A Survey of Energy Efficiency in Wireless Human Body Sensors Lifetime for Healthcare Applications

Abstract

Wireless Human Body Sensor Networks (WHBSNs) used in healthcare systems have widely attracted the attention of the research community [1]. We identify two categories of healthcare-oriented systems: vital status monitoring and remote healthcare surveillance. In vital status monitoring applications, sensors supervise their vital parameters in order to specify emergency situations and allow caregivers to respond efficiently. Applications include disaster monitoring, cancer detection, vital sign monitoring in hospitals, cardiovascular disease and epilepsy seizure detection [2,3]. Remote healthcare surveillance concerns not vital care services for which the continuous healthcare professional is not necessary. For example, Wireless Human Body Sensor nodes are deployed in remote places to sense clinically relevant data information for rehabilitation supervision [4], elderly monitoring [5] or to provide support to a person with cognitive disorder.