A physiological signal monitoring system would be
extremely useful in many areas, provided it was portable,
wearable, and capable of monitoring target physiological
signals remotely via wireless transmission protocol. First,
a wireless BCI system can dramatically reduce installation
complexity, wire weight, and trouble-shooting effort
associated with traditional wired BCI systems. Second, a
wireless BCI system would provide users with more freedom
of posture and movement so that they can perform
their routine tasks in real-world environments. Third,
when built with low-power, miniature signal acquisition
and conditioning circuits, the front-end of a BCI system
can be integrated into a truly wearable device such as a
baseball cap, a headband, or a pair of sunglasses to maximize
portability and wearability. If wearable and wireless
EEG monitoring proves feasible, a much wider range
of applications for BCI will emerge. In addition, the lowpower
integrated circuit design can also fulfill the re-
Signal
acquisition
Wireless
transmitter
Wireless
transmission
Signal processing and
feature extraction
Wireless
receiver
Signal
processing
Applicationspecific
feedback
Front-end interface
Color version available online
Fig. 2. Block diagram of a wireless BCI system.
Lin /Ko /Chang /Duann /Chen /Su /Jung
Gerontology 116 2010;56:112–119
quirements for long-term field operations. Figure 2 illustrates
a general wireless BCI system in which the wires/
cables connecting the front-end signal-sensing circuit
and the back-end data analysis unit are completely replaced
by wireless transmission protocols such as Bluetooth
or wireless local area network (WLAN). The following
section reviews the systems listed in table 1 that
feature wearable and wireless physiological signal monitoring.