From BAN to AmI-BAN: micro and nano technologies in future Body Area Networks

At the University of Twente we have been researching mobile healthcare applications since 1999. Since 2002 the University of Twente and partners have been developing health Body Area Networks (BANs) and a BAN service platform. We define a BAN as a network of communicating devices worn on, around or in the body which provides mobile services to the user. The BAN may also communicate to remote users such as healthcare providers via external network services such as GPRS or UMTS. The generic BAN has been specialised for different mhealth applications targeted at different clinical conditions to provide a variety of telemonitoring and teletreatment services. Each specialization of the BAN is equipped with a certain set of BAN devices and associated application components as appropriate to the clinical application. Despite the considerable R&D advances made in BAN and BAN service platform development, current technology means that it is not convenient for patients to tolerate wearing current generation BANs for long periods, amongst others because they have to wear or carry and manage a collection of different devices including a PDA or smart phone. However future and emerging technologies such as Ambient Intelligent Environments enabled by nano-technologies open the way for less obtrusive and more transparent systems and services. We envision increasing miniaturization enabling the “disappearing BAN” or AmI-BAN, incorporating micro- and nano-scale devices, processes and materials, possibly implanted, communicating with the Ambient Intelligent Environment to provide cost-effective, unobtrusive, pervasive, context aware services (eg. detection, diagnosis, monitoring, treatment). Examples of some possible future AmI-BAN applications using micro-, bio- and and nano-technologies are presented.