A physiological parameter monitoring device to care for the elderly

The design of a physiological parameters monitoring device, such as temperature and heart rate, of a human subject has been presented in this paper. The system consists of an electronic device which is worn on the wrist and/or finger, by an elderly or ldquoat-riskrdquo person. Using a few sensors to measure different vital signs, the person is wirelessly monitored within his own home. An impact sensor has been used to detect falls. The device detects if a person is medically distressed and sends an alarm to a receiver unit that is connected to a computer. This sets off an alarm, allowing help to be provided to the patient. The device is battery powered for use indoors. The device can be easily adapted to monitor athletes and infants. A prototype of the device has been fabricated and initial results are promising. Some more experiments are required to make it a high performance monitoring system.