International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
Design of a Wearable System for Interactive
Caption and Posture Recognition Using Wireless
Sensor Networks
K. Sreenivasa Ravi 1, G. Sowmya Bala 2, B. Venkataramanaiah 3, K. Prathyusha 4
1
Professor, ECM Dept., KL University, Guntur Dist., INDIA
2, 4
Assistant Professor, ECM Dept., KL University, Guntur Dist., INDIA
3
Research Scholar, ECM Dept., KL University, Guntur Dist., INDIA
Abstract: This paper explains the designing of a novel wearable
system with the interactive posture caption and recognition
functions based on the Non-vision over the ZigBee Wireless Sensor
Network. It is very difficult to have the posture information of
patients those who are under coma; paralysis etc., is very difficult
task. So, in this project a Non vision based different wearable type
sensors (3-axis accelerometer, heartbeat, Body temperatures
sensor) that are placed at patient body for collecting the postures
information and activity are used and this will be directly
monitored through a computer. For data transmission ZigBee-
WSN technology is adopted. Around 28 kinds of hand postures
and 13 kinds of leg postures can be distinguish by using this
system. When the transmitting distance is less than 30 M and the
package correct transmitted rate is more than 97.5%, the real-
time body interactive postures of approximately 8 persons can be
monitored simultaneously by the data-controlling center. Using
this system the doctors can get the required information regarding
the patients of that kind and can be able to give appropriate
treatment to the patients in correct time.
Keywords --- ZigBee, WSN, Heart beat sensor, Body temperature
sensor, ARM Micro Controller
I. LITERATURE SURVEY
Because of medical mistakes every year at-least 98,000
people are losing their lives in United States as per the survey
done by U.S. Institute of Medicine and treatment. According to
an investigative report called “Dead By Mistake” released by
the Hearst Corporation, an estimated 200,000 Americans will
lose their lives in 2009 alone due to preventable medical errors
and hospital infections [5]. There was a rapid growth of
wireless networking in the past several years, which mainly
focus on high-speed communications, and relatively long range
applications such as the IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area
Network (WLAN) standards [5].
The first well known standard focusing on Low-Rate
Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) was Bluetooth.
However it has limited capacity for networking of many nodes.
There are many wireless monitoring and control applications in
industrial and home environments which require longer battery
life, lower data rates and less complexity than those from
existing standards. For such wireless applications, a new
standard called IEEE 802.15.4 has been developed by IEEE.
The new standard is also called ZigBee, when additional stack
layers defined by the ZigBee Alliance are used [5].
ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org
One genuine effort towards the development of totally
integrated textile based temperature sensor was carried out by
Locher, et al., in 2005 at ETH, Zurich [2]. They developed a
woven temperature sensor by integrating, insulated copper
wires into warp and weft along with polyester yarn, and
devising a special routine technique for making interconnection
points. However in the accuracy analyses, errors associated
with the effect of environmental parameters e.g. strain or
moisture were not considered. Further the sensors were only
tested in steady state conditions at some specific temperature
points in laboratory. Finally developing interconnecting points
in sensor patch is manual and cumbersome process which is
itself a source of error towards the sensing characteristics [1].
The body temperature detecting sensor prototype belt was first
used by the NICU of MMC hospitals. The prototype belt was
tested on a premature infant, born after 30 weeks gestation in
stable health condition. A neonatologist and an NICU nurse
from MMC were present during the testing. After obtaining
permission of the parents, the prototype belt was placed on the
neonate’s body. The belt was tested for a period of 45 minutes
on the baby to see whether the signals from the belt remained
stable for a longer period when a baby wears the belt [3].
Early models consisted of a monitoring box with a set of
electrode leads which attached to the chest. The first
wireless EKG Heart rate monitor was invented in 1977 as a
training aid for the Finnish National Cross Country Ski team
and as 'intensity training' became a popular concept in athletic
circles in the mid-80s, retail sales of wireless personal heart
monitors started from 1983-Bui Cac [5]. First results of a fiber
optic sensor for measurement of heart rate which is developed
within the European research project and is supported by the
EU 7th Framework Programme and develops an advanced
personal protective equipment (PPE) system that will ensure
active protection and information support for personnel
operating in high risk and complex environments in fire
fighting, chemical and mining rescue operations [1].
The core of the project is the development of advanced
materials and sensors to be used for a multifunctional PPE. This
includes real-time monitoring of risk factors (temperature, gas,
oxygen level, etc.), user health status (body temperature,
respiratory rate, heart rate). All prototypes will be tested in field
tests. For monitoring of the user health status intelligent
underwear based on fiber optic sensors and small portable
monitoring units will be developed. The sensor development
