Wireless Biomedical Sensor Networks: A technology review

Abstract

The increase in research in the area of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) has brought a whole new meaning to medical devices. This is mainly due to advances in microcontroller technologies. WSN are cited as one of the major technologies of this century and hence, their importance in areas such as health, psychology, fire prevention, security and even the military. The great advantage of this technology is the ability to track, monitor, study, understand and act on any particular phenomenon or event. The primary purpose of a wireless health system is transferring reliable data with minimum delay. This review provides a survey of the vast research done on Wireless Biomedical Sensor Networks (WBSN), including experimental and non-experimental investigations and examples from the theoretical and empirical literature. The review incorporates a wide range of purposes: definition of concepts, review of theories, failures and less positive aspects, all seeking to generate a consistent and understandable overview of WBSN. Such systems are already being marketed, while others are still under investigation. It is also the aim of this review to identify the characteristics of WSN applied to healthcare.