14-08-2012, 10:53 AM
RFID based Physical Fitness Condition Measurement System
1RFID.doc (Size: 1,016.49 KB / Downloads: 36)
Abstract
A physical fitness condition measurement system
based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is
proposed in this paper. The system includes a RFID tag, a RFID
reader, a main control board, and several peripherals such as
blood pressure meter, ear-temperature meter, height-weight
meter, balance measurement, and speed test for running back-
forth measurement. The RFID tag and reader are used to store
and read a user’s identification as well as their physical fitness
conditions. The main control board with MINI2440 ARM
microprocessor and WinCE 6.0 platform embedded would
process the user’s identification and trigger the peripheral device
for measuring his/her physical fitness conditions. The measured
data is then transmitted and stored in the RFID tag and database.
The user interface and database are built by C++ codes. The
proposed system with easy operations has been tested by a blood
pressure meter, an ear-temperature meter, height-weight meter,
speed test, and so on. According to the experimental results, the
outputs of the measured data coupled with users’ body mass
index (BMI) can be used as self health management references
and support medical diagnosis to quantify the medical treatment,
rehabilitation or training.
INTRODUCTION
Measuring physical fitness conditions is important for people tracing their health conditions and preventing or controlling diseases and conditions. For example, a good gauge of the risk for diseases that can occur with more body fat is associated with body mass index (BMI); the higher BMI will cause the higher risk for certain diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, gallstones, breathing problems, and certain cancers [1].
Crespo et al. [2] and Eissa et al. [3] discussed the
association of the physical activity, physiology conditions, and
diseases. Crespo et al. analyzed the data for the relationship
between physical activity and overweight status to all-cause
mortality in 9,136 men. Eissa et al. found that each 1-unit
increase in physical activity was associated with an increase in
systolic blood pressure of 0.02 mm Hg, in diastolic blood
pressure of 0.01 mm Hg, and in heart of 0.02 beat/min. The
conclusion made is that the association of blood pressure with
physical activity was significantly less for those with higher
BMI. Similar issues also have been studied specifically for
American youth [4], Japanese women [5], Chinese American
children [6], and Australians [7].
PHYSICAL FITNESS CONDITION MEASUREMENT
SYSTEM
Figure 1 gives the system block diagram of the proposed
physical fitness condition measurement system. The system
includes two parts: computer and measurement. As given in
Figure 1(a), the computer obtains the measured physical
fitness conditions from the RFID tag via RS232 transmission
cable and a user friendly interface is built by using C++
programming language. As given in Figure 1(b), the
measurement part of the system consists of a RFID tag, a
RFID reader, a main control board, and eight kinds of
peripherals including (1) blood-pressure meter, (2) ear-
temperature meter, (3) body-weight meter, (4) body-height
meter, (5) body-balance meter, (6) running back/forth test, (7)
thrusting forward to ground test, and (8) lying-down/sitting-up
test. The RFID tag and reader are used to store and read a
user’s identification as well as physical fitness conditions. The
main control board would process the user’s identification and
Eight Peripheral Measurement Ends.
Three categories for measuring a user’s physical fitness condition with eight peripheral measurement ends are given in Figure 5, 6 and 7, respectively. Before starting the measurement, the main control device reads the user’s identification from their RFID tag, the user’s name and identification is shown on the screen and the measurement is then initiated via RS232 serial transmission line. After the device obtains the measured data, the buzzer sounds and the measured data is stored back in the RFID tag.
Figure 5 gives the block diagram of blood-pressure, ear-
temperature, body-height, and body-balance measurement
ends, where the ultrasonic distance and load cell sensors are
used for measuring the user’s height and body balance ability.
Figure 6 gives the block diagram of body-weight measurement
end. The obtained measured data is transmitted by RS485
interface and then sent to the device by RS232 serial
communication interface. Figure 7 gives the block diagram of
running back/forth, thrusting forward to ground, and lying-
down/sitting-up test measurement ends. Two optical sensors
are used for the measurements.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a RFID-based physical fitness measurement
system is proposed to allow a user to identify his/her
identification and record their physiology conditions
automatically. The proposed measurement system supports
three advantages: (1) the develop of the user friendly interface
at the computer terminal with the recommendation provides
users to record their measured physical fitness conditions in
the database which gives users and their family inquiry past
measurement records that can be downloaded and printed for
self health management references; (2) as shown in the
experimental results, the proposed system with easy
operations allows people to use the outputs of the measured
data coupled with users’ body mass index (BMI) for
supporting medical diagnosis to quantify the medical
treatment, rehabilitation or training; (3) the use of RFID
technology would identify users correctly and efficiently,
specifically for elders who are not capable of using a computer
to key in their identification or who might make mistakes due
to keying the wrong identification. This work can be extended
to focus on building a commercial product which can make a
simple diagnosis or medical suggestion whenever a user
finishes the measurement.