Smart sensors and pervasive computing for healthcare

The latest developments in the field of sensing, smart sensors, communication protocols and human machine interface, and also the aim of decreasing the health services cost and increasing the quality of the provided services create the premises for new types of interactions among health providers and people, among patients, among patients and researchers and among patients and corporations. As important components of new healthcare systems, smart sensing platforms based on wearable or smart objects solutions allow the vital signs and motor activity monitoring in patients without higher interferences in their daily activities. In this paper is presented a practical approach concerning smart sensing and embedded processing platforms as part of vital sign monitoring system for patients with limited mobility using walking aids. Several experimental results concerning cardiac and motor activity monitoring using developed platforms associated with smart objects such wheelchair are presented.