WSEAS European Computing Conference (ECC’08)
Development of wireless Body Area
Network based on J2ME for M-Health
applications
M.J. Morón*, J.R. Luque*, E.J. Cuberos*, A.A. Botella*,
E. Gallardo*, E. Casilari*, A. Díaz Estrella*, J.A. Gázquez**
*UNIVERSITY OF MÁLAGA, **UNIVERSITY OF ALMERÍA, SPAIN
Malta, September 11th, 2008
Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica. University of Málaga
ETSI de Telecomunicación, Campus de Teatinos, 29071 – Málaga- Spain
E-mail: mjmoron@uma.es, ecasilari@uma.es
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Index
1. Introduction: Brief state of the art
2. Goals
3. System description
4. Testbed Results and present state of
the prototype
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
INTRODUCTION
Certain illnesses/sectors
of population
Continuous Monitoring
Traditional wired sensors
1)
2)
Quality of life
Mobility
 NEED of Wireless Telemedicine
 SOLUTION: M-health
Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
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Experiences on M-health: Medical Wireless BAN
Mobile Health (M-Health): integration of technologies of mobile computing and
medical sensors with wireless communications in a system of sanitary assistance
Strong international efforts and research on this issue…
CodeBlue, a wireless architecture designed in Harvard University for emergency
medical care. The project integrates low-power, wireless vital sign sensors, PDAs,
and PC-class systems
AMON [Dec.2004]: A wearable multi-parameter sensor. Continuous collection
of multiple vital signs in wrist-worn enclosure with cellular communications
USE of short-range communication Standards
Low-power standards (Bluetooth, Zigbee,) in telemedicine reduces cost and
eases the deployment of systems
Many commercial wearable BT sensors have appeared in recent years (ECG,
glucometers, tensiometers, pulse-oximeters, stehoscopes,…)
Commercial GPRS gateways for BT medical sensors
Body/Personal Area Networks: piconet of sensors. Many examples in the
literature [Lee2006] [Yao2005] [Krco2005] [Dong2004]
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
General structure of a medical BAN
BAN
Data logger/
Wireless Gateway
Sensors
Central
Server
Reception
Points
Normally, each telemedicine project jointly develops its own sensors and its specific
dedicated hardware for the gateway
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
OBJECTIVES
 Definition of a wearable medical Personal Area Networks
 Goals:
 Use/evaluation of commercial smart phones as the master of
the sensor piconet
 Integration of commercial BT biosensors: use of Serial
Server Profile (SSP)
 Adoption of Java (J2ME) to ease software portability
•J2ME: Java Technology for the development of software applications
in mobile devices.
Hybrid transmissions (Always Best Connected Paradigm):
free mobility of the users
To enable mobility in the medical monitor
Detection/Priority of medical alarms: emission of SMS/MMS
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
PROPOSED ARCHITECTURE
Software for the remote
control and monitoring of the
BAN. Also portable to a smart
phone
Intelligent Node (IN)
(Smart Phone)
Bluetooth ECG
Belt
GPRS/
UMTS
ECG
SPO2
GPS
Wifi
Internet
Internet
GPS
Internet
BT Pulse-oximeter
3. CONTROL and
MONITORING UNITS
1. PATIENT BODY AREA NETWORK
Smart phone in charge of collecting
the signals from wireless sensors and
sending them through an hybrid
(GPRS/UMTS/Wifi) system. It also
detects medical alarms (emission of
SMS) and enables remote
programming of sensors
2. CENTRAL
CONTROL SYSTEM
In charge of storing biosignals and enabling
remote monitoring from any Internet node
Medical premises
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Employed Technologies (I)
J2M
E
GPS
Central Control Server
GPRS/UMTS
WiFi
Intelligent
Node
Pulse-oximeter
1. Patient Body
Area Network)
Alarm Reception
terminals
J2M
E
SMS/
UMTS
IP over
GPRS/UMTS
IP
Java
servlets,
applets,
Web page
J2M
E
Mobile
Monitoring units
Fixed Monitoring
units
Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
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Employed Technologies (II)
 Smart Phones: Nokia 9500, E61, N93, N95 (Symbian OS)
Intelligent Node: J2ME (Java) program, Bluetooth API (JSR-82) for managing
BT connections and Wireless Messaging API (JSR-120 & JSR-205) for sending
SMSs/MMSs, Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177) to manage encryption.
Biosignals are encrypted by means of a symmetric algorithm DES with a
prefixed key
Protocols used for transmissions: HTTP commands or TCP or UDP/ IP sockets
(configurable)
Central Control Server: Apache Server. Servlets
Monitoring reception software :
 Web interface (with a a Java Applet) available for any browser with RMI
support.
