Fujitsu recently announced that they have managed to complete the first verification test with flying colors in Japan for a medical body area network , or mBAN for short. The mBAN will conform to IEEE 802. 15.6 standards, where it will also make use of a prototype device that has a frequency band which has been reserved for medical applications (400MHz). This particular test was conducted at the Fujitsu Clinic in Kawasaki, Japan. Normally, when one wants to take readings of vital signs like electrical activity of the heart, brain waves, blood pressure, and body temperature, the patients will need to be hooked up to wires, where results are visually inspected before being recorded in a medical chart.
mBAN offers a new way of doing things, where individual sensors are able to transmit signals sans wires to measuring devices. This means the patient will no longer need to go through the stress of being hooked up to wires, and nurses too, will have a breather since there is one less thing to worry about. Of course, other benefits include lowering the risk of unexpected connection problems – or rather, eliminating it completely since there are no wires to meddle with in the first place.
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