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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2010
SHIMMER™ – A Wireless Sensor Platform for
Noninvasive Biomedical Research
Adrian Burns, Barry R. Greene, Michael J. McGrath, Terrance J. O’Shea, Benjamin Kuris, Steven M. Ayer,
Florin Stroiescu, and Victor Cionca
Abstract—Applying new sensing technology to healthcare
maybe part of a solution to the financial and demographic crisis
facing global healthcare systems. Researchers applying new ap-
proaches to noninvasive patient monitoring and diagnostics are
assisted by the features of Sensing Health with Intelligence, Mod-
ularity, Mobility and Experimental Reusability (SHIMMER™), a
flexible sensing platform. Integrated peripherals, open software,
modular expansion, specific power management hardware, and a
library of applications supported with platform validation provide
SHIMMER with advantages over many other medical research
platforms.
Index Terms—Activities of daily living, assisted living,
BioMOBIUS, extensible, flexible, intelligent sensors, multisensor
systems, sensing health with intelligence, modularity, mobility and
experimental reusability (SHIMMER), sensor network.
I. INTRODUCTION
HE USE OF wireless sensors for biomedical research ap-
T plications has been widely reported in the literature [1],
[2]. These applications utilize wireless sensing capabilities in
the form of either body worn or ambient sensing devices. Sensed
data is transmitted in real time or opportunistically through a
web of local devices and often wide area networks [3]–[6] re-
sulting in rich data sets that underpin new options for analysis
and intervention.
Wireless sensor applications have demonstrated the ability to
monitor a variety of multiple parameters including physiolog-
ical [7], [8], kinematics [9], [10], ambient [11], [12], and en-
Manuscript received December 15, 2009; accepted February 24, 2010. Date
of publication June 07, 2010; date of current version July 21, 2010. This study
has been significantly accelerated and delivered as a result of funding from the
TRIL Centre (www.trilcentre.org). The TRIL Centre is an active research col-
laboration between industry and academic partners including Intel, Trinity Col-
lege Dublin, University College Dublin, and the National University of Ireland,
Galway. The TRIL Centre’s mission is to discover and deliver technology so-
lutions which support independent ageing, ideally in a home environment. The
associate editor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for pub-
lication was Prof. Okyay Kaynak.
A. Burns, B. R. Greene, and M. J. McGrath are with the Intel Digital Health
Group, Intel Ireland Ltd., Leixlip, Co. Kildare, and the TRIL Centre, Kildare,
Ireland (e-mail: adrian.burns@intel.com; barry.r.greene@intel.com; michael.j.
mcgrath@intel.com).
T. J. O’Shea is with the Intel Digital Health Group, Portland, OR 97124 USA
(e-mail: terrance.j.o’shea@intel.com).
B. Kuris and S. M. Ayer are with the Shimmer Research North
America, Boston, MA 02108 USA (e-mail: bkuris@shimmer-research.com;
ayer@shimmer-research.com).
F. Stroiescu is with Shimmer Research, Dublin 17, Ireland (e-mail: fstroi-
escu@realtime.ie).
V. Cionca was with the Intel Digital Health Group, Intel Ireland Ltd., Leixlip,
Co. Kildare, Ireland, and the TRIL Centre. He is now with the University of
Limerick, Limerick, Ireland (e-mail: victor.cionca@ul.ie).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2010.2045498
1530-437X/$26.00 © 2010 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: Intel Corporation via the Intel Library. Downloaded on August 05,2010 at 13:18:32 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1527
vironment measurements [13]. Combining sensor readings in-
creases the overall quality of information generated beyond the
sum of the parts. For example, fusion of both body worn and
ambient sensing has been reported to improve accuracy of in-
ference based on activity or behavior identification [14], [15].
A platform approach where the sensing capability can be
modified via physical and software device configuration ad-
dresses the need for heterogeneous sensing capabilities while
minimizing the complexity of the hardware and software de-
velopment, validation and support. This engineering approach
predates modern electronics and has been proven in many
domains. In recent sensing systems, the transducer, associated
signal conditioning and support subsystems are functionally
encapsulated in a daughterboard which connects to a common
baseboard providing the computational and communications
capabilities.
Chen et al. [16] report a sensor node platform for wire-
less biomedical sensing running TinyOS. They utilize a
flexible expansion connector which supports additional
daughter boards including ECG with TinyOS firmware.
