A Body Sensor Network Based Support System for Automated Bioimpedance Spectroscopy Measurements

Abstract

This paper presents the first application of a newly developed Body Sensor Network (BSN), called the meditBSN. It is deployed as a support system for mobile bio impedance spectroscopy (BIS) measurements. BIS measurements are used to monitor the water balance and nutrition status of patients. So far, only stationary measurement devices are available. One reason is that BIS measurements are prone to various influence factors like motion and temperature. Therefore, strict measurement protocols have to be followed to gain reproducible results.

The NUTRIWEAR project addresses the need for mobile BIS measurements. Solutions are being developed to integrate BIS electrodes into textiles to facilitate handling.

In a first step, three accelerometers were integrated to supervise the activity and the posture of the user. The meditBSN uses a dual-radio system (433 MHz ISM band and Bluetooth) to transfer sensor data to a PDA. Software has been developed to automatically start BIS measurements according to the user’s context. The complete measurement system was successfully validated with a standard BIS measurement device.