 J2ME midlet in the Mobile monitoring unit
Bandwidth:
GPRS: up to 64-144 Kbps
UMTS: up to 384-3600 Kbps
Wifi: up to 11 Mbps (802.11b), up to 54 Mbps (802.11g)
Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
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Employed BT devices (I)
Bluetooth
Basics
Frequency Band (ISM) at 2.4 GHz. No licence required
Transmission Range: 10-100 m
Robustness to interferences due to Frecuency hopping
Binary rate: up to 1 Mbps (v 1.1), 2-3 Mbps (v 2.0): far
enough for most biosignals
Low consume (acceptable for most external biosensors)
Extremely popular technology: in many models of PDA
and cell phones
GPS Leadtek 9553X
Chipset SiRF StarIII
Bluetooth v1.2(slave mode, Serial Port Profile)
5V rechargeable Battery ± 5%V DC
NMEA-0183 Protocol
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Employed BT devices (II)
Pulse-oximeter Nonin 4100 (I) &
Measurements of Plethismogram, Heart Rate &
SPO2
Bluetooth v1.1 (slave mode, Serial Port Profile)
Power: 2 AA batteries
3 bytes/s (Simple Mode)
 Binary Rate
375 bytes/s (Verbose Mode)
CorBELT: Bluetooth ECG sensor from
Corscience
1 channel ECG lead with dry electrodes
Mobile event recorder: automatic alarms in case
of detecting a cardiac event
Power: 1 AA batteries
Sampling rate: 200 Hz (12 bits/sample)
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Monitoring (I): Fixed Control Units
 Information is received in a Web page through a reception Java
applet.
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Monitoring (II): Mobile Control Units
 Screenshots of Mobile Control Monitoring Units
 A reception J2ME midlet
processes and present the
encrypted biosignals
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Detection of Medical Alarms through SMS/MMS
 The SW in the phone sends a SMS/MMS when an alarm is detected:
J2M
E
J2M
E
GPS
GSM/GPRS/UMTS
NI
Pulse-oximeter
MMS Alarm!
Reception units
Patient iBAN
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Detection of Medical Alarms through SMS/MMS
 The SW in the phone sends a SMS/MMS when an alarm is detected:
J2M
E
J2M
E
GPS
GSM/GPRS/UMTS
NI
Pulse-oximeter
SMS Alarm!
Reception units
Patient iBAN
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Wireless biosignal emulator (I)
Two main research topics about medical WPANs/WBANs:
Scalability: how many sensors can be properly integrated in the BAN?
Coexistence: different wireless technology (BT, Zigbee, Wifi) may coexist in
the same ISM band
The evaluation of practical application environments for BANs may
require utilization in parallel of dozens of biosensors (still far from
being economical)
Solution: to implement a generic software biosignal emulator: any
BT biosensor can be emulated with a device having BT connectivity
(e.g.: a laptop with one ore more BT dongles).
Presently, the software emulates electrocardiogram (ECG) signals.
Signals can be downloaded from an Internet PhysioBank Data
Base)
Vast archive of formatted digital recordings of biomedical signals from both
healthy and pathological subjects: http://www.physionet.org/physiobank/
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Wireless biosignal emulator (II)
A server module retrieves the Internet data, an emulator module
emits them through BT and a reception program receives the signals.
All these modules have been also developed with Java technology: a
J2EE server and two J2ME midlets.
Reception
Midlet
Emulator
Midlet
PhysioBank
Server
GPRS/UMTS
Wifi
Internet
J2EE In charge of retreiving the biosignals
from the database
The reception software can be
incorporated in IN of the developed
iBAN. Consequently this architecture
permits to substitute the Bluetooth ECG
sensor by any J2ME capable device.
It includes a GUI to select the record to transmit. The selected record
is requested to the server via an Internet connection (WiFi/GPRSUMTS), then reformatted and transmitted to the reception midlet
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
Conclusions (I)
The system was systematically tested (not with real patients)
Smart phone: good candidate for the role of central node in medical
BANs
Advantages
Decrease of cost (not specific hardware is required)
Hybrid communications are natively supported in present smart
phones
Familiarity of the patient with this type of devices
Use of Java (J2ME)
Software is easily developed (Easy sinstaxis)
Portability
Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
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Conclusions (II)
Disadvantages
Usability problems: need of some user interaction
Monitoring applications carry out tasks considered by operating
system as risky for security. Therefore acknowledgement is requested
to user before continuing certain actions
 This drawback could be avoided by means of a validated certificate
INSTABILITIES of OS (Symbian) in certain phone models
(portability is not perfect!)
HAND OFF between technologies and reconnection to BT sensors
is slow and still present problems
No all the (low-level) functionalities in the smart-phone are
accessible through J2ME
Difficulty of debugging errors en complex J2ME applications
Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications
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29th IEEE EMBS Annual International Conference
J2ME and Smart Phones as Platform for a
Bluetooth Body Area Network for PatientTelemonitoring
M.J. Morón, J.R. Luque, E.J. Cuberos, A.A. Botella,
E. Casilari, A. Díaz Estrella
UNIVERSITY OF MÁLAGA, SPAIN
Lyon (France), 24th August 2007
Departamento de Tecnología Electrónica. University of Málaga
ETSI de Telecomunicación, Campus de Teatinos, 29071 – Málaga- Spain
E-mail: mjmoron@uma.es, ecasilari@uma.es
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Development of wireless Body Area Network based on J2ME for M-Health applications