Dubois-Ferrière et al. [17] describe the TinyNode which fea-
tures two type of add-on boards. The Standard Extension Board
(SEB) which includes footprints for two optional sensors: a
relative humidity and temperature sensor and a photodiode
light sensor. Their MamaBoard features a variety of external
communications including, local area network (LAN), wireless
local area network (WLAN), and General Packet Radio Service
(GPRS) options with support for data storage via SD card. The
platform also features an XE1205 transceiver from Semtech
with a reported 4 to 8 fold communications range performance
improvement over the popular MICA2 and TELOS sensor
nodes. Yang and Lo identify the proprietary nature of hardware
platforms as key limitation in pervasive healthcare applications.
They highlight the fact that a lack of interoperability and
standards have prohibited a common approach towards the de-
velopment of pervasive sensing applications. The development
of the BSN architecture is outlined which is designed to address
some of these issues [18].
For wearable applications, size and runtime must be care-
fully balanced against other features. Nokia have reported a
wearable sensor platform called Nokia Wrist–Attached Sensor
Platform (NWSP) based on a Field Programmable Gate Array
(FPGA) [19]. The platform featured accelerometer, gyroscope
and magnetometer sensing capabilities. IMECs Human++
research program has developed a highly miniaturized and au-
tonomous sensor system for body sensor network applications.
The approach adopted in the development of the SHIMMER
wireless sensor platform was to increase the application of
sensor technology in healthcare by focusing on commer-
1528 IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2010

cially viable features valuable to both systems engineering

researchers, biomedical researchers, and clinicians. Where pos-
sible, standards, particularly open standards were embraced.
The resulting SHIMMER wireless platform has found users in
over 30 countries including leading universities and corporate
research and development organizations. The TRIL Centre
was an early adopter of the SHIMMER platform. It forms a
key component of the BioMOBIUS [20] research platform
which represents a collection of tightly integrated hardware and
software components enabling rapid prototyping of biomedical
research applications.
BioMOBIUS has been utilized by the TRIL Centre for a
variety of prototype research applications both in clinical and
home environments including the following.

A. Gait Analysis Platform

Development of a gait analysis platform for use in a clinical
environment and designed for a research study which is focused
on the identification of leading indicators for gait and postural
instability.

B. Alertness Training Platform

An electro dermal activity (EDA) monitoring research pro-
totype developed by TRIL to facilitate in-home self-alertness
training in older adults with attention deficiencies.
C. In-Home Gait Velocity Measurements
Development of a low cost, unobtrusive, home-based wireless
sensor network to monitor elder’s gait velocity and doorway
dwelling times.
II. SHIMMER DESIGN
The SHIMMER platform comprises of a baseboard which
provides the sensors computational, data storage, communica-
tions and daughterboard connection capabilities. The core func-
tionality of SHIMMER is extended via a range of daughter-
boards which provide various kinematic, physiological, and am-
bient sensing capabilities. This range of contact and non sensing
capabilities can be reliably used both in clinical and in home-
based research scenarios.
A. Core Computation
The core element of the baseboard is a Texas Instruments™
MSP430 MCU [21] which has been widely used in wireless
sensors [1], [22], [23]. The primary advantages of the MCU
are its extremely low power during periods of inactivity and its
proven history for medical sensing applications. The MSP430
is equipped with two timers and two hardware universal asyn-
chronous/synchronous receive/transmit serial communication
USARTs which enable SPI (3 or 4 pin) and asynchronous UART
functionality. The USART0 also allows I2C transmissions and
has two specific DMA channels to ensure maximum throughput
with data rates up to 400 Kb/s. The signal transmission and
reception is possible using double-buffered channels. Within
the SHIMMER platform the microSD™ Flash Socket and
802.15.4 radio are connected to the microprocessor using the
synchronous SPI mode as can be seen in Fig. 1. In synchronous
Fig. 1. Block diagram of the SHIMMER baseboard interconnections and inte-
grated devices.
mode, the USART connects the MSP430 to an external system
via three or four pins: SIMO (slave in, master out), SOMI (slave
out, master in), UCLK (USART SPI clock) and slave transmit
enable (STE). This is activated when the I2C bit is cleared and
the SYNC bit is set. In addition to master and slave modes
7-bit and 10-bit addressing are also supported. For low-power
operation receiver start edge detection is incorporated for
auto-wake up. The MSP430 has 8 ADC channels for 12-bit
A/D conversions. For the SHIMMER platform the external
ports are utilized for data input from the accelerometer
(3 channels), the internal expansion connector (3 channels) and
the external expansion connector (2 channels). To maintain
the low-power usage capabilities of SHIMMER the MSP430
ADC core is disabled when not in use and re-enabled when
necessary.
