BIOLOGICAL SIGNAL SENSOR APPARATUS, WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK, AND USER INTERFACE SYSTEM USING BIOLOGICAL SIGNAL SENSOR APPARATUS

• US 20100160744A1
• Filed: 12/03/2009
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: CHO, Hyeonsung, HA, Young-Guk, KIM, Kyung-Il, CHO, Young-Jo, SOHN, Jeo Chan, CHO, Hyun Kyu, GO, Young Cheol
• Granted Patent: US 8,787,332 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0202 Child monitoring systems using a transmitter-receiver system carried by the parent and the child
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/04 based on user or terminal location or mobility data, e.g. moving direction, speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/04 adapted for relaying to or from another terminal or user

Abstract

A biological signal sensor apparatus worn on a user'"'"'s body includes: a sensor unit for sensing physical states or movements of a user to generate biological signal data; a wireless communications unit for performing wireless data communications with a wireless sensor network to transmit the biological signal data; a sensor network protocol processing unit for processing protocols for end-to-end communications between the wireless communications unit and the wireless sensor network and for performing a mobility support procedure for the biological signal sensor apparatus; a processor for controlling the wireless data communications, the end-to-end communications, and the mobility support procedure to allow the biological signal sensor apparatus to serve as a mobile wireless sensor node; and a connection unit for connecting the sensor unit and the processor. The biological signal sensor apparatus serves as a mobile wireless sensor node in the wireless sensor network.

Claims

1. A biological signal sensor apparatus worn on a user'"'"'s body, comprising:

a sensor unit for sensing physical states or movements of a user to generate biological signal data;

a wireless communications unit for performing wireless data communications with a wireless sensor network to transmit the biological signal data;

a sensor network protocol processing unit for processing protocols for end-to-end communications between the wireless communications unit and the wireless sensor network and for performing a mobility support procedure for the biological signal sensor apparatus;

a processor for controlling the wireless data communications, the end-to-end communications, and the mobility support procedure to allow the biological signal sensor apparatus to serve as a mobile wireless sensor node; and

a connection unit for connecting the sensor unit and the processor.

2. The biological signal sensor apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensor unit includes at least one of a pulse/pulse-wave sensor, a blood pressure sensor, an electrocardiogram sensor, a body temperature sensor, and a blood sugar sensor.

3. A wireless sensor network, comprising:

a biological signal sensor apparatus, worn on a user'"'"'s body and serving as a mobile wireless sensor node, for sensing biological signals of a user to generate biological signal data;

a plurality of stationary wireless sensor nodes, installed in living spaces of the user, for performing wireless communications with the biological signal sensor apparatus; and

a plurality of wireless sink nodes wirelessly connected with the stationary wireless sensor nodes to form the wireless sensor network.

4. The wireless sensor network of claim 3, wherein each of the stationary wireless sensor nodes includes:

a wireless communications unit for performing wireless data communications with the biological signal sensor apparatus and the wireless sink nodes;

a sensor network protocol processing unit for processing protocols for end-to-end communications between the wireless communications unit and the biological signal sensor apparatus and for performing a mobility support procedure for the biological signal sensor apparatus; and

a processor for controlling the wireless data communications, the end-to-end communications, and the mobility support procedure.

5. The wireless sensor network of claim 4, wherein each of the stationary wireless sensor nodes includes:

a sensor unit for sensing environmental conditions in the living spaces; and

a connection unit for connecting the sensor unit and the processor.

6. The wireless sensor network of claim 5, wherein the sensor unit includes at least one of a temperature sensor, an illuminance sensor, and a humidity sensor.

7. The wireless sensor network of claim 3, wherein each of the wireless sink nodes includes:

a wireless communications unit for performing wireless data communications with the stationary wireless sensor nodes;

a sensor network protocol processing unit for processing protocols for end-to-end multi-hop communications between the wireless communications unit and the stationary wireless sensor nodes;

a processor for controlling the wireless data communications and the end-to-end multi-hop communications; and

a connection unit for connecting the processor and external service units for providing application services to the user through the connection unit.

