BLUETOOTH COMMUNICATION FOR BATTERY POWERED MEDICAL DEVICES

Branko Babušiak – Štefan Borik

   Wireless communication eliminates obtrusive cables associated with wearable sensors and considerably increases patient comfort during measurement and collection of medical data. Wireless communication is very popular in recent years and plays a significant role in telemedicine and homecare applications. Bluetooth technology is one of the most commonly used wireless communication types in medicine. This paper describes the design of a universal wireless communication device with excellent price/performance ratio. The said device is based on the low-cost RN4020 Bluetooth module with Microchip Low-energy Data Profile (MLDP) and due to low-power consumption is especially suitable for the transmission of biological signals (ECG, EMG, PPG, etc from wearable medical/personal health devices. A unique USB dongle adaptor was developed for wireless communication via UART interface and power consumption was evaluated under various conditions.

Keywords: bluetooth, wireless communication, low energy, medical device

[full-paper]