7 things you should know about Body Area Networks (BANs)

Colleagues,

As reported in ZDNet ... The budding field of Body Area Networks gives new meaning to the term “personal” in PCs. In a nutshell, the technology leverages wireless communications protocols that allow for low-powered sensors to communicate with one another and transmit data to a local base station and to remote places like hospitals.

For instance, small flat sensors placed on the skin, or even under it, could be used to create a “medical” body area network that provides doctors with real-time data about their patients’ bio-signs. Another key application is short-range person-to-person communications that could help protect front line soldiers in combat.

BAN technology is still in its infancy and mainstream adoption is still over the horizon as engineers and researchers work to overcome challenges involving interoperability, sensor design constraints (i.e. power and complexity), privacy, and security to name a few. Once these issues are overcome, expect BANs to first revolutionize healthcare allowing for concepts like telemedicine and mHealth to become real, and potentially allow for groundbreaking uses in communications, security, and sports.

Below, in no particular order, is a list of facts, news, and generally good things to know about BANs:

1. IEEE 802.15 Task Group 6 is on the case

Established 2 years ago, the IEEE BAN task group is “developing a communication standard optimized for low power devices and operation, in or around the human body (but not limited to the human body) to serve a variety of applications…”

2. Primitive technologies spell an alphabet soup of overlapping acronyms

* MBANs - Medical Body Area Networks
* BSN -Body Sensor Network
* PAN- Personal Area Network or (WPAN for wireless)
* MANET - Mobile ad hoc network
* MICS - Medical Implant Communication Service

3. UK researchers are working with the military to develop multimedia-enabled helmet technology ... Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) is working on equipment using advanced wireless systems that would outfit small squads of soldiers with head-up displays that share real-time video, covert surveillance data, and tactical info with each other....

4. A wireless digital ‘plaster’ that monitors vital signs is being tested on patients and volunteers at Imperial College London ... a company, Toumaz Technology, ... has begun clinical trials of a disposable body worn monitoring device it has developed that allows for the monitoring of body temperature, heart rate, and respiration of patients in a continuous and remote (limited to within a hospital) fashion ...

5. mHealth Initiative sets new course with updated website and international event. The Boston-based nonprofit looks to enable “Participatory Health” by merging healthcare with mobile phones and other wireless devices....

6. GE Healthcare is developing a Body Sensor Network (BSN) that consists of sensor devices that collect patient data ... The company requests that the FCC allocate frequencies 2360 to 2400 MHz on a secondary, licensed basis for low-power, short-range, wireless medical devices such as BSNs. The FCC listened…

7. FCC issued new rules for BANs this year ... In late June ‘09, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a notice of proposed rule making for allocating spectrum and establishing service and technical rules for the operation of Medical Body Area Networks...

Read on at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=1946

ENJOY!

CC

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