Timestamp-Free Synchronization for Wireless Body Area Networks

• US 20170042425A1
• Filed: 08/10/2016
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rohan Ramlall
• Original Assignee: Rohan Ramlall
• Inventors: Ramlall, Rohan
• Granted Patent: US 9,579,025 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 3/10 Objective types, i.e. instruments for examining the eyes independent of the patients' perceptions or reactions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0205 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular conditions and different types of body conditions, e.g. heart and respiratory condition
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/121 evaluating hearing capacity
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14546 for measuring analytes not otherwise provided for, e.g. ions, cytochromes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/369 Electroencephalography [EEG] devices for psychotechnics A61B5/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/005 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/0015 one node acting as a reference for the others

Abstract

Systems and methods for collecting biosignals can include a master node and a plurality of biosensor slave nodes wirelessly connected to the master node. The biosensor can be implanted in the body, or external to the body. One of the biosensors can function as the master node, or a networked cell phone or local area network (LAN) router can function as the master node. The biosensor slave nodes can collect biosignals such as blood pressure, blood sugar (glucose), EEG brain activity and similar biomarkers as biodata. The slave nodes can transmit the biodata to the master node, along with implicit timing information. In response, the master nodes can communicate implicit timing adjustment information back to the slave node(s), but only when said slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information is outside of a predefined synchronization accuracy α, which can be determined according to the timing frequency requirements of the biodata being monitored.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring of data, said system comprising:

a master node;

a plurality of sensors connected to said master node in a network configuration and designated as slave nodes collecting said data for further transmission to said master node;

said slave nodes each communicating implicit timing information as part of said data transmission to said master node; and

,

said master node communicating implicit timing adjustment information to a respective said slave node, in response to said slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information, only when said slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information is outside of a predefined synchronization accuracy α

.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each slave node implicitly conveys timing information by adjusting when it sends its data transmission to the master node with the goal of the master node receiving the data within the predefined time interval based on α

.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the time interval based on α

is defined to be α

seconds before and after a clock tick at the master node.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the master node implicitly conveys timing information by responding to the slave'"'"'s data transmission only if the master node'"'"'s reception time of the slave'"'"'s data transmission does not fall within the predefined time interval based on α

.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the time interval based on α

is defined to be α

seconds before and after a clock tick at the master node.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data being monitored is biosignals.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said biosignals are selected from the group consisting of electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, feet, DNA protein, blood sugar (glucose), brain activity (via an electroencephalogram (EEG), vision levels, inertial measurement units, and hearing level sensors.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said sensor is an ECG sensor and said synchronization accuracy α

of said ECG sensor is between 0.5 and 2.5 milliseconds.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an external network connected to said master node; and

,

a wellness resource connected to said external network.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said wellness resource is selected from the group consisting of an ambulance, a doctor, health care provider, and an electronic health record database.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein one of said plurality of biosensors is said master node and the remaining said biosensors are slave nodes.

12. A method for monitoring biosignals of a subject, comprising the steps of:

A) providing a master node;

B) designating a plurality of biosensors placed on said subject as slave nodes;

C) collecting said biosignals;

D) transmitting said biosignals to said master node as biodata, along with implicit timing information;

said step D) being accomplished by each of said plurality of said biosensors; and

,

E) communicating implicit timing adjustment information from said master node to a specific said slave node, in response to said specific slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information, only when said specific slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information is outside of a window defined by a length of 2α

, where α

is the desired synchronization accuracy for said slave node.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said plurality of biosensors from said step B) is selected from the group consisting of electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure, feet, DNA protein, blood sugar (glucose), brain activity (via an electroencephalogram (EEG), vision levels, inertial measurement units, and hearing level biosensors.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein one of said biosensors is an ECG sensor and said synchronization accuracy α

for said ECG sensor is between 0.5 and 2.5 milliseconds.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

G) connecting an external network to said master node; and

,

H) accessing a wellness resource via said external network.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said wellness resource is selected from the group consisting of an ambulance, a doctor or health care provider, and an electronic health record database.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein one of said step A) is accomplished using one of said plurality of biosensors from said step B).

18. A wireless body area network (WBAN) comprising:

a master node;

a plurality of slave nodes networked to said master node, said slave nodes collecting biosignals from a subject for further wireless transmission to said master node as biodata;

said slave nodes each communicating implicit timing information as part of said biodata transmission to said master node; and

,

said master nodes communicating implicit timing adjustment information to a respective said slave node, in response to said slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information, only when said slave node'"'"'s implicit timing information is outside of a predefined synchronization accuracy α

for said slave node.

19. The WBAN of claim 18, wherein at least one of said slave nodes is external to a body being monitored, and further comprising:

an article of clothing, said slave nodes being attached to said article.

20. The WBAN of claim 18, wherein such plurality of slave nodes collect said biodata selected from the group consisting of electrocardiogram (ECG) data, blood pressure, feet, DNA protein, blood sugar (glucose), brain activity data (via an electroencephalogram (EEG), vision data, inertial measurement units and hearing data.