IoT based smart wheelchair for healthcare

Abstract

People suffering from certain permanent disabilities due to accidents, paralysis or old age often depend on others for help with respect to movement. Providing an access to the remote health services using a health monitoring system enhances their independence, since their health is regularly recorded and monitored by the doctor without any efforts. By accessing the services online, they can directly communicate with their doctors only in case of an emergency. Since disabled patients cannot afford to travel, smart healthcare systems help them gain access to healthcare systems. A possible solution to monitor their health status is by developing a health monitoring system based on a smart wheelchair since it is adequate for a wider range of audiences and it does not require a lot of maintenance unlike the wearable systems. Smart wheelchairs not only focus on the mobility of the device but also on health monitoring of the patient. The objective of the present work is to develop a smart sensing wheelchair by implementing sensors within its structures. The technology adopted is Internet of Things wherein the heart rate and blood oxygen levels are detected by sensors, processed by embedded systems and sent to the cloud that initiates a trigger in case of any abnormality. The trigger produced can be in the form of an SMS or an e-mail.