Design and implementation of Wireless Biomedical Sensor Networks for ECG home health monitoring

Sensor network, in the form of wireless biomedical sensor network (WBSN), composed of a number of biomedical sensor nodes and multi-hop networking capability that can be deployed for long term and continuous healthcare monitoring. Physiological signals (ECG, EEG etc) will be measured by the biosensors that provide alerts immediately when abnormalities in a patient's physiological condition are detected. Development of wearable biomedical sensors within a wireless infrastructure opens up possibilities for smart home care by providing ubiquitous monitoring of patients under their physiological states even when they move, leading to better quality of patient care. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of Wireless Biomedical Sensor Network (WBSN) node platform featuring a low-power CMOS 8-bit microcontroller, an IEEE 802.15.4 compatible transceiver and a compact ECG sensor that does not require skin preparation, gels, or adhesives. The developed platform is cost-effective and allows easy customization, energy-efficient computation and communication.