Wearable device sensing technologies: a systematic literature review: Analysis of sensors applicable to wearable devices

Purpose: The main objective of this work is surveying and understanding the most reliable technologies for collecting biological and environmental data signals that are appropriated sensors for wearable devices (WD) to investigate the more appropriate techniques to monitor the health status of the individuals using them. The secondary objective is also studying environmental sensing technologies to identify risks in operation with the monitored individual. The purpose of this survey was to define the most appropriate techniques that can be used in the health monitoring and environmental sensing applicable to wearable devices, in terms of accuracy, low cost, and robustness. Methods: For this review, four databases have been consulted, due to their excellent reputation and technical quality. These are the bases for IEE Explore, ACM Digital Library, Springer Link, and Science Direct. A total of 2599 papers were selected. After applying the systematized bibliographic review procedure, 28 articles were defined as the source to be analyzed by this review. To obtain an appropriate number for selection and analysis, a period has been defined for the election of a work. This period was defined as that of works published between 2010 and 2018, for the databases of Springer Link and ACM. For the IEE database, a shorter publication period was defined, due to a large number of papers returned to the searches made in this database (2015 to 2018). The Science Direct database, however, has shown few results for the topic, so its publication period for searches was defined as 2007 to 2018. Results: As a result, the most appropriate technologies were identified for defining the hardware of the wearable device to be developed to support search and rescue dogs in field operations, in order to minimize the risks to the animal and facilitate the perception by the handler of the scenario of operations. Conclusion: Therefore, this survey aims to analyze the sensors applicable to wearable devices to enabled the definition of the best technologies in terms of operation, reliability, and cost to be implemented in a wearable device in the context of search and rescue operations using dogs. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Brazilian Society of Biomedical Engineering 2023.