Abstract
Now-a-days the deaths caused due to the heart
failure have been of major concern .The majority of the deaths caused by heart failures are due to the lack of medical assistance in time.
This paper gives an insight of a new technology that relates directly to the exploding wireless marketplace. This technology is a whole new wireless and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) enabled frontier in which a victim’s actual location is integral for providing valuable medical services.
The paper will be demonstrating for the first time ever the
usage of wireless telecommunications systems and miniature sensor devices like RFID passive Tags , that are smaller than a grain of rice and equipped with a tiny antenna which will capture and wirelessly transmit a person's vital body-function data, such as pulse or body temperature , to an integrated ground station. In addition, the antenna will also receive information regarding the location of the individual from the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) System. Both sets of data medical information and location will then be wirelessly transmitted to the ground station and made available to save lives by remotely monitoring the medical conditions of at-risk patients and providing emergency rescue units with the person's exact location.
This paper gives a predicted general model for Heart Failure Alert System. It also discusses the Algorithm for converting the Analog pulse to Binary data in the tag and the Algorithm for Alerting the Location & Tracking Station. It discusses in detail the various stages involved in tracking the exact location of the Victim using this technology.
Keywords:
RFID, RFID-passive tags, GPS, PAM.
1. Introduction:
It is tough to declare convincingly what is the most
important organ of our body.And one of the primary organs which the body cannot dowithout is the heart, 72 beats a minute or over a trillion in alifetime. The pump house of our body pumping the blood to every corner of our body every moment, thus sending oxygen and nutrients to each and every cell. Over a period of time, the heart muscles go weak, the arteries get blocked and sometimes because of a shock a part of the heart stops functioning resulting in what is called a HEART ATTACK.
Heart attack is a major cause of death and in today’s tension full world it has become very common. Presently there is no mechanism by which a device monitors a person’s heart 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and gives him instant protection in case of problem. Our primary focus is on people with a history of heart problem as they are more prone to death due to heart failure. In the 1970s, a group of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLL) realized that a handheld receiver stimulated by RF power could send back a coded radio signal.Such a system could be connected to a simple computer and used to control access to a secure facility.
RFID
RFID or Radio Frequency identification is a technology that enables the tracking or identification of objects using IC based tags with an RF circuit and antenna, and RF readers that "read" and in some case modify the information stored in the IC memory. RFID is an automated data-capture technology that can be used to electronically identify, track, and store information about groups of products, individual items, or product components. The technology consists of three key
pieces:
• RFID tags;
• RFID readers;
• A data collection and management
system.
Rfid tags:
RFID tags are small or miniaturized computer chips
programmed with information about a product or with a
number that corresponds to information that is stored in a
database. The tags can be located inside or on the surface of
the product, item, or packing material.
The RF tags could be divided in two major groups:
Passive, where the power to energize the tag’s circuitry is
draw from the reader generated field.
Active, in this case the tag has an internal power source, in
general a battery that could be replaceable or Not.
Rfid readers:
RFID readers are querying systems that interrogate
or send signals to the tags and receive the responses. RFID readers are usually on, continually transmitting radio energy and awaiting any tags that enter their
field of operation. Thus, it is possible to configure an RFID reader so that it sends the radio pulse only in response to an external event.The largest readers might consist of a
desktop personal computer with a special card and multiple
antennas connected to the card through shielded cable. Such a reader would typically have a network connection as well so that it could report tags that it reads to other computers. The smallest readers are the size of a postage stamp and are
designed to be embedded in mobile telephones.
2. General Model for Heart Failure Alert
System:
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The Heart Failure Alert System consists of:
• RFID Tag (Implanted into Human body).
• RFID Reader (Placed in a Cellular Phone).
• Global Positioning Satellite System.
• Locating & Tracking Station.
• Mobile Rescue Units.
The grain-sized RFID Tag is implanted into the human body,
which keeps track of the heart pulse in the form of Voltage
levels. A RFID Reader is placed into the Cellular Phone. The
RFID Reader sends a Command to the RFID Tag which in
turn sends these Voltage pulses in the form of bits using the
Embedded Software in the Tag as Response which is a
continuous process. These bit sequence is then sent to
Software Program in the Cellular Phone as input and checks for the Condition of Heart Failure. If any sign of Failure is sensed then immediately an ALERT Signal will be generated and in turn results in the AUTODIALING to the Locating & Tracking Station. This station with the use of GPS System comes to know the Whereabouts of the Victim. The Locating & Tracking Station also simultaneously alerts the Rescue Units.
3. Working of implanted rfid tags:
Passive RFID systems typically couple the transmitter
to the receiver with either load modulation or backscatter,
depending on whether the tags are operating in the near or far field of the reader, respectively. In the near field, a tag couples with a reader via electromagnetic inductance. The antennas of both the reader and the tag are formed as coils, using many turns of small gauge wire. The reader communicates with the tag by modulating a carrier wave, which it does by varying the amplitude, phase, or frequency of the carrier, depending on the design of the RFID system in question. The tag communicates with the reader by varying how much it loads its antenna. This in turn affects the voltage across the reader’s antenna. By switching the load on and off rapidly, the tag can establish its
own carrier frequency (really a sub carrier) that the tag can In turn modulate to communicate its reply.
