What you need to know about the Internet of Healthy Things in Singapore - Part 3

(In this third part of the article, the major considerations in the design of IoHT are being discussed. Click here for part 2 of this article.)

For the Internet-of-Things (IoT) to be effectively deployed in Singapore, there are a number of important design considerations broadly classified under the two broad categories of User Interactivity and Contextual Intelligence.

The following factors are discussed in the context of the design for tele-rehabilitation application.

User Interactivity

Accuracy: To produce useful information, a healthcare system must be highly accurate and reliable in data collection and data processing. The sensors in a medical device need to be able to sample data at reasonable high frequency to correctly capture the biometrics being monitored.

Comfort: To ensure good comfort during physical activity, ergonomics is an important design consideration to provide high degree of convenience, with unobtrusive devices that have small form factor high on the design priority.

Durability: A portable and mobile kit has the characteristics of a good potential such as an everyday appliance, especially for the elderly or impaired patients; it must not be burdensome to use, but the manufacture quality needs to be lasting and enduring for such a device.

Safety: The product needs to be safe to use, as it is meant for use by a non-specialist. It also needs to be easy to use. If the application is critical, the design of the device may need to be context aware with regard to the patient’s environment and physiological state.

User Interaction: The design of the product needs to carry a motivating factor to encourage the patient to “train hard”, while encouraging the patient to explore new activities. The user experience needs to be engaging and captivating.

Wear-ability: A rehabilitation product for recovery exercise may be attached on the patient’s body. The sensor nodes must ensure the data collection has a steady fixation in any activity routine, with the ability to accommodate “rude” movements and signal interferences, in order to ensure reliable data communication.

Contexture Intelligence

Context is the set of background circumstances or facts that surround an event. In rehabilitation, understanding the context is a prerequisite for the effectiveness of therapy, allowing a higher level of retention in the interaction.

Identifying the elements that form the contextual ethos is important for the ability to diagnose. The following elements form a starting list:

i. Physical Context is the physical attributes of the people in the environment, e.g. time, location, etc.

ii. Social Context is the relationship and roles of people and objects, e.g. ratings, reviews, social attention, etc.

iii. Behavioral Context is the monitoring of patterns over time, e.g. the interactions with devices and services in terms of recurrence and actions, etc.

iv. Content Context is the extraction and extrapolation of specific contents from public domains, and also practical daily lifestyle examples.
 

Oliver is among the speakers who will be sharing their expertise at the IoT Asia 2014 conference.

IoT Asia 2014
Singapore Expo Convention & Exhibition Centre
21-22 April 2014

Click here to register.