T.S. Lee’s research while affiliated with Chungbuk National University and other places

We have created a pilot wireless network for the convenient monitoring of temperature and humidity of infant incubators. This system combines infrared and radio frequency (RF) communication in order to minimize the power consumption of slave devices, and we therefore call it a hybrid wireless network. The slave module installed in the infant incubator receives the calling signal from the host with an infrared receiver, and sends temperature and humidity data to the host with an RF transmitter. The power consumption of the host system is not critical, and hence it uses the maximum power of infrared transmission and continuously operating RF receiver. In our test implementation, we included four slave devices. The PC calls each slave device every second and then waits for 6 s, resulting in a total scan period of 10 s. Slave devices receive the calling signals and transmit three data values (temperature, moisture, and skin temperature); their power demand is 1 mW, and can run for about 1000 h on four AA-size nickel-hydride batteries.

A web-based real-time operating, management, and monitoring system for checking temperature and humidity within infant incubators using the Intranet has been developed and installed in the infant Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We have created a pilot system which has a temperature and humidity sensor and a measuring module in each incubator, which is connected to a web-server board via an RS485 port. The system transmits signals using standard web-based TCP/IP so that users can access the system from any Internet-connected personal computer in the hospital. Using this method, the system gathers temperature and humidity data transmitted from the measuring modules via the RS485 port on the web-server board and creates a web document containing these data. The system manager can maintain centralized supervisory monitoring of the situations in all incubators while sitting within the infant ICU at a work space equipped with a personal computer. The system can be set to monitor unusual circumstances and to emit an alarm signal expressed as a sound or a light on a measuring module connected to the related incubator. If the system is configured with a large number of incubators connected to a centralized supervisory monitoring station, it will improve convenience and assure meaningful improvement in response to incidents that require intervention.