Hardware and Embedded Systems

Communication between medical devices and applications by means of standardized protocols to ensure interoperability is a challenge for telemedicine. By taking care of interoperability standards we are offering customer-specific implementation and test environments for various platforms.

Our competencies in the area of standardized medical data communication are

• HL7
• POCT1-A, POCT1-A2
• IEEE 11073 Personal Health Device Standards

In order to establish a system of connected healthcare solutions the goal of Continua Health Alliance is to promote delivery of healthcare in the home environment. Fraunhofer IIS is part of the Fraunhofer Alliance Ambient Assisted Living AAL, a member of Continua Health Alliance. We support our customers from the implementation to the certification and testing process.

Communication among medical devices and applications including legacy components is a main requirement of health telematics. This communication should support both technical interoperability (by common data transmission standards) and semantic interoperability (by common coding schemes etc.).

Our Competencies:

• Implementation of standard-based interfaces for medical devices and components
• Testing for standard compliance and interoperability
• Development and application of hard- and software tools for standard-based interoperability
• Object-oriented modeling

A further field of research is the reliable algorithmic evaluation of biosignals captured by medical sensor systems. Main focus is given to the best signal processing possible under everyday conditions (e.g. noise and motion artifact suppression) as well as the calculation of so-called secondary parameters (e.g. heart rate and heart rate variability from the ECG).

We offer custom-implemented specific libraries for:

• Embedded systems
  
• Mobile devices: Windows Mobile, iOS, Android
  
• PC-based platforms: Windows, Mac OS, Linux

In addition to classic biosignal processing, we focus on human motion analysis and reconstruction based on acceleration sensor data. Our solutions include: algorithms for the automatic recognition of elementary movements (e.g. walking, running, cycling, using the stairs etc.) with one single sensor, the implementation of these algorithms for mobile devices, the reconstruction of complex motions by means of sensor networks.

Already during the development phases of new solutions we attach great importance to a high level of robustness and suitability for daily use. Our solutions are developed with regard to approval and certification and come with the required documentation.

Due to our variety of topics we can address a broad spectrum of applications and support our customers during the development of their products.

• Care of high-risk patients
• Danger detection
• Support of performance diagnostics
• Biofeedback
• Sports, fitness and recreation
• Motion capture
• (Tele-)Rehabilitation