WIRELESS FLEX SENSOR BELT NETWORKS FOR FOETAL MOVEMENT MONITORING IN LOW RISK PREGNANCIES

Luís Borges, Norberto Barroca, Fernando Velez, António Lebres

Abstract

In this work two flex sensor belts were developed to count the foetal movements in the last four weeks of pregnancy. While one is a standalone solution the other is a wireless flex sensor belt network one. A description of the type of sensors is followed by the discussion of the different types of acquisition and data treatment methodologies. The application to display the deformation angles is presented as well. The wireless sensor network solution is based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, and the hierarchical wireless network solutions include a Wi-Fi layer. Preliminary results highlight the need for accounting for mother respiration movements and actual experiences with pregnant woman will facilitate tuning the threshold-trigger, to improve the detection performance.

Keywords

hierarchical wireless communications, WSAN, tele-medicine, foetal monitoring

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IMEKO-WC-2009-TC13-107.pdf

DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC13 - Measurements in Biology and Medicine

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