An Implementation of Wireless Sensor Network in Monitoring of Parkinson´s Patients Using Received Signal Strength Indicator

Remote monitoring of patients with movement disorders is currently being researched extensively with the help of Wireless Body Area Sensor Network (WBASN). e-Healthcare is one such popular WBASN application. We focus our research addressing an important issue of wireless monitoring of patients suffering from Parkinson´s Disease (PD) for fall detection in order to avoid potential injuries. We also propose a non-invasive, wireless technique that could detect multiple occurrences of Freezing of Gait (FoG) over single or multiple days of observation. For wireless monitoring of patients, we would embed wireless sensors in patient´s vicinity, such as his room and determine the values of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) from these sensors. RSSI can thus be used as one of the measures to detect falls of PD patients. Our initial results of embedding force sensors in person´s shoe, suggest that it can be used to detect and record the number of occurrences of FoG, which is hard to reproduce at doctor´s clinic, due to its relation with patient´s consciousness at the hospital. We also propose to derive different mobility patterns for a PD patient based on the RSSI values during a day´s activity and then train the system for intelligent analysis in future.