Surveying Wearable Human Assistive Technology for Life and Safety Critical Applications: Standards, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

In this survey a new application paradigm life and safety for critical operations and missions using wearable Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) technology is introduced. This paradigm has a vast scope of applications, including disaster management, worker safety in harsh environments such as roadside and building workers, mobile health monitoring, ambient assisted living and many more. It is often the case that during the critical operations and the target conditions, the existing infrastructure is either absent, damaged or overcrowded. In this context, it is envisioned that WBANs will enable the quick deployment of ad-hoc/on-the-fly communication networks to help save many lives and ensuring people's safety. However, to understand the applications more deeply and their specific characteristics and requirements, this survey presents a comprehensive study on the applications scenarios, their context and specific requirements. It explores details of the key enabling standards, existing state-of-the-art research studies, and projects to understand their limitations before realizing aforementioned applications. Application-specific challenges and issues are discussed comprehensively from various perspectives and future research and development directions are highlighted as an inspiration for new innovative solutions. To conclude, this survey opens up a good opportunity for companies and research centers to investigate old but still new problems, in the realm of wearable technologies, which are increasingly evolving and getting more and more attention recently.

Towards Developing a MAC protocol for outer-WBAN communication for pilgrims’ health monitoring during hajj: A feasibility study

“…According to the study as focused in [8] [11], theoretically Wi-Fi consumes 100mW-1000mW energy at the data rate 10Mbps-100Mbps, communication range is between 10-100 meters, network lifetime is few hours to 5 days. Bluetooth consumes 2.5mW-100mW energy at the data rate 1Mbps-10Mbps, communication range is between 1-10 meters, network lifetime is 1-7 days.…”

“…Indeed, if patients monitoring and medical care can be performed wirelessly, the patient is no longer constrained in his movements thus reducing the mortality rate. It is notable that, the mortality rate during Hajj is higher due to certain noncommunicable health hazards [1] [7][8].…”

Communication Challenges in on-Body and Body-to-Body Wearable Wireless Networks—A Connectivity Perspective

“…IoH is the concept of connecting, monitoring and recording human data with the Internet. Wearable technology is revolutionizing many applications, including health-care, sports and fitness, rescue and emergency management, augmented reality, fashion, and so on [1]. Recently, wearable technology revenue has greatly increased, passing from USD 2 billion in 2013 to more than USD 15 billion in 2017.…”

“…Elderly people can also be remotely monitored and followed up. For instance, it was recently reported that the UK National Health Service (NHS) could save up to 7 billion pounds per year by using innovative technologies to deliver quality health-care to chronically ill with fewer hospital visits and admissions [1,3].…”

Traffic Priority-Aware Adaptive Slot Allocation for Medium Access Control Protocol in Wireless Body Area Network

“…The second deployment method is wearing BMSs, whereby BMSs are attached to the skin or sewn onto a patient's shirt. They externally monitor organ conditions, including temperature, blood pressure, and heartbeat [3]. In the third method, BMSs are deployed near the patient's body to monitor body positions, including sleep duration, arm direction, and handshaking [4].…”