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consumption, a key requirement for
devices that users do not want to
have to recharge every day.
Given its compatibility with
smartphones, BLE has important
advantages for wellness devices
that are sold to consumers over
the counter as well as for more
specialised medically oriented
devices. BLE is well supported by
component manufacturers such as
CSR and STMicroelectronics for both
sensor devices and monitoring hubs,
where BLE is often coupled with
WiFi, allowing easy transfer of data
to the internet. However, ZigBee has
longer range, suiting it to use where
sensors need to be integrated in
the home and are not just deployed
around the body.
Microcontroller suppliers such as
Atmel, Freescale Semiconductor and
Texas Instruments have developed
IoT-capable processors that can
handle BLE and ZigBee protocol
stacks. These offerings are scalable
through support for 8-bit and 32-bit
cores, depending on the complexity
of the software needed by each
particular sensor node.
IoT-oriented MCUs often incorporate
specialised low-power support such
as hardware state machines that
offload much of the real-time sensor
processing from the core processor
itself. This allows the processor to
spend much of its time in a low-
energy sleep mode, only waking
up when the peripheral hardware
indicates that a sensor has picked
up a sudden change in activity or
condition. Because a high proportion
of time is spent in sleep mode
– often higher than 99 per cent –
overall energy consumption is kept
to a minimum and ensuring longer
periods between recharge.
Through dedicated silicon support,
the IoT is set to revolutionise the
world of healthcare and promote a
shift in thinking to ongoing wellness,
and heading off the need to deal
with the consequences of illness.
Figure 2.
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