of heterogeneous wireless communications (integrating Bluetooth transmission, WiFi wireless transmission, telecommunication transmission, etc.) are required. These should be combined with the backend

medical system to provide health care service, so as to implement “Prevention is better than cure.” The aim of this paper is to develop a health care system that could "keep the elderly at good health before the illness occurs," proposing a mobile health care system for the elderly to provide a mobile health care management environment for the elderly, to facilitate their concern over self health management, to reduce the medical resource expenditure, and to improve the quality of life.

II. SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE SYSTEMS As the prevalence rate of mobile phones in Taiwan has

reached as high as 108% [3], smart phone is an ideal tool mobile health management. The main structure of the proposed mobile exercise habit management system is shown in Fig. 1. The measuring instruments include a light ring-type pulse sensor (prototype is shown in Fig. 2), a pedometer and others (expanded measurement systems for blood oxygen, electrocardiogram, G sensor, blood pressure, etc.), with wireless transmission equipments (RFID and Bluetooth). The measured physiological signals can be recorded at any time by the mobile phone. The backend health management software is designed for the mobile phone, so as to allow the elderly develop a healthy life habit of "walking ten thousand steps daily" and "exercise 333" (to exercise 3 times weekly, to reach a heartbeat of 130 per minute (adjusted according to age), and to exercise 30 minutes each time) [4]. The health management software can set daily/weekly check points to review the completion rate of walking ten thousand steps/exercise 333, and to remind/encourage the elderly to keep attaining the goal.

The GPS system built in the mobile phone and the physiological measurement system work jointly, so as to send text messages via mobile network automatically to the first-aid personnel/friends and relatives to notify them of the conditions and GPS coordinates in case of emergency (e.g. when the pulse is lower or higher than a threshold, or the elderly falls). In addition, as the mobile phone GPS and 3G wireless network can record the mobile coordinates of the elderly at any time, with the physiological signals, the lifestyle can be recognized for the backend care unit or the family for analysis. At present, Taiwan has entered the state of aging society. The children of most elderly have to work and are unable to take care of the

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elderly at home, but they are concerned about health conditions of the elderly. The mobile care system for the elderly can provide this function, so that the family can know the health conditions of the elderly through the network, and the elderly can maintain their health under the care. The indoor positioning and lifestyle recognition can be implemented by the wireless sensor network ZigBee positioning.

Fig. 1 Smart phone based mobile health care for the elderly

The system may also include a Bluetooth electronic scale

(Fig. 3), which can transmit the BMI value to the mobile phone and backend data acquisition server.

Fig. 2 Bluetooth ring-type pulse

measuring instrument Fig. 3 Bluetooth weighing scale

The applicable scenarios and functions of the system are

described below: Indoor:

The Bluetooth electronic scale is used to measure the weight, and transmits it to the smart phone. The BMI value is also calculated. The changes are recorded and observed continuously to detect overweight or underweight in advance.

The Bluetooth pedometer can record the step number in the mobile phone to achieve the goal of walking ten thousand steps per day.

The ring-type pulse sensor, combined with indoor positioning system, to record the pulse/step number and indoor location, in order to recognize the action and behavior pattern of the elderly, such as staying in living

room for too long (positioning in the living room, the step number of pedometer not increased, and the pulse changing smoothly). The system can thus remind the elderly to exercise.

The health management software in the mobile phone can set daily/weekly check points to review the completion rate of walking ten thousand steps/exercise 333, and to remind/encourage the elderly to keep attaining the goal.

Outdoor: The ring-type pulse sensor and pedometer can record the

measured physiological signals at any time on the mobile phone, so as to let the elderly develop a healthy habit of "walking ten thousand steps daily" and weekly "exercise 333". .

The GPS system built in the mobile phone and the physiological measurement system work jointly to transmit text messages via mobile network automatically to the first-aid personnel/friends and relatives to notify them of the conditions and GPS coordinates in case of emergency (e.g. when the pulse is lower or higher than a threshold, or the elderly falls).

The mobile phone GPS and 3G wireless network can record the mobile coordinates of the elderly at any time, along with the physiological signal, to analyze the life style of the elderly, so as to improve their life style.

III. RESULTS A. Smart phone based mobile health care for the

elderly Fig. 4 shows the pulse rate and body temperature

information measured by the RFID ring-type pulse/temperature sensor and recorded in the smart phone (Windows Mobile operating system) [5][6][8]. Fig. 5 shows the pulse rate and body temperature information measured by the RFID ring-type pulse/temperature sensor and recorded in the mobile phone emulator (Android operating system).

Fig. 4 Pulse rate and temperature Fig. 5 Pulse rate and temperature captured captured by Windows smart phone by Android mobile phone emulator

Fig. 6 depicts the exercise-333 health management GUIs on

the smart phone [5]-[8]. In the first GUI, the user can set up 3 weekdays as check points and at each check point it will show the progress status to remind the user. In the second GUI, at the end of each day it will show the user whether his/her heart rate has ever been over 130 for more than 30 minutes. And at the end of each week, this GUI also shows the condition whether

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the user has accomplished the goal of exercise-333. Fig. 7 shows the “ten thousand steps daily” health management GUI on the smart phone [8]. The user can set up 3 daily check points and at the end of each check point the system will display the progress report (percentage of 10,000 steps) and a text message will be displayed to remind the user.

