Design and deployment of a heart rate monitoring system in a senior center

While wearable sensor systems are now widely used to monitor vital signs in hospitals and at home, most such systems are designed for bedridden patients. In contrast, the use of wireless sensors to capture physiological data from patients for long term health monitoring is becoming increasingly popular although some previous studies recorded complaints from users about discomfort when wearing these. In addition, these systems can sometimes suffer from interference from existing Wi-Fi traffic. Therefore, a sensor system that is both comfortable to use and does not encounter interference with existing wireless traffic is required. This paper presents a system design that includes a probe, sensor, radio, and receiver for a long term heart rate monitoring in a senior center. This system has been deployed in a senior center since May 2012, and 63 seniors have used this system in this period. The senior center has its own wireless network, and no changes were made to this. The monitoring system presented in this work runs together with the existing network, and achieves a 97% packet delivery rate.