IV. CHARACTERISTICS M-HEALTH DEVICES
A vast amount of Mobile health (m-health) data is generated
via compact and easy to use mobile health devices.
These m-health devices are wirelessly connected to IoT servers
and can store, transmit and receive data. In this section we
identify and describe the following main characteristics mhealth
devices:
A. Compact and easy-to-wear
For m-health devices size, mobility and comfortableness is
very important. The are many m-health devices in the market
with varying size and functionalities. Here we briefly discuss
few of the latest m-health devices:
TICKRc is heart rate monitor by Wahoo Fitness. This
device can simply easily straps across the chest to take the
heart rate measurements.
FitBit Surgec is a convenient smartwatch with abilities
to get notifications from smartphone. It can track heart rate,
sleep patterns, and amount of calories burned during a workout.
The FitBit Surge supports Bluetooth wireless connectivity and
is compatible with iOS and Android operating systems.
Forerunner 920XTc is a Bluetooth compatible smartwatch.
Some of the features of Forerunner 920XT are heart
rate monitoring, calorie computation, step counter, swimming
stroke counter and tracking elevation (via barometric altimeter).
iBGStarc is a blood sugar meter. It is about the size of a
USB memory stick and very easy to carry. It is compatible with
the iPhone and iPod. The iBGStar automatically synchronizes
data with the iBGStar Diabetes Manager on the iPhone to
track glucose and insulin. It supports to tag meals and exercise,
graph data and share data via email with health care providers.
B. IP enabled and wireless connectivity
Each m-health device has a unique identifiers called IP
address. The IP address enables the device to transmit/receive
data over the network. The IoT infrastructure provides ubiquitous
connectivity to m-health devices in a heterogeneous
network environment.
Mobile health devices use wireless technology for connection
and transmission of data. Connected devices streamline
the process of monitoring, diagnostic, treatment, admission,
billing, etc [10]. There are many standard for wireless connectivity
but for mobile health devices decisive factors are
low power, low cost, physical size and ease of use. Table
I summaries the various wireless standards [11]. Here we
briefly describe the selected standards suitable for mobile
health devices:
The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an ultra-highspeed
connectivity version, yielding throughput of 1 Gbps.
However, it only works over a distance of less than 10 cm.
Nike+ is a proprietary wireless technology developed by
Apple and Nike mainly to monitor the activity levels of users
while exercising.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), the main aim of this
wireless technology is to enable power sensitive devices to