Design of Internet of Things enabled personalized healthcare device for vital signs monitoring

Abstract

Due to the advancement in personal health care devices, healthcare monitoring of an individual at anytime and from any location becomes a reality. The major issue with most personal healthcare device is their high power consumption and frequent charging. It prevents such devices from being used in critical regions where there is no provision for continuous power or medical infrastructure. Energy harvesting is one of the methodologies extending the lifetime of a battery. This paper presents the design of an Internet of Things enabled personalized healthcare device for monitoring human vital signs. The hardware prototype is developed with a low cost Wi-Fi enabled embedded board known as NodeMCU. The NodeMCU interfaced with vital signs monitoring sensors, an activity monitoring sensor, a rechargeable battery, and a solar panel. The vital signs of a person, such as body temperature, heart rate and activity are collected in a cloud environment and an alert is sent to the caregiver under abnormal circumstances. The results show that the prototype can successfully monitor the vital signs and activity such as idle or fallen, and also the lifetime of the battery has been extended for long term use, contributing to a healthier life style.