Sensors for Health-related Parameters and Data Fusion Approaches

Living a long lasting self-dependent and self-determined life is not a mere selfish aim, but becomes an economical need in our ageing societies. Knowledge about the current state of health and personal risks is necessary for informed and healthy decisions in every day life. Due to recent developments health enabling technologies are on the horizon allowing everyone to access one’s own personal state of health along with associated risks and recommendations as well as reminders for behavioural changes. Increase of computational power along with the miniaturisation of electronic components and new developments in sensor technology allow for the ubiquitous deployment of sensors for health related parameters. Based on literature reviews and experiences from ongoing projects a categorization of sensors for health-related parameters is provided. Examples for the combination of sensors to monitor an individual state of health based on relevant diseases are presented. The problems arising with the expected amounts of data are discussed and data stream management systems are introduced as a possible way to address the problem. The growing field of sensor networks for health related parameters needs to address the problem of configurable and adaptable analysis of resulting data, preferable in a distributed fashion.