BLE – Health Thermometer Profile (HTP)

For healthcare application it is vital to monitor temperature at regular interval, Health Thermometer Profile(HTP) can help collector device(smartphone or PC/Laptop) to connect and interact with thermometer sensor to get temperature and notify App users.

In this use case collector device will act as GATT(Generic Attribute Profile) client while thermometer will act as GATT server. Thermometer will have two services as part of its configuration : Health Thermometer Service and Device Information Service.

Topology and Concurrency

The thermometer will act as Peripheral while the collector(generally smartphone) will act as central. There are no concurrency restrictions or limitations.

BLE Profile for Thermometer has Service and Characteristic discovery options. So first the app will perform service discovery and then it would perform characteristic discovery. In characteristics profile would have temperature, temperature type, intermediate temperature and measurement interval characteristics.

Temperature Measurement

For temperature measurement collector(client app) will connect with thermometer and receive temperature data. Collector can have Time Stamp(which is very crucial for health app) and Temperature type.

Intermediate temperature will help app show the progress of temperature measurement for display purpose. Valid Range Descriptor will apply only of measurement interval characteristic is writable. Valid Range Descriptor will help set the valid range and get out of range repose when value goes out of range for temperature.

Measurement Interval will help collector(app) to determine collection of temperature at regular intervals.

Thermometer Connection Establishment

App connects with thermometer has following mechanism Device discovery, connection procedure for unbonded devices, connection procedure for bonded devices, Link Loss Reconnection Procedure and Idle Connection.

Wearable Thermometers

This would change the way we monitor body temperature all together. Products like TempTRAQ constantly sense, record and share temperature. Companion Smartphone(both iOS and Android) App would monitor for any fluctuation from normal temperature and sends alert to relatives and friends. These types of thermometers would be more useful for kids who are not comfortable with regular thermometers.

Benefits of Wearable Thermometer Patches and Companion App

• No need to disturb patient or kids.
• Monitor temperature 24 x 7.
• Get Alerts for any fluctuation in temperature from normal.
• Monitor multiple patients or kids.
• Get Temp. History Log and Interactive Charts.
• Share Data with Doctor and other healthcare professionals.

No Pairing is necessary: 

BLE device will act as a server which broadcasts a number of services(in this case mainly 2 as mentioned above). Client App will scan for BLE device and get data from the one which is offering known service, connect and get reading.

Push Model: 

BLE device will notify smartphone app for availability of data or some BLE devices would constantly broadcast reading data. This is better compare to pull model.

Standards: 

BLE devices even produced by different manufacturers provide data in same standard format so developers are not required to code separately for each new device.

Interesting twist to BBQ Cooking

Remember how in summer days we all want to hit the road and cook next great meal on BBQ Grill. It’s always difficult to measure or judge current temperature of BBQ Grill. Monitoring and maintaining or adjusting grill temperature can be challenging at times but not anymore with Bluetooth BBQ Thermometers available in market.

Options Available with BBQ Thermometers

• Bluetooth BBQ Thermometers comes with temperature setting options like ‘Meat Profile’, ‘Target Temperature Profile’ and ‘Timer’ Mode.
• In Meat profile you have choice to select the animal you are cooking(e.g. Cow, Lamb, Pig or Chicken).
• Target temperature profile mode will help you set the target temperature and it would alert you with the help of smartphone app when grill reaches to that temperature.
• Timer mode will help you automate the whole process of cooking without worrying about anything.

Smartphone App Features

On Smartphone App you get temperature alerts, time elapsed for timer and % of completion in attractive graphical form. You have option to stop also. App comes with history of settings and recipe section as well. You can switch between temperature sensor probes (generally it comes with 2 of them).

Letsnurture has been providing great technical solutions in the fields of HealthCare and BLE. Visit us to get free quote and more details.