B. Communications
For IEEE 802.15.4 compliant wireless communications
SHIMMER uses a Chipcon CC2420 radio transceiver and
gigaAnt 2.4 GHz Rufa™ antenna. The CC2420 is designed
for low-power and low-current applications (current usage
17.4 mA for transmission and 18.8 mA for reception). The
radio may also be turned off by the MSP430 for low-power
operation. The CC2420 is controlled by an SPI connection over
the USART1. The CC2420 has support for applications such as
packet handling, data transmissions, data encryption, received
signal strength, link quality and packet timing, the work load
on the MSP430 controller is reduced.
The SHIMMER platform uses a Roving Networks™ RN-41
Class 2 Bluetooth® module to communicate via an integrated

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BURNS et al.: SHIMMER™ – A WIRELESS SENSOR PLATFORM FOR NONINVASIVE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
Fig. 2. SHIMMER 2 Platform features.
2.4 GHz antenna. This module contains a full version 2 Blue-
tooth® Protocol Stack and supports the Serial Port Profile
which facilitates rapid application development. The Blue-
tooth® module is connected to the MSP430 directly via the
USART1 serial connection. It can also be controlled by ASCII
strings over the Bluetooth® RF link. The module is suitable for
the low-power operation required by SHIMMER due to four
available power modes; transmit at 60 mA, reception at 40 mA,
idle state at 1.4 mA and deep sleep with a power consumption
of 50 . as an Electrocardiogram (ECG), kinematics (gyroscope, mag-
Micro SD Storage (Micro SD Flash Socket): As shown in
Fig. 1 the SHIMMER baseboard contains a microSD card socket
which can supports capacities up to 2 Gbytes. This facilitates
storage of data for non data streaming applications and ensures
no loss of data while mobile, during network outages or while
changing batteries. As the price of SD cards have dropped dra-
matically in recent years, they now offer a viable low cost alter-
native to sending all sensed data over the radio to a base station.
C. SHIMMER2 Hardware
The recently released SHIMMER2 (Fig. 2.) adds a number
of new features including direct-to-host data transfer path from
SHIMMER’s microSD card to accelerate data offload. When
docked the SHIMMER microSD card appears as a storage de-
vice via USB. The power management features are also ex-
panded to enable power optimization across applications with
differing RF and flash storage requirements.
Functionally, the SHIMMER2 hardware is a super set of
SHIMMER1. The baseboards have the same expansion connec-
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1529
tors. This allows all internal and external sensors to work with
both baseboard hardware versions. For software, the TinyOS
development environment provides an application forward
migration path via a compile time flag.
D. SHIMMER2 Power Management
Lowering the duty cycle of interaction between the radio or
microSD card can be used to extend battery life, however this is
not feasible with applications that require high frequency data
capture. SHIMMER2 hardware provides features to simplify
application programming and enhance event driven applications
which can be used to improve power management.
A push-button power controller is used to control the board
power-on sequence. From an “off” state, board reset is low and
the board power regulator is disabled. When the reset button is
pushed, the regulator is enabled and the processor is brought
out of reset after a short delay. Short subsequent reset button
pushes will generate a board reset. A long button push (preset
to 6 s but HW customizable) will shutdown the board regulator.
When the battery voltage falls below a preset kill voltage, e.g.,
2.5 V, a signal is also generated to power-off the board.
The accelerometer, microSD card, 802.15.4 radio and Blue-
tooth radio module can be powered off by firmware when not
in use. The digital serial number IC component auto sleeps also
when not in use.
A passive tilt/vibration sensor (SQ-SEN-200) has been added
to the SHIMMER 2 baseboard. It is sensitive to both tilt (static
acceleration) and vibration (dynamic acceleration). The sensor
switch acts as an interruptible application signal to facilitate
application power-state transitions. For example when a med-
ical technician takes a SHIMMER from a storage cabinet the
firmware can automatically switch on the necessary components
(accelerometer, radio etc) to begin capturing and transmitting
sensor data.
E. Shimmer Expansion
The SHIMMER baseboard has both internal and external ex-
pansion connectors providing platform expandability. The in-
ternal expansion allows the user to connect daughterboards such
netometer) and galvanic skin response (GSR) to the baseboard,
depending on the application required. The external expansion
allows the user to attach the board to the programming dock or
multi charger. For additional functionality the external expan-
sion, HIROSETM ST Series, allows the SHIMMER baseboard
to be connected to multiple external devices.