8. A user interface system, comprising:

a biological signal sensor apparatus, worn on a user'"'"'s body and serving as a mobile wireless sensor node in a wireless sensor network, for sensing biological signals of a user to generate biological signal data;

a plurality of stationary wireless sensor nodes, installed in living spaces of the user, for performing wireless communications with the biological signal sensor apparatus;

a plurality of wireless sink nodes wirelessly connected with the stationary wireless sensor nodes to form the wireless sensor network; and

a service unit for processing the biological signal data transmitted via the wireless sink nodes to provide to the user application services based on location information of the user who stays in any one of the living spaces in the wireless sensor network.

9. The user interface system of claim 8, wherein the service unit includes:

a sink node connection unit;

a sink node application program interface unit for providing basic libraries to support communications with the wireless sink nodes;

a sensor signal processing unit for performing pre-processing on the biological signal data received from the wireless sink nodes;

a sensor data analysis unit for analyzing patterns of the pre-processed biological signal data by applying learning/recognizing algorithm thereto;

a user location management unit for obtaining the location information of the user based on the biological signal data received from the wireless sink nodes; and

an application service unit for providing the application services to the user based on the analyzed biological signal data and the location information of the user.

10. The user interface system of claim 9, further comprising:

a service server, connected with the service unit via an external communications network, for providing to the user the application services based on the biological signal data via the service unit,

wherein the service unit further includes a server interoperation unit for providing interoperability with the service server.

11. The user interface system of claim 9, further comprising:

a subsidiary sensor apparatus for obtaining image data of the user to assist the biological signal sensor apparatus,

wherein the service unit further includes a sensor data synthesis unit for combining the analyzed biological signal data and the image data obtained by the subsidiary sensor apparatus to extract meaningful context therefrom and transmitting the meaningful context to the application service unit to provide the application services.

12. The user interface system of claim 8, wherein the service unit includes a service apparatus, connected with the wireless sink nodes, for providing the application services via application programs of its own.

13. The user interface system of claim 8, wherein the service unit includes:

a service apparatus connected with the wireless sink nodes; and

a host apparatus, connected with the service apparatus, for providing the application services via application programs embedded therein.

14. The user interface system of claim 9, wherein the service unit further includes a sensor map DB (database) from which a space name of a space where a sensor node is installed and a coordinate of a location of the sensor node are retrieved by using a sensor node ID of the sensor node as a key, and the user location management unit obtains location information of the user by retrieving the sensor map DB using the sensor node ID of the nearby sensor node.

15. The user interface system of claim 14, wherein if the biological signal sensor apparatus, which has been connected with the wireless sensor network via a stationary wireless sensor node among the stationary wireless sensor nodes, goes out of a radio coverage of the stationary wireless sensor node, the biological signal sensor apparatus searches for another stationary wireless sensor node having a radio coverage within which the user is located and creates a new connection therewith.

16. The user interface system of claim 15, wherein the biological signal sensor apparatus sets the nearby sensor node ID field of the sensor network protocol payload to be transmitted as the sensor node ID of the stationary wireless sensor node with which the new connection is created.

17. The user interface system of claim 14, wherein the biological signal sensor node measures signal strength of a message received from each of the stationary wireless sensor nodes and creates a connection with a stationary wireless sensor node which transmits a message having the highest signal strength.

18. The user interface system of claim 17, wherein the biological signal sensor node creates and manages a nearby node table based on the measured signal strength.

19. The user interface system of claim 18, wherein the nearby node table includes:

a sensor node ID field storing the sensor node ID of each of the stationary wireless sensor nodes located around the user; and

a wireless signal strength field for storing the signal strength for each of the stationary wireless sensor nodes.

20. The user interface system of claim 19, wherein the nearby node table further includes a time stamp field for storing a time when a corresponding sensor node entry is created or lastly modified, wherein the time is used in searching for a sensor node entry which has not been updated for a specific period of time and deleting the sensor node entry from the nearby node table.