The basic architecture of the human activity monitoring
system can be represented with the help of a block diagram;
the simplest one is shown in Figure 1. Depending on the task
of monitoring, different types of sensors are used. The raw
data from sensors are collected by a processor. The data are
processed and then displayed on a display. These types of
simple wearable devices are used by normal people while
jogging, running and other applications where the users look
at the display to notice the measured values of the sensors.
If the device has the feature of wireless data transmitting
capability, the data can be sent to a central station through
a transceiver. The block diagram representation of a simple
wearable wireless device is shown in Figure 2. The data
may or may not be completely processed at the sensing end
but most of the data are stored, processed in the computer and extensive display is possible either in a graphical format
and/or as a numerical value. Depending on the complexity, the
results may be available through an access of a website from
a remote place. The block diagram representation of a developed
physiological monitoring system is shown in figure 3.
The monitoring system may consists of many sensors to
measure physiological parameters such as body temperature,
heart-rate etc. The picture of the actual developed wearable
physiological monitoring system is shown in figure 4 [4], [18].
The system consists of temperature sensor to measure the skin
temperature, heart-rate sensor as well as accelerometers to
detect any fall that may occur. All the measured physiological
data are collected by a microcontroller to process and analyze.
Based on the processed data the central controller may either
generate a warning message to the caregiver based on the
current physiological situation of the person being monitored
and/or may help to detect early disease and any possible health
threat [19].