F. SHIMMER Peripherals
A number of peripheral components have been developed for
SHIMMER to provide a complete set of platform capabilities.
These include:
1) Programming/Charging Dock: The programming dock
(development charger/programmer) is a USB-bus powered
cradle using an FTDI FT232 UART. The cradle also features
a battery charger status, USB Power, and UART activity
indicators.
2) USB Reader: Adds an SMSC 2601 multifunction USB
hub and flash memory controller to the Programming/Charging
Dock to enable SHIMMER2’s direct-to-host data bypass.
1530
3) Multi Charger: A battery charger cradle that can charge
up to 6 SHIMMER’s simultaneously.
4) Enclosures: SHIMMER uses a modular enclosure con-
cept: A common bottom fits the baseboard while the top is
changed depending on selection of a daughterboard. The stan-
dard configuration houses the SHIMMER, lithium ion battery
and kinematic and ambient daughterboards if required; The
physiological enclosure which is utilized with the ECG and
GSR boards and provides external connection points for the
required electrodes.
III. SHIMMER SENSING CAPABILITIES
SHIMMER provides kinematic, physiological and ambient
sensing capabilities in the form of add-on daughterboards
apart from the triaxial accelerometer which is located on the
baseboard.
A. Kinematic Sensing
The accelerometer is connected to the MSP430 CPU via
three channels of ADC as shown in Fig. 2. It is suitable for
low-power applications where the active current consumption
is around 500 and contains a sleep mode, with current
usage of 3 . It is robust, having high shock survivability,
and is suitable for high sensitivity applications (800 mV/g
for a 1.5 g setting). The gyroscope daughterboard uses a pair
of InvenSense MEMs gyroscopes. The flex segment wraps
around the SHIMMER module to properly orient the sensors
for measurement. The magnetometer daughterboard
utilizes a triaxial gyroscope and a magnetoresistive sensor
(Honeywell) designed for low field magnetic sensing. This
provides applications with direction and magnitude of Earth’s
magnetic fields.
B. Physiological Sensing
The ECG daughterboard features low-power auto-calibrating
CMOS operational amplifiers and produces and
vectors. can be calculated on the host
CPU. The lead inputs have weak pull ups to detect floating
electrodes. The frequency response is 0.05 to 150 Hz with an
ECG amplifier gain of 175. Electrodes are connected using hos-
pital standard 1.5 mm DIN touch proof jacks eliminating pro-
prietary cables or supplies. Current consumption of the board is
.18 mA. The EMG daughterboard as with the ECG design is im-
plemented with a CMOS operational amplifier. The frequency
range of the hardware is 5–482 Hz with an EMG amplifier gain
of 682. Galvanic skin response, also known as electrodermal re-
sponse (EDR), or skin conductance response (SCR), is a method
of measuring the electrical resistance of the skin.
C. Ambient Sensing
The PIR Motion daughterboard uses a Panasonic NaPiOn
Passive-Infrared motion sensor. It is extremely compact, low
powered and ideal for use in miniaturized devices. The activities
of daily living daughterboard (ADL) features both temperature
and light sensors. Temperature sensing is provided via a Mi-
crochip MCP9700T temperature sensor; visible light with three
MicroSemi LX1972 Ambient Light Detectors.
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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2010
Vibration sensing is provided by a SignalQuest omnidirec-
tional tilt and vibration sensor (SQ-SEN-200). The sensor acts
like a normally closed switch which chatters open and closed
as it is tilted or vibrated. This sensor is incorporated into the
SHIMMER 2 baseboard.
D. External Hardware Integration
SHIMMER provides two options for external hardware inte-
gration such as third party sensors.
1) General Purpose Expansion Module (AnEx Board): An
analog expansion module enables two analog signals to be
plugged into SHIMMER. These interface to the A0 and A7 of
the MSP430. The AnEx is a simple external breakout board
for prototyping and experimentation. It also uses a Maxim
MAX768EEE charge pump to boost the SHIMMER 3 V
supply to a more conventional for interfacing
off-the-shelf sensor modules and devices.
