Evaluation of Bluetooth Low Energy Technology for Team Sports Real-time Physiological Monitoring
Portaankorva, Antti (2018)
2018
Sähkötekniikka
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-10-03
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201810032381
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201810032381
Tiivistelmä
The goal of this thesis was to evaluate and test a new sensor system for real-time monitoring of professional athletes. Real-time monitoring of physiological data can be used by the coaches to analyze and improve the training of individual athletes or teams. In this work data quality and reliability of the sensor system were highly prioritized. Physiological data measured is based on the heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). HRV gives valuable information on the training intensity and recovery of athletes. In competitive sport insightful information on the physical conditions of the athletes gives team cutting edge for success. Real-time monitoring system needs to be easy to use and set up to be in daily use for sports teams.
The objective for evaluation was to research how the distance between sensors, number of devices, different environments and settings affect to the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising packet loss. The purpose was to find optimal settings for maximal range and minimal advertising packet loss ratio while being able to handle real-time monitoring of up to 30 devices simultaneously.
Sensors tested and evaluated for this work are using BLE technology, which enables good compatibility with various end devices on the market. For real-time monitoring of multiple sensors, BLE advertising mode was used. Different methods were used to test the functionality of the BLE advertising mode. A high emphasis was put on the range and packet loss. To ensure that all the data is safely secured the sensor is programmed to save all the measurements during training sessions to the internal memory of the sensor. Reading data from memory was also part of the testing and evaluation of the sensor.
Tests were done using between 1-30 sensors simultaneously for real-time monitoring. In most of the user cases, the ability to monitor up to 30 athletes is sufficient. Test protocols were selected according to the needs and aim of the sensor evaluation. All the test subjects were volunteers and gave their consent to use their physiological data to this project. According to the evaluation results, there is a possibility to start the commercialization of this sensor platform. The further tests are needed for verification and a Proof of concept (PoC).
The objective for evaluation was to research how the distance between sensors, number of devices, different environments and settings affect to the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising packet loss. The purpose was to find optimal settings for maximal range and minimal advertising packet loss ratio while being able to handle real-time monitoring of up to 30 devices simultaneously.
Sensors tested and evaluated for this work are using BLE technology, which enables good compatibility with various end devices on the market. For real-time monitoring of multiple sensors, BLE advertising mode was used. Different methods were used to test the functionality of the BLE advertising mode. A high emphasis was put on the range and packet loss. To ensure that all the data is safely secured the sensor is programmed to save all the measurements during training sessions to the internal memory of the sensor. Reading data from memory was also part of the testing and evaluation of the sensor.
Tests were done using between 1-30 sensors simultaneously for real-time monitoring. In most of the user cases, the ability to monitor up to 30 athletes is sufficient. Test protocols were selected according to the needs and aim of the sensor evaluation. All the test subjects were volunteers and gave their consent to use their physiological data to this project. According to the evaluation results, there is a possibility to start the commercialization of this sensor platform. The further tests are needed for verification and a Proof of concept (PoC).