A wireless health monitoring system

Abstract

With the aging of the baby boomers, it is predicted that the US population over age 65 will grow from its 1999 level of 34.6 million persons to approximately 82 million in 2050, a 137% increase. The most rapid surge in our senior population will take place between 2011 and 2030. During this 19-year interval, seniors will expand from 13% of our population to 22% of our population. In this project, our goal is to design a wireless sensor system, the Health Tracker 2000, that can monitors users' vital signs and notifies relatives and medical personnel of their location during life threatening situations. The Health Tracker 2000 combines wireless sensor networks, existing RFID (radio frequency identification) and vital sign monitoring technology to simultaneously monitor vital signs while keeping track of the users' location. The use of wireless technology makes it possible to install the system in all types of homes and facilities. Radio frequency waves can travel through walls and fabric, sending the vital sign and location information to a central monitoring computer via a miniature transmitter network. Such information can easily be accessed from any location over the Internet.