2) PRIMMER (Prototype Reconfigurable Board for
SHIMMER): Similar to the AnEx board, PRIMMER is a
daughterboard which enables the breakout of SHIMMER’s in-
ternal connector. The purpose of PRIMMER is to enable rapid
integration and prototyping of commercially available and ex-
isting physiological front-end and sensor circuitry. PRIMMER
breaks out six ADC lines, power and ground prototype solder
points, two GPIO lines and a UART. It also includes a
charge pump (Maxim–MAX768EEE charge pump). The board
has been utilised to interface an EMG pre-amplifier sensor
(MA-411-000, Motion Lab Systems) and to streamed EMG
data at 500 HZ.
E. GLIMMER–SHIMMER-Based Display
GLIMMER is a low-cost wireless display platform that
provides context-aware prompting in the home for ADL mon-
itoring, medication adherence, journaling, social messaging,
and coaching applications. GLIMMER is an extension of
the standard SHIMMER platform. A PIR sensor is used as
power-saving wakeup trigger as users approach. Prompts are
displayed via an SPI interfaced 2.7” OLED. Several software
assignable pushbuttons support user interaction. Unlike other
expansions, GLIMMER runs from a single AA battery and
provides power to an attached SHIMMER baseboard.
IV. SHIMMER ECG VALIDATION
A number of studies have been carried out to validate the
capability of each daughterboard for its intended application
[24], [25]. Here, we summarize the ECG daughterboard vali-
dation; further board validation work on Kinematic, EMG, and
GSR daughterboards, will be published in papers currently in
preparation.
Various tests were carried out to validate the SHIMMER ECG
daughterboard as a valid tool for acquiring ambulatory ECG.
The tests consisted of validating the ECG amplifier and ADC
performance using calibrated input signals and a resting ECG
from a healthy subject in normal sinus rhythm. Simulated ECG
signals as well as resting and nonresting ECG (normal sinus
rhythm) recordings from a healthy male subject were used to
show that the performance of the SHIMMER ECG daughter
BURNS et al.: SHIMMER™ – A WIRELESS SENSOR PLATFORM FOR NONINVASIVE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
Fig. 3. R-R intervals for the simultaneous acquisition of ECG from a healthy
nonresting subject using both the SHIMMER ECG board and the Medilog holter
ECG monitor.
board is suitable for use in ambulatory monitoring when com-
pared to the commercial Medilog system. The TRIL QRS detec-
tion algorithm was validated against the PhysioNet MIT-BIH
ECG database. The QRS detection algorithm yielded a mean
sensitivity of 99.6%, a mean positive predictivity of 99.8% and
a mean detection error rate of 0.5%.
Fig. 3 shows the R-R intervals for the SHIMMER and
Medilog ECG acquisitions. The mean percentage error be-
tween the R-R intervals on a beat to beat basis was found to
be negligible. These results indicate that the SHIMMER ECG
is a valid tool for acquiring ambulatory ECG from resting and
nonresting human subjects.
V. SHIMMER FIRMWARE
A. Firmware Development
SHIMMER firmware runs on TinyOS. TinyOS is a light-
weight event-driven operating system designed for sensor
network nodes that have very limited resources. This program-
ming environment supports a variety of low-power devices,
with a few kilobytes of memory and wireless communication
capabilities. The OS handles task scheduling, radio communi-
cation, time, I/O processing, etc and has a very small footprint
size. TinyOS offers economy due to the extensive open-source
code library and therefore the majority of SHIMMER firmware
developed within TRIL was developed using TinyOS and re-
leased into the public domain via SourceForge [26]. Firmware
running on the sensor platform provides local processing of the
sensed data, local storage of the data if required and communi-
cations of that data to a higher level application for advanced
signal processing, display and data persistence.
TinyOS-1.x, code can be found in the “contrib/handhelds/”
directory on SourceForge. SHIMMER is also supported by
TinyOS-2.x. Current firmware functionality includes, MicroSD
flash storage, FAT file system, IP stack for 802.15.4, Blue-
tooth configuration, connection management and streaming
data transfer, real-time clock module, peripheral control and
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1531
Fig. 4. BioMOBIUS SHIMMER REV1 packet format.
configuration, power supply monitoring. TinyOS-1.x is cur-
rently recommended for use with SHIMMER due to its known
stability and characterized performance.
B. Real-Time Data Streaming Using Bluetooth
Sensor data can be reliably streamed at rates up to 500 Hz
in real-time to a BioMOBIUS high-level application via the
Bluetooth or 802.15.4 radios. In order to enhance the reliable
communications in addition to standard Bluetooth link relia-
bility [27], a packet format that supports various types of sensor
data and provides enhanced reliability to the data transmission
through packet sequence numbers and a cyclic redundancy
check was developed. This firmware was developed for use
with BioMOBIUS and implements the frame format shown in
Fig. 4.
