Wireless communication of vital signs using the Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard

The Georgia Tech Wearable Motherboard/sup TM/ (GTWM) provides a versatile framework for incorporation of sensing, monitoring and information processing devices. It has opened up new frontiers in telemedicine, infant care, military, space exploration and athletics. We have developed a working prototype of wireless communication between the GTWM and the outside world. The overall system consists of data acquisition, data transmission, computation and data storage, and user interface. It can serve as a full wearable computer, providing functionalities for tracking the physiological conditions of the user as well as sensory information from the environment and other peripherals. The system performs well in indoor wireless environments with signal to noise ratio as low as 5 dB. This prototype opens up many research opportunities in the fields of affective computing, human-computer interaction, and mobile information processing.