Wireless Qi-powered, Multinodal and Multisensory Body Area Network for Mobile Health.

ABSTRACT

Wireless, battery-free Body Area Networks (BAN) enable reliable long-term health monitoring with minimal intervention, and have the potential to transform patient care via mobile health monitoring. Current approaches for achieving such battery-free networks are limited in the number, capability, and positioning of sensing nodes-this is related to constraints in power supply, data rate, and working distance requirements between the wireless power source and sensing nodes. Here, we investigate a Qi-based, near-field power transfer scheme that can effectively drive wireless, battery-free, multi-node and multi-sensor BAN over long distances. This consists of a single Qi power source (such as a cellphone), a detached/untethered Passive Intermediate Relay (PIR) (facilitates power transfer from a central Qi source to multiple nodes on the body), and finally individual/detached sensing nodes placed throughout the body. Alongside this power scheme we implement the star network topology of a Gazell protocol to enable the continuous connection of one host to many sensing nodes while minimizing data loss over long temporal periods. The high-power transmission capabilities of Qi enables wireless support for a multitude of sensors (up to 12), and sensing nodes (up to 6) with a single transmitter at long distances (60 cm) and a sample rate of 20 Hz. This scheme is studied both in-vitro and in-vivo on the body.