The frame format focuses on data reliability in preference
to data efficiency hence the data framing. The content of the
packets is unrestricted binary data. This can result in problems
with control characters like BOF (Beginning of Frame, hex byte
“0xC0”) or EOF (End of Frame, hex byte “0xC1”) appearing
in the packet header or payload and being interpreted as con-
trol characters. To avoid this issue a “byte stuffing” technique
based on the ISO asynchronous HDLC protocol is utilized. For
BioMOBIUS a SHIMMER version 2 packet format was de-
vised to overcome the inefficiencies of the SHIMMER version 1
packet format. The SHIMMER version 2 packet is compact and
isochronous in spirit. It is designed to recover quickly if bytes
are lost and lost data is unimportant relative to the prioritization
of data throughput. All BioMOBIUS compatible SHIMMER
firmware is available on SourceForge in the “tinyos-1.x/con-
trib/handhelds/apps/BioMOBIUS/” folder.
C. Realtime Data Streaming Using 802.15.4
The CC2420 is controlled by an SPI connection over the
USART1. The CC2420 has support for packet handling, data
transmissions, data encryption, received signal strength, link
quality and packet timing, therefore reducing the workload on
the MSP430. For low-power data streaming, the 802.15.4 is the
radio of choice. SHIMMER can connect to an 802.15.4 access
point and stream data to the access point using a number of dif-
ferent high-level transport protocols. For TRIL implementations
of the TinyOS IP client firmware was used on SHIMMER while
a simple IP server was implemented behind the 802.15.4 access
point to collect the data which was transported using the UDP
or TCP transport protocol.
D. Logging Data to MicroSD Card
A number of firmware programs are available on the Source-
Forge repository that facilitate recording of data to SHIMMER’s
1532
Fig. 5. Shimmer bootstrap loader for windows.
microSD card. The file allocation table (FAT) file system im-
plementation currently offers the best feature set. It provides an
extensive high-level API which supports creating and manipu-
lating files on the SHIMMER micro SD card. For ambulatory
activity monitoring more than 80 days of data can be stored in
uncompressed format from the accelerometer at 50 Hz.
E. SHIMMER Integration With BioMOBIUS
SHIMMER is also fully integrated with the BioMOBIUS
high-level application environment [20] which enables rapid
application prototyping. This allows an application devel-
oper to quickly develop an application to acquire data from a
SHIMMER sensor, process the data and present it via a fully
featured UI and, finally, persisting the data to a file or database
in a matter of hours or minutes depending on the applica-
tion complexity required. BioMOBIUS facilitates integration
of SHIMMER with other off the shelf sensors such as X10
home automation sensors. SHIMMER sensors communicate
to BioMOBIUS via the SHIMMER Block which is a BioMO-
BIUS building block. The SHIMMER block is a generic block
that transmits and receives data from SHIMMER sensors and
outputs received data on its output pins. The data that appears
on the SHIMMER output pins can be raw SHIMMER ADC
data if no post processing has been done or it can be processed
data. Many independent living research applications have been
developed within the TRIL Centre by TRIL researchers using
SHIMMER and BioMOBIUS combined [20].
F. Programming/Flashing SHIMMER Sensors
An intuitive mechanism to support the download of firmware
executable programs to SHIMMER sensors is an important ca-
pability for biomedical researchers. The SHIMMER develop-
ment kit includes an easy to use graphical application called
the “SHIMMER Windows Bootstrap Loader” (Fig. 5.) to allow
users who do not have a TinyOS development environment on
their system to program SHIMMER sensors for their applica-
tion needs. This software loads pre compiled executable HEX
files into the MSP430 MCU.
VI. POWER MANAGEMENT
In wireless sensor deployments, reliably reporting data
while consuming the minimum amount of power is a key goal.
SHIMMER battery optimizations have been implemented in
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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2010
TABLE I
AVERAGE CURRENT DRAWN (MA) FOR FAT SD LOGGING APPLICATIONS
firmware to satisfy a variety of project requirements. These op-
timizations were primarily implemented in firmware focusing
on lowering the duty cycle of the radio(s). Other auxiliary
battery features have been implemented for integration pur-
poses such as a low battery indication sent by SHIMMER to
a BioMOBIUS software application which prevents corrupted
data being captured.
A. Unoptimized Baseline Power Consumption
Battery life performance analysis was carried out on the
SHIMMER platform under common usage scenarios repre-
senting both connected and disconnected data management
strategies which are commonly used by TRIL for clinical and
home-based applications. The voltage applied during all tests
was V.