Fig: Grain sized RFID Tag
RFID Tags are smaller than a grain of rice and equipped with a tiny antenna will capture and wirelessly transmit a person's vital body-function data, such as pulse and do not require line of sight. These tags are capable of identifying the Heart pulses in the form of Voltage levels and converts into a bit sequence.
The first step in A-D Conversion is Pulse Amplitude
Modulation(PAM).This takes an Analog signal, samples it and generates a sequence of pulses based on the results of the Sampling(measuring the Amplitude at equal
intervals)PCM(Pulse Code Modulation)quantizes PAM
Pulses.ie the method of assigning integral values in a specific range to sampled instances. The binary encoding of these integral values is done based on the Algorithm BIN_ENC
depending on the Average Heart pulse voltage of the Victim
(Avg_pulse).
Alg BIN_ENC:
Step1: Read the Analog Signals from the Heart.
Step2: Sample the Analog Signal and generate series of
pulses based on the
Results of Sampling based on the Tag Frequency.
Step3: Assign Integral Values to each Sampled Instances
generated.
Step4: Consider every Individual Sampled Unit and
Compare with the Average
Voltage Level of the Heart.
Step5: If the Sampled Instance Value is in between the
avg_pulse Values
Then Assign BIT=0
Otherwise Assign BIT=1
Step6: Generate the bit sequence by considering all the
generated Individual
Sample Instances.
International Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics
295
Fig: Analog-Binary Digits Conversion in Tags
Working of rfid reader inside cellular phone:
The RFID reader sends a pulse of radio energy to the tag and listens for the Tag’s response. The tag detects this energy and sends back a response that contains the tag’s serial number and possibly other information as well. In simple RFID systems, the reader’s pulse of energy functioned as an on-off switch; in more sophisticated systems, the reader’s RF signal can contain commands to the tag, instructions to read or write
memory that the tag contains. Historically, RFID readers were designed to read only a particular kind of tag, RFID readers are usually on, continually transmitting radio energy and awaiting any tags that enter their field of operation.
Fig: RFID Reader in cellular phone.
The Reader continuously sends the Command to the tags and in turn receives the Voltage levels in the form of bit sequence as Response from the tags with the help of the BIN_ENC algorithm. The reader sends the received Bit Sequence to a software embedded in the cellular phone , In case of detection of a weak heart pulse this software automatically alerts the Tracking & Location station . The software uses the
Algorithm ALERT.
Alg ALERT:
Step 1: Read the bit sequence from the Reader.
Step 2: Count for the no of bit zeros in the data using
a counter.
Step 3: If you encounter a bit one, then set counter to
zero.
Step 4: If the counter is equal to five then go to Step 5
else go to Step 1.
Step 5: Send alert to the nearest Locating & Tracking
Station.
4. Stages In Heart Failure Alert System:
Stage 1:
The Tag continuously senses the Heart Pulses, when the
Reader sends a Command it sends the output of the
BIN_ENC() as the Response to the Reader.
/*Module for the Conversion of Analog Signals to Binary
digits*/
BIN_ENC()
{
Scanf (“The Value of the generated Sample %f”, Value);
If (+Avg_pulse<Value<-Ang_pulse)
{Bit=0 ;}
else if (Value>+Avg_pulse || Value<-Avg_pulse)
{Bit=1 ;}
}
Stage 2:
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The bits obtained are sent to the ALERT() program to check
whether the bit is ’BIT 0’ or ’BIT 1’.If a ‘BIT 0’ is
encountered, the counter is incremented and again it checks
for the next bit. If a ‘BIT 1’is encountered then counter is set
to zero and it again checks for the next bit. If counter=5 then it
alerts the Locating & Tracking Station.
/*Module for checking the Weak Pulse */
ALERT ()
{
if (bit==0)
{ counter++; }
else
{counter=0 ;}
if(counter==5)
{
printf(“ Report ‘Weak Pulse Detected’ to Locating &
Tracking System”);
counter=0;
}
}
Stage 3:
A Special ALERT message is sent to the Locating & Tracking System through the Cellular Phone by making use of features like AutoMessaging, Autodialling which will be provided by the Cellular Network Service Provider. Then the Locating & Tracking Station simultaneously sends an ALERT to the Mobile Rescue Unit and sends a request to GPS System for the proper location of the RFID Reader (or the Cellular Phone).The Locating & Tracking Station sends an simultaneous ALERT to both the GPS System & Mobile
Rescue Unit in order to alert the Rescue team in the Mobile
Rescue Unit to indicate a possible Heart Failure within the
radius of the Unit. The GPS System mean-while tracks the
exact location of the Victim and it guides the Mobile Rescue Unit to the destination in time and provides immediate medical assistance to the Victim.
5. Conclusion:
This new technology will open up a new era in the
field of Biomedical Engineering .The only drawback of this
technology is that, It doesn’t give the promise of saving every person who is implanted with the tag and using this
technology. In the near future; we would like to extend the
technology so that every customer who is implanted with the tags and those who have been using the technology will be saved. The Worlds first GSM phone (NOKIA 5140)offering with RFID reading capability has already come into the market, In the near future the rfid readers would come into thewrist watches, which would be handy than the cellular phones.
This new technology would probably become cheaper in the F uture. In the near future we hope this new technology would etably reduce the deaths due to heart failures.
Fig: Nokia 5140 Handset offering RIFD Reader