Fig. 6 GUI of “Exercise 333” Fig. 7 GUI of “10K step daily” Fig. 8 shows the GUI for setting up pre-set emergency

phone number(s) [5]-[8]. Fig. 9 presents the 3G communication of smart phone and the webpage of remote medical station [5]-[8]. The 3G connection setup page of the smart phone is shown on the left side, and the webpage of the server is on the right side where temperature values, pulse, and Google map are displayed. Based on the GPS position information sent from the smart phone, the Google map helps the medical staff to locate promptly the monitored user who needs further assistance.

Fig. 8 GUI for emergency numbers

Fig. 9 3G-setup and remote medical station webpage

B. Indoor wireless transmission network location and data acquisition [8] The indoor positioning, combined with physiological data

acquisition of the elderly under care based on ZigBee wireless sensor network, can display early warning when the elderly has stayed indoors for too long. The system will remind the elderly to exercise, or let the carer look after the person. This study uses Visual Basic to design an interface to display the positioning results. This interface not only displays the position of the subject in the indoor environment, but also indicates the physiological signals of pulse and body temperature of the subject. Case I: When the subject is moving, the icon of moving is shown on the right of Fig. 10. Case II: When the pulse rate is greater than 100 or less than 60, the indicator lamp turns from green into red (shown as Fig. 11). Case III: When the body temperature is higher than 38℃ or lower than 36℃, the indicator lamp turns from green into red (shown as Fig. 12). Case IV: When the subject stays in situ, the stay time is calculated. When the time exceeds 6 sec, the state schematic displays the subject staying in situ (shown as Fig. 13). Case V: When the in-situ stay of the subject exceeds one hour, the status indication on the right displays the icon of warning (shown as Fig. 14); when the stay exceeds six hours, the status indication on the right displays the icon of danger (shown as Fig. 15).

Fig. 10 The subject is moving

Fig. 11 Pulse rate is greater than 100

Fig. 12 Body temperature is higher than 38℃

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Fig. 13 Stay time exceeds six seconds

Fig. 14 Stay time exceeds 1 hour

Fig. 15 Stay time exceeds six hours

C. Wireless transmission electronic scale [9]

A self-developed electronic scale is used as prototype for test. The internal micro controller MCU is equipped with RS232 transmission port, and the RS232 transmission port is mediated by Bluetooth module. The electronic scale data can be transmitted to the mobile phone, and the application program in the mobile phone receives the electronic scale data to calculate the subject's BMI value. Fig. 16 shows the picture of receiving on Android tablet PC.

Fig. 16 Body weight receiving on Android tablet PC

IV. CONCLUSIONS The prototypes of multiple systems developed by this study

were presented, including "smart phone based mobile health

care for the elderly", "indoor wireless transmission network location and data acquisition" and "wireless transmission electronic scale". For the "smart phone based mobile health care for the elderly", the ring-type pulse sensor can transmit signals to the smart phone, and a simple pedometer with communication function has been made. The "exercise 333" and "daily ten thousand steps" health management application programs are developed for mobile phones. The GPS built in mobile phone can transfer coordinates to the server successfully, combined with Google map to display the location. The SOS emergency button on the ring reports any emergency, and a text message sender application program is developed in the mobile phone. The mobile phone can send text messages to report emergency and coordinates to friends and relatives when the SOS button on the ring is triggered. For the "indoor wireless transmission network location and data acquisition", the indoor ZigBee wireless transmission network positioning can collect physiological signals, thus collecting data on the lifestyle of the elderly in a computer server for health management. For the "wireless transmission electronic scale", the Bluetooth based weight data transmission has been integrated with mobile phone application program.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The financial support from the National Science Council in

Taiwan is greatly acknowledged (project contract # NSC 101-2218-E-239 -002).

REFERENCES [1] Department of Family Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General

Hospital http://www.vghks.gov.tw/fm/index.htm [2] Statistics website of Department of Health, Executive Yuan

http://www.doh.gov.tw/CHT2006/index_populace.aspx [3] Lin, S. Y., "High Diffusion Rate of Mobile Phones, A New

Media Age Coming", Electronic Commerce Times, www.ectimes.org.tw/shownews.aspx?id=080622225140 (2008/6/23)

[4] Uho Health http://www.uho.com.tw/hotnews.asp?aid=5628 [5] Yu-Chi Wu, et al., “A Smart-Phone-Based Health Management

System Using a Wearable Ring-Type Pulse Sensor,” Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, LNICST 73, 2012, pp. 409–416

[6] Yu-Chi Wu, et al., A Mobile-phone-based Health Management System, [Chapter 2, pp. 21-40, Contributed to the book entitled, “Health Management - Different Approaches and Solutions,” edited by Krzysztof Smigorski, Dec. 2011, InTech, ISBN 978-953-307-336-1

[7] Yu-Chi Wu, et al., “A Mobile E-health Management System,” Journal of Technology, vol. 26, No. 2, 2011, pp. 133-141

[8] Yu-Chi Wu, et al., “Wearable-sensor-based Mobile Health Management System,” (under review)

[9] Yu-Chi Wu, Meng-Jen Chen and Hung-Chi Tian, “Smart Phone Weight Watch Using Bluetooth-based Scale,” Advances in Biomedical Engineering, vol. 13, 2012, pp. 107-111

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