To illustrate a disconnected usage scenario a FAT-based SD
logging implementation was analyzed for power consumption
using the various SHIMMER daughterboards. The tests were
carried out using a SHIMMER 1 platform with no Bluetooth
module fitted.
A 32 bit timestamp was stored with each sample to indicate
the exact time the sample was taken, this accounted for 4
bytes of storage for each sample and each 12 bit ADC sample
accounted for 2 bytes of storage, e.g., each accelerometer
sample stored to microSD card contained 10 bytes of storage. A
RAM buffer of 1024 bytes was used to temporarily hold sensor
data prior to SD card writing; however, for ECG and EMG
a 1 channel firmware with a 2048 byte buffer was necessary
to allow 1 KHZ sampling. The 3D gyroscope daughterboard
demonstrated the highest current consumption at 500 Hz while
the EMG daughterboard had the smallest at only 4.4 mA, as
shown in Table I. These results show that without any battery
optimizations programmed into SHIMMER firmware and
using a small 280 mAh rechargeable battery, a two channel
SHIMMER ECG sensor running at 500 HZ will operate for
two full days without recharge.
To illustrate a standard connected data strategy implementa-
tion, i.e., real-time data streaming over the radio a SHIMMER
1 platform with a Bluetooth module fitted was utilized. The
SHIMMER rev1 packet format as show in Fig. 4 was used. All
applications used a 115 Kb/s bit rate to transfer data between the
BURNS et al.: SHIMMER™ – A WIRELESS SENSOR PLATFORM FOR NONINVASIVE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
TABLE II
AVERAGE CURRENT DRAWN (MA) FOR
BLUETOOTH STREAMING APPLICATIONS
MSP430 and the Bluetooth module apart from the gyroscope
daughterboard and accelerometer which used 230 Kb/s to allow
for higher data throughputs. The results obtained are presented
in Table II. These results show that without any battery opti-
mizations programmed into SHIMMER firmware and using a
small 280 mAh rechargeable battery, a two channel SHIMMER
ECG sensor running at 500 HZ will operate for 12 h without
recharge.
The results above are baseline starting values and represent
unoptimized firmware in terms of power consumption. Power
management and battery management software features are typ-
ically implemented on a project by project basis based on project
requirements. Within TRIL, SHIMMER battery optimizations
have been implemented in firmware, mainly using the 802.15.4
radio to satisfy various project requirements. These optimiza-
tions have been mostly but not exclusively focused on low-
ering the duty cycle of the radio(s). Battery operated (280 mAh
rechargeable battery) SHIMMER sensors have been deployed
for months on end in TRIL home deployments.
B. Low-Power Detection
SHIMMER has the ability to monitor for low-voltage condi-
tions via the Supply Voltage Supervisor feature or ADC method.
The accelerometer outputs are ratiometric which means the
output offset and sensitivity will scale linearly with applied
supply voltage. Therefore useful data can only be generated if
the supply voltage remains constant. The low battery indication
is a SHIMMER firmware feature that halts sampling of data
when the supply voltage falls below V.
VII. CONCLUSION
SHIMMER is an extremely flexible sensor platform. Above
all, its ability to seamlessly expand to meet the various
biomedical research project requirements has proven to TRIL
researchers that the small sensor platform has massive research
potential. In this paper, we report on the motivation and scope
of the capabilities of the SHIMMER platform. SHIMMER
has been actively used for kinematic, physiological and am-
bient sensing applications within the TRIL Centre and due to
its extensibility and ease of integration into other healthcare
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1533
systems; the TRIL center plans will include Shimmer in many
future projects. SHIMMER’s ability to work in connected or
disconnected settings allows biomedical research trials that
have previously been run in laboratories to now be run in
wherever participants call home. From a TRIL perspective,
an exciting potential for SHIMMER is the introduction and
application of new technologies supporting older people living
independently. Full detail on SHIMMER sensor validation and
end user applications will be presented in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank industry partners Shimmer
Research (www.shimmer-research.com) a division of Re-
altime Technologies, Ltd., and would like to acknowledge
K. O’ Donovan, T. Foran, C. Ní Scanaill, D. Leahy, M. Healy,
M. Fogarty, S. Moller, and E. Doheny for their contributions in
the preparation of this paper.
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Adrian Burns received the B.Technology degree in 1999 and the Graduate
Diploma in computer science in 2000 from the University of Limerick,
Limerick, Ireland.
