A person’s physiological well-being is central to his or her overall health, and therefore, quality of life. By sampling a person’s physiological status often, a holistic and dynamic representation of his or her health can be constructed. Analyses of these measurements can reveal both positive and negative changes in short and long term health, allowing the person being monitored and his or her clinicians to make more informed decisions regarding health management decisions.

The risk of having one or more morbidities that require physiological monitoring increases with age. Active, portable devices may not be ideal for monitoring older adults because the users may forget to wear the device or could use them incorrectly. This is a greater concern when an individual has reduced cognitive ability, such as a person with dementia. One approach to counter these problems is to use passive monitoring, where the monitoring device is embedded in the environment and requires little or no effort from the user to function.

My research focused on the development of a smart floor tile that can measure vital signs of an elderly person in an unobtrusive and non-invasive manner. The smart floor tile designed collects physiological signals such as ballistocardiogram (BCG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) at the sole of one’s foot through electronic coupling using sensors embedded in the tile, including load cells and electrodes.