has a special focus on using POF, as fiber optic sensors based
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
on POF take advantage of its high elasticity and high
breakdown strain. Because of their outstanding elastic
properties, POF are well suited for integration into medical
textiles. Another highly important criterion for selecting POF as
a medical sensor is its biocompatibility, especially in case of
fiber breakage [4].
II. INTRODUCTION
The past several years have witnessed a hasty growth in the
wireless network part. So far wireless networking has been
paying attention on high-speed and long range purpose. On the
other hand, there are many wireless monitoring and control
applications for industrial and home environments which
require longer battery life, lower data rates and less complexity
than those from existing standards and must be a globally
denned standard that meets the requirement for reliability,
security, low power and low cost. For such wireless
applications a new standard called ZigBee has been developed
by the ZigBee Alliance based upon the IEEE 802.15.4 standard
[13].The devices could include telephones, hand-held digital
assistants, sensors and controls located within a few meters of
each other and purge the use of physical data buses like USB
and Ethernet cables [9, 10].
The target networks consist of a large range of devices
with low data rates in the Industrial, Scientific and Medical
(ISM) radio bands, with building-automation controls like
intruder/fire alarms, thermostats and remote (wireless)
switches, video/audio remote controls. In this paper a novel
wearable system is designed with the interactive posture
caption and recognition functions based on the Non-vision over
the ZigBee Wireless Sensor Network. Current progresses in
sensor technologies and wireless communication technologies
facilitate the establishment of a novel creation of healthcare
monitoring systems with wearable electronics. In this project,
the health status of the patient is monitored continuously by
placing sensors i.e., sensor to detect the body temperature and
heart beat detecting sensors, along with MEMS accelerometer
according to the instructions given by the microcontroller
inbuilt in the device.
The MMA7260Q is 3-axis accelerometer. Accelerometer
measures acceleration i.e., change in speed of anything that it's
mounted on. As gravity causes all objects to step up towards
the earth, accelerometers are versatile for determining the
orientation of an object relative to the earth. In order to
determine how level an object, a two-axis accelerometer can be
used. This would determine a body's angle from the X and Y
accelerations on the body [9, 10]. The complete working
principle is described in detail in the below sections. Section 3
consists of the hardware description and section 4 consists of
the discussion and results projected in the form of a flow chart
and finally the last sections conclude the paper.
III. HARDWARE DESCRIPTION
The basic principal of operation is clearly explained in this
section. The figure-1 represents the basic transmitter section,
and the receiver section is represented in the figure-2. In the
ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org
transmitter section, the accelerometer sensor, Temperature
sensor, Heart beat sensor are been used. The accelerometer
sensor is MMA 726Q which is a 3-axis accelerometer, which is
used to measure the acceleration of an object in general the
body movement of a patient is monitored and the body angle
position is measured through which the timely information
regarding the patient with respect to their body movement is
detected and send to the main controller.
The data collected by this is of analog data which is
transmitted to the microcontroller through the ADC as shown in
the figure. The micro controller sends the same information
through the transmitter to the receiver placed in the equipment
present at the corresponding doctor.
The transmitter section also consists of the temperature
sensor and the heartbeat sensor, to get the updated information
regarding the health condition of the patient. Within a narrow
range of values the human body temperature will varies and can
be measured from different parts of the body. There are various
factors on which this temperature depends, for example level of
activity, time of day, and psychological factors and also
depends on whether the patient is ingestion. A normal
temperature range of a human body is around 37°C [5].
The sensor is small and can be placed anywhere on the
body, which measures the temperature ranging from 0°C to
50°C. This results in fast response time and low power
dissipation that makes it ideal for such medical application.
A. Working Procedure:
The main sections for the proposed systems are
a. Transmitter section (figure 1a).
b. Receiver section (figure 1b).
a. Transmitter section consists of microcontroller to which
MEMS, Temperature sensor LCD and ZigBee are
interfaced. The power to this transmitter section is supplied
from power supply circuit.
b. Receiver section consists of ZigBee receiver interfaced to
PC through RS 232 the power to this Receiver section is
supplied from mains.
Basic principle of operation is as follows:
1. First switch ‘ON’ the power supply on both sections.
2. The LED present on the board glows indicating that the
proper power supply is being supplied to the ARM
Microcontroller
3. At first the title will be displayed on the LCD such as
“Design of a wearable system for Interactive Caption and
Recognition Postures”.
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 International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013