He joined Intel’s Digital Health Group in 2006 as a Software Engineer and
also works as a Technologist with the TRIL Centre. He previously held posi-
tions as a Software Engineer/Architect at IBM, Lake Communications, Teleca,
and Qualcomm. His experience includes designing real-time embedded sys-
tems, wireless communications, mobile device connectivity, sensor networks,
location based and independent living technologies.
Barry R. Greene received the B.E. (electronic) and Ph.D. degrees from the
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. His
doctoral thesis was entitled “Quantification and Classification of Electrophysi-
ological Markers of Seizure in the Neonate.”
He is a Biomedical Engineer with the Intel Digital Health Group and the TRIL
Centre. Prior to joining Intel in 2008, he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the
University College Cork developing automated neonatal seizure detection algo-
rithms. His research interests are in clinical applications of biomedical signal
processing.
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IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 10, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2010
Michael J. McGrath received the B.Sc. degree in analytical science and the
Ph.D. degree in sensors and instrumentation from Dublin City University,
Dublin, Ireland, in 1992 and 1995, respectively. In 1999, he received the
Graduate diploma in information technology from Dublin City University, the
Graduate diploma in computing and the M.S. degree in computing from Insti-
tute of Technology Blanchardstown, Dublin, in 2004 and 2007, respectively.
He is Senior Technologist in Intel’s Digital Health Group. He is also a Prin-
cipal Investigator (PI) in the TRIL Centre focusing on the development tech-
nologies to support independent living research. He coauthored the 2009 book
Wireless Sensor Networks for Healthcare Applications. His areas of interest in-
clude sensors, wireless communications, assisted living technologies, intelligent
user interfaces, data fusion and data management techniques.
Dr. McGrath is a Charted Chemist (CChem) and a Charted Scientist (CSi).
Terrance J. O’Shea (previously “Terrance J. Dishongh”) received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1992 and 1990,
respectively, and the Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1996.
He is currently a Senior Principal Engineer in Intel’s Digital Health Group.
In his 12 years at Intel, he has been awarded 45 patents with an additional 44
pending and has published books on wireless sensors and electronic packaging.
He has held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, College Park, and
the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Benjamin Kuris received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Yale
University, New Haven, CT, in 1997.
He is Director of Hardware Engineering at Shimmer Research (www.
shimmer-research.com), a division of Realtime Technologies, Ltd., that has
commercialized the SHIMMER platform he initiated at Intel. He has exten-
sive industry experience as a Hardware Engineer and Researcher at Digital
Equipment Corporation, Compaq Computer, HP Labs, and Intel. He is also a
Consultant at MIT. His work is found in commercial products from Compaq/HP
and Shimmer Research. He has also delivered thousands of prototypes as part
of medical and computer science research programs with an emphasis on
mobile computing and sensing systems. He has patent filings in the area of
low-power sensing.
Steven M. Ayer received the M.S. degree in computer science from Indiana
University, Bloomington.
He is currently Director of Software Engineering for Shimmer Research
(http://shimmer-research.com), which means he guides research and develop-
ment for the company’s platforms with B. Kuris; they originally created the
SHIMMER sensing platform while doing research at Cambridge Research
Laboratory (CRL) for Intel’s Digital Health Group. His applied research in
pervasive and mobile computing began at CRL in 2000 for Compaq and
continued through CRL’s HP Labs era. Prior to working at CRL, he belonged
to an atmospheric structures research group at the Air Force Research Labo-
ratory, Hanscom AFB, MA, where he focused on scientific visualization and
distributed and parallel computing systems.
Florin Stroiescu received the M.Sc. degree in applied physics from the Univer-
sity of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, in 1988.
He is the Principle Hardware Engineer at Shimmer Research (www.shimmer
–research.com), a division of Realtime Technologies, Ltd., that has commer-
cialized the SHIMMER platform. His experience includes designing and pro-
totyping of health related devices, system integration of health related devices
and automation devices, and test equipment for electronic manufacturing.
Victor Cionca received the Diploma degree in computer science from the
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2007. He is currently
working towards the Ph.D. degree at the University of Limerick, Limerick,
Ireland, designing user-friendly security solutions for wireless sensor networks
applications.
He did a six-month internship at the Digital Health Group of Intel Ireland,
working as an Intern Firmware Engineer on the Shimmer Platform. His re-
search interests are communication and security protocols for wireless sensor
networks, operating systems and cryptography.