A system for monitoring human postures, seizures, and falls from bed using radio and surface electromyography signals

Abstract

In this work, a system for monitoring human postures, seizures, and falls from bed using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and surface electromyography (sEMG) signals is studied through experiments. In this proposed system, a person who is located inside a wireless link is monitored by considering the change in measured RSSI signals as the 2.4 GHz IEEE 802.15.4 signals received at a receiver. Human motions in bed that affect RSSI levels can be captured. Thus, with this technique, it does not raise a privacy concern compared with vision-based technology. Additionally, sEMG signals associated with muscle movements from human postures are recorded from the human body’s abdominal muscles. Eight different activities, including normal and critical events, are tested and evaluated. Experimental results indicate that the proposed system could automatically monitor different human postures in real-time. RSSI and sEMG signals correlated to each posture have their own patterns. Furthermore, the relationship between human behaviors and RSSI and sEMG levels is summarized.