ALARM-NET: Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted-Living and Residential Monitoring

This paper describes ALARM-NET, a wireless sensor network for assisted-living and residential monitoring. It integrates environmental and physiological sensors in a scalable, heterogeneous architecture. A query protocol allows real-time collection and processing of sensor data by user interfaces and back-end analysis programs. One such program determines circadian activity rhythms of residents, feeding activity information back into the sensor network to aid context-aware power management, dynamic privacy policies, and data association. Communication is secured end-to-end to protect sensitive medical and operational information.