Abstract This paper presents a smart fiber Bragg grating
(FBG) sensor system with an unobtrusive and easy-to-use
FBG sensor bed, which automatically monitors the
behavior of bedridden patients and their vital signs based
on indicative spatio-temporal signature for adaptive
intervention triggering and activity planning. We present
the subtle design, fabrication, calibration, implementation
and deployment issues of the FBG pressure sensors to be
used in hospitals or nursing homes to prevent bedsore
generation, patient falling out of the bed, and lifethreatening
situations such as patient’s heart rate weakening,
breathing pattern change, etc. Through trials conducted
in the laboratory for respiratory rate monitoring
with a sample group of 10 subjects, the system showed
maximum error of 1 breaths per minute as compared to
manual counting.