RFID Tags Made to Monitor Vital Signs
The possibility of being able to continuously monitor a person’s vital signs to detect early warnings on potential abnormalities is coming. All thanks to researchers at Cornell University that have been working on a new project. For this to really get off the ground it’ll have to be as noninvasive as possible with no interference of wires and electrodes. With RFID technology that’ll be possible. Researchers have created a new touch free monitoring system that’ll be able to monitor an individual’s breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure all with a RFID Tag small enough to fit in someone’s shirt pocket.
A professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University, Edwin Kan and graduate student Xiaonan Hui developed the technology. Their method relies on near-field coupling. Near-field is the region of the electromagnetic field right around an RFID Antenna with a distance of up to 35 centimeters, or one wavelength, away. Kan and Hui’s demonstrations were able to pick up an individuals’ blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing measures with a high level of accuracy. All of it was possible using a small RFID antenna and RFID tag placed within 10 centimeters of an individuals’ body, and a RFID Reader located up to two meters away. According to Hui this method increases the sensitivity and the signal quality.
In the long term there could be life changing uses that come from Kan and Hui’s research. “There are several potential real-world applications for this, such as the next generation wearable devices, smart garments, healthcare monitoring, and clinical studies,” Hui continued. “The convenience and the high performance could be particularly helpful for smart garments. Imagine if your daily garments were able to gather your vital signs directly, and then report them straight to your cell phone.”
In the short term Kan and Hui are interested in using this RFID technology in hospitals. It could be used to monitor a large number of patients without hooking them up to separate machines and devices to check their vitals. The study also showed that their system could detect up to 200 RFID tags at once, all over the same wireless communication channel.
To read more about Edwin Kan’s And Xiaonan Hui’s research, click here.
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