Body sensing

Wireless sensors provide new possibilities in remote health care.

Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) have developed new wireless antennae that could signal a new period in remote healthcare.
 
New technology emerging from QUB has seen the work of bioelectromagnetic and antennae experts fused to produce a new kind of health sensor. The results, it is hoped, could help change the face of patient care.
 
The biosensors could be used to measure heart rate, respiration, posture and more, all of which could be then transmitted to a doctor. Previously, all such measurements were impossible to collate as antennae inefficiency didn’t allow for sufficient signal gathering.

Enhanced antennae

The new technology, however, works by accentuating a creeping wave effect by maximising the signal radiating out of the antennae’s side, which is up to 50 times as efficient as similarly sized equivalent technology.
 
Commenting on the development Dr William Scanlon, who is leading the QUB project, said: “The UK leads the world in the development of wearable communications including WBAN (wireless body area network) antennas…With EPSRC funding, our group at QUB, along with other related projects at the University of Birmingham, Queen Mary College and elsewhere, could help unleash the full potential of WBAN technology. We could change the way that a range of illnesses, injuries and conditions are monitored, perhaps within five years”. 
 

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