This is a long time coming. It is a continuation of the chapter The MCU Application, some of which I poster earlier. I am hoping to post more regularly until the whole ZigBee Project is posted. Here goes…

Specification

• At least two demonstration boards shall be used. One shall be a Full Function Device (FFD) and the other shall be a Reduced Function Device (RFD). The FFD will be a PAN coordinator, called coordinator from hereon in, and the RFD will be called device from hereon in.

• A visual indication shall be provided when a device is successfully associated to a coordinator and when both device and coordinator are ready to transmit/receive data.

• The coordinator shall respond to commands received by a PC application. The commands include Start and Stop packet sending and a packet size to be sent.

• The coordinator shall send packets with a packet size requested by the user.

• The coordinator shall stop sending packets when requested to do so by the user.

• Packets shall be given a unique identifier.

• A device shall only send a packet when it has received one.

• A device shall send a packet with a data payload that is the same size as the data payload of a received packet.

• A device shall include part of the payload from a received packet as part of the payload of a packet to be transmitted.

• Packets shall be time stamped just before transmission from the coordinator and again upon receiving a packet at the coordinator.

• The coordinator shall output all transmitted and received packets to the serial port. Other data such as MAC messages and collected network information shall also be output to the serial port.

• A packet shall be transmitted to the device upon a press and release of a switch on the coordinator node. Holding down a switch for a period of time shall not affect packet sending or data in any way.

• Upon a switch press and release on the coordinator node, a corresponding LED on the coordinator node itself is lit. Only one LED is on at any one time on the coordinator node – indicating the last switch press.

• The corresponding LED on a device shall turn on or off when it has received a packet from the coordinator informing it of a switch press.

• More than one LED on the device node can be on at any one time. Device LEDs shall toggle upon multiple switch press/releases on the coordinator node.

Low level requirements

Patient Care Technology Systems (PCTS), a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering Inc, today announced that it has signed an agreement with CenTrak Inc, to provide integrated workflow automation solutions to healthcare facilities. PCTS will utilize CenTrak’s patented InTouchCare™, a hybrid technology that combines a new generation of Infrared and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to track people and equipment to a room and individual bay.

CenTrak developed InTouchCare™ technology to provide a “location-certainty” by overcoming the inaccuracies of “location-estimation” hindered by issues of RF penetration of walls, ceilings and floors. CenTrak patient and equipment tags use Gen2IR™ infrared light signals which cannot penetrate walls to accurately locate people and movable medical equipment to a specific room. The active-RFID component is used to communicate the location information back to the network for maximum tag capacity and a fast response time. In this way, CenTrak provides room and sub-room level accuracy with certainty, not based on an estimate. Installation of a CenTrak InTouchCare network is simplified by using battery-powered components which eliminate wiring and offer plug-and-play installation functionality. With RF and Infrared operating simultaneously, the sensors can operate continuously for up to five years on a set of batteries.

PCTS pioneered the use of real-time locating systems (RTLS) to automatically track patients and assets in emergency and surgical services departments and today provides purpose-built solutions for departmental to enterprise-wide patient flow needs. Department-specific process rules recognize and timestamp patient care milestones based on the measurement of location, movement and interactions between patients, staff and mobile medical equipment.

The location information together with patient data from other hospital information systems is visualized for caregivers in map and status screen views of patient flow. Additional intelligence interprets the meaning of patient status events and notifies appropriate staff in real-time. Caregivers interact with the web-based tracking software as their centralized workflow communication and management portal. In this way, caregivers are able to better anticipate and manage their workflows as they coordinate care between them. PCTS tracking solutions have supported over four million emergency department and perioperative patient encounters at leading hospitals nationwide.

About CenTrak

CenTrak is a leading provider of precise, adaptable, and cost-effective tracking solutions for healthcare, commercial, and industrial facilities. The company develops and markets hybrid Active-RFID/Gen2IR network products used for tracking people and assets in real time, enabling greater workflow efficiency, asset utilization, and higher overall security. The patented InTouchCare™ Real Time Location System (RTLS) offers breakthrough performance and cost advantages that had been previously unattainable. It is the first predominantly battery-powered RTLS network in the world and it is currently operating in several world-class healthcare sites in the United States. For more information about CenTrak, visit its Web site at:www.centrak.com

About Patient Care Technology Systems

Patient Care Technology Systems, a subsidiary of Consulier Engineering, Inc. CSLR, supports health care providers with intelligent workflow automation solutions to improve patient flow and reduce the risk of medical errors. The company’s Amelior™ software suite includes Amelior ED®, a comprehensive emergency department information system, and automatic patient and asset tracking software for the emergency department, perioperative suite and enterprise-wide needs. Amelior automatic tracking software is compatible with all leading locating hardware including active-RFID, infrared, ultrasound, ultra-wideband, Wi-Fi and ZigBee. PCTS customers have been recognized nationally for improvements in efficiency and clinical excellence. For more information, visit www.pcts.com.