A versatile synchronization system for biomedical sensor development

Abstract

Accurate synchronization between a custommade sensor and a commercial reference sensor is a common problem while developing novel biomedical sensors for wearable or smart environment applications. This paper presents a widely applicable non-galvanic synchronization system between two or more sensors. The solution is a simple, low-cost infrared link, and it was demonstrated and tested in measurements using a commercial full-polysomnographic recording device and a custom-made radar motion sensor. The system was successfully used in a sleep measurement study for 12 fullnight recordings. The synchronization accuracy of the system is 2.2 ms which is adequate for all common biosignals. The hardware and software design are available online. This provides other sensor developers possibility to easily use the system in their research projects. Although the technology used is not novel, the aim of the paper is to ease the practical synchronization problems. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014.