Poster abstract: Accurate monitoring of circardian rhythms using wearable Body Sensor Networks

Monitoring the impact of sleep deprivation on thermoregulation requires a careful measurement of skin temperature across the human body to have precise knowledge and understanding of the stability of circadian rhythms, the 24-hour cycles of biological activity. However, medical measurements and clinical trials are often carried out in controlled lab settings, which limits the realism and the duration of data collections, and increases significantly their costs. We aim to provide medical researchers studying the stability of the circadian rhythms with a tool for higher quality data collections. We design and develop a wireless unobtrusive monitoring system for accurate body temperature measurements to be worn by patients for several weeks while they live their normal life. Obtaining a long-lasting highly-accurate measurement system is challenging, as energy and computational resources are severely constrained in miniaturized wearable sensor nodes. We develop a prototype of an active temperature measurement system with 0.02°C accuracy, a lifetime of up to 3 weeks, and real-time feedback to a remote medic. Our preliminary experiments show that we can identify the circadian rhythms also in non-ambulatory environments, indicating that our tool could become a valuable asset for medical research.

1. INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION

Chronobiologists can derive from long-term skin and core body temperature measurements an accurate profile of the circadian system, which is essential to understand the time-dependent regulation of brain and body functions.