4. The MEMS is put on a movable part of the patient’s body The heart beat sensor as shown in the figure 2 is designed to
to know his position status whenever the patient has moved give digital output of heat beat when a finger is placed inside it.
or even fallen down suddenly. When the heart detector is working, the top-most LED flashes
in unison with each heart beat. This digital output can be
connected to microcontroller directly to measure the ‘Beats Per
Regulated Power Supply
Minute’ (BPM) rate. It works on the principle of light
modulation by blood flow through finger at each pulse.
3-axis
accelerometer
Sensor ADC The sensor consists of a super bright red LED and light
Micro ZigBee detector. The LED needs to be super bright as the light must
Controller pass through finger and detected at other end. Now, when the
heart pumps a pulse of blood through the blood vessels, the
Temperature ADC
Sensor RS232 Interfacing
finger becomes slightly more opaque and so less light reached
the detector. With each heart pulse the detector signal varies.
This variation is converted to electrical pulse. This signal is
ARM amplified and triggered through an amplifier which outputs
Heart Beat Sensor
Controller LCD Driver LCD +5V logic level signal. The output signal is also indicated on
LPC2148 top by a LED which blinks on each heart beat. Figure 2 show
the circuit of Heart Beat Sensor.
Crystal Oscillator

LED Indicator
Reset Button
Figure 1(a): Block diagram of Transmitter section
5. The temperature sensor is put to the finger of the patient to
know the body temperature of the patient.
6. These recorded details are transmitted to the receiver
section through the ZigBee transmitter
The communication is done by means of the serial
communication. RS232 is a recommended standard; it is a
cable in which serial communications can be done. Information
being transferred between data processing equipment and
peripherals is in the form of digital data which is transferred in
either a serial or parallel mode [9]. Parallel communications are
used mainly for connections between test instruments or
computers and printers, while serial is often used between
computer and other peripherals [13].

ZigBee Battery Power

Supply

RS232
Interface

Figure 2: Heart Beat Sensor

Computer
Figure 1(b): Block diagram of Receiver section
7. At the Receiver section, it receives the data through
ZigBee receiver which is in turn interfaced to PC through
RS 232.
8. The concerned data that was already recorded gets
displayed on the PC.
The Temperature Sensor LM35 sensor series are precision
integrated-circuit temperature sensors, whose output voltage is
linearly proportional to the Celsius (Centigrade) temperature.
The microcontroller used in proposed system is ARM
LPC2148 which is a 64 pin Micro Controller that comes under
processor core architecture ARM7TDMI-S ARM 7 version of
ARM processors. It is a 32 bit Micro Controller, intended for
high end applications involving complex computations that
follow the enhanced RISC architecture with high performance
and very low power consumption. It has serial communications
interfaces ranging from a USB 2.0 Full Speed device, multiple
UARTS, SPI, and I2Cs. Various 32-bit timers, dual 10-bit
ADC(s), single 10-bit DAC, PWM channels and 45 fast GPIO
lines with 9 interrupt pins [11]. The Crystal Oscillated is used
to measure the frequency variations of all signals and Reset
button is to reset the entire process to its initial state.

