Patient monitoring involving receiving multiple asynchronous data streams with antenna diversity

Abstract

A radio frequency (RF) receiving apparatus () includes a first and second omnidirectional RF antennas () at different spatial locations or orientations, a first and second RF receivers (), each connected to a corresponding one of the first and second omnidirectional RF antennas (), and a controller () connected to the first and second RF receivers (). The first and second RF receivers () receive and demodulate RF signals of at least first and second carrier frequencies to recover data packets from at least a first device which transmits data packets on the first carrier frequency RF signal and a second device which transmits data packets on the second carrier frequency RF signal. The controller () is configured to control the RF receivers to cycle between receiving and demodulating the first carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets from the first device, and receiving and demodulating the second carrier frequency RF signals concurrently to recover redundant data packets from the second device. The apparatus can be used to wirelessly transmit physiological patient monitoring data (e.g. an ECG signal) in the highly reflective environment of an MRI system.