Research Article A Framework for Obesity Control Using a Wireless Body Sensor Network Nabil Ali Alrajeh, 1 Jaime Lloret, 2 and Alejandro Canovas 2 1 Biomedical Technology Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11633, Saudi Arabia 2 Integrated Management Coastal Research Institute, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, C/Paranimf No. 1, Grao de Gandia, Gandia, 46730 Valencia, Spain Correspondence should be addressed to Nabil Ali Alrajeh; nabil@ksu.edu.sa Received 23 May 2014; Accepted 1 July 2014; Published 15 July 2014 Academic Editor: S. Khan Copyright © 2014 Nabil Ali Alrajeh et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Low-cost low-power consumption small wireless sensor devices have empowered the development of wireless body area networks (WBANs). In WBANs many sensors are attached to human body for sensing particular health related information to improve healthcare and quality of life. Obesity is one of the most common problems all over the world, which is amongst main causes of cardiovascular diseases. In this research, we explore hardware and sofware architecture of WBAN for obesity monitoring. Te proposed framework consists of few sensor nodes that monitor body motion, calories calculator, and a personal server running on a personal smart phone or a personal computer. Te focus of this research is to make obesity patients easier to get rid of this disease. 1. Introduction A wireless sensor network (WSN) has many applications in which wireless body area network (WBAN) has gained signifcant importance. In WBAN [1, 2], small electronic devices are attached with human to monitor specifc health related problem such as blood pressure, blood sugar level, and organ movement. Te concept of WBAN is presented to facilitate the healthcare issues distantly or to monitor athletes [3]. WBAN consists of small intelligent electronic devices termed as sensors, which are low in power and processing [4]. Tese small sensors collect heath related data and communicate that data to some medical ofcers or medical servers so that it can be analyzed and monitor the patient health parameters or to track their fatigue and muscle stress. Tis kind of mechanism created ease in patient life to enjoy mobility and need not to stay at hospital all the time [5]. In WBAN, three layers play an important role for sensing precise readings of patient health and transmitting accurate information to medical servers, that is, physical layer, MAC layer, and network layer. At physical layer, WBAN normally faces signifcant signal loss using narrow band or ultrawide band [6]. Furthermore, less path loss is observed in line of sight (LOS) communi- cation as compared to nonline of sight due to capability of body fuid to absorb waves [7, 8]. Furthermore, mobility can also greatly afect the signal loss; by increasing movement and degree of movement, more signal loss occurs [9–11]. Tere are many research and design issues in antenna and radios that must be resolved