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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013
The MMA7260Q is 3-axis accelerometer as shown in
figure 3. An accelerometer measures acceleration (change in
speed) of anything that it's mounted on. With a three-axis
accelerometer, it is possible to measure an object's acceleration
in every direction [10]. This three-axis accelerometer is
essentially a carrier board or breakout board for free scale’s
MMA7260QT MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems)
accelerometer. The MMA7260QT is a great IC, but is small,
leadless package. The device also operates at 2.2 V to 3.6 V,
which can make interfacing difficult for microcontrollers
operating at 5 V. This carrier board addresses both issues while
keeping the overall size as compact as possible [9, 11].
Figure 3: MEMS sensor MMA7260Q [9]
IV. FLOW CHART REPRESENTATION
The flow chart in figure 4 below explains the basic events
that occur in general while working with the above said
prototype. The basic events are of three types these are related
to the data processing values. The data here is the information
collected from the patient (human body) through the devices
incorporated in the prototype i.e., accelerometer, temperature
sensor, and the heart beat sensor.
Therefore MEMS, TEMP, HB are data receives, it receives
data from patient (human body) and transmits the same using a
connector to the main processing unit which is then
acknowledged after checking the total data it received by
sending a program command “Received data is complete
(Yes)”, and the output terminal is given by the Address & final
Data which is sent to the display counter.
If the event fails to receive then it again send back to the
initial state where it then repeats the entire process and starts
rechecking. At the end of the process the data is finalized to be
the right data, after which immediately the reset command is
activated which is the end task. So at the end the command
‘yes’ sets the reset value. And if it is a ‘no’ command then the
process set back to the program read mode.
ISSN: 2231-5381 http://www.ijettjournal.org
V. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
The following are the few advantages and disadvantages
resulted out of the above specified proposal.
Advantages:
 Real time monitoring of health status of a person (coma,
paralysis persons).
 Wireless communication using ZigBee technology.
 Long life.
 Highly sensitive wireless interface.
 Easy to install.
 Low power Consumption.
Disadvantages:
 Interfacing of sensors like flex sensor to microcontroller
is highly sensitive
 Heart beat sensor takes delay time to get the heart rate of
the patient instantly.
VI. CONCLUSION
This paper mainly focus on designing a system that is
aiding the helpless patients by monitoring their health condition
time to time and updataing the same information so far
collected using this proposed system for a doctor so that they
response immediately and the patient will also get a fast
recovery comparitively. A lot of research is still going on to
develop a very cost effecive solution for such problems due to
such patients. In this paper a wearable system for interactive
capture and posture recognization system is proposed. The
proposed system mainly consist of three important devices that
are Heart Beat Sensor, Temperature Sensor, MMA7260Q is 3-
axis accelerometer helps in monitoring the health status of a
patient based on various parameters. The complete working
principle is described in details in the above sections. The
transmitter and the receiver sections of the proposed system are
defined clearly in the section 3. The working principle of the
proposed system clearly explains the process through which a
patient is to be monitored and the updating of the same near the
doctor. This not only helps to get the patients health status but
also using this system it is possible to give a better treatment to
a patient by immediately responding to him. This makes
possible for a patient to recover soon. This system is very cost
effective solution. It is very efficient and is very accurate.
VII. FUTURE SCOPE:
Even though it provides the accurate readings, there is a
problem with the delay incured to get the data at the reciever
side. At the reciever side, instead of a computer, it is better to
have a seperate device near the doctor so that it is possible to
reduce this delay also.
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013

FLOW CHART REPRESENTATION

Figure 4: Flow chart representation

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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) - Volume4Issue5- May 2013

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank everyone, whoever

remained a great source of help and inspirations in this humble
presentation. The authors would like to thank K.L. University
management for providing necessary facilities to carry out this
work.

REFERENCES

[1] “Development of Knitted Temperature Sensor

(KTS)” by Muhammad Dawood Husain or Locher,
T. Kirstein, and G. Troester,
[2] “Temperature Profile Estimation with Smart
Textiles”, in International Conference on Intelligent
textiles, Smart clothing, Well-being, and Design.
2005: Tampere, Finland.
[3] “Monitoring Body Temperature of Newborn Infants
at Neonatal Intensive Care Units Using Wearable
Sensors” by Wei Chen1, Sietse Dols1 Sidarto
Bambang Oetomo Loe Feijs1.
[4] “Heart rate sensor for integration into protective
equipment” by J. Witt (1), M. Schukar (1), K.
Krebber (1), Jaroslav Demuth (2), Ladislav Šašek
(2).
[5] “CPS Community Paediatrics Committee. Fever and
Temperature Taking”. Canadian Paediatric Society,
April 2008. http:// www.cps.ca /caringforkids /
when-sick / fever. Htm

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

[6] Microcontrollers Architecture, Programming,

Interfacing and System Design by Raj kamal
[7] Embedded Systems by Mazidi and Mazidi
[8] Embedded C by Michael. J. Pont.

WEB PAGES:

[9] www.wikipedia.com
[10] www.allaboutcircuits.com
[11] www.microchip.com
[12] www.howstuffworks.com
[13] www.zigbee.org.

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