Precise indoor altitude estimation based on differential barometric sensing for wireless medical applications

Some medical applications require precise information of position and orientation of a patient as changes affect pressure condition inside the body. In this paper we focus on altitude estimation, where altitude is a distance, in vertical direction, between a reference and a point of a human body. We suggest equipping wireless sensor nodes with high resolution pressure sensors to calculate the altitude with the barometric formula. We implement a body sensor network based on IEEE 802.15.4 and synchronization mechanism with a reference. Pressure variations due to environmental effects are compensated by cancellation with this differential measurement setup. We demonstrate the need for differential measurements and show with a series of measurements that environmental pressure variations have no significant effect on the proposed altitude estimation. Compared to existing systems, our solution is cost effective, easy to deploy and provides a flexible tradeoff between precision and location lag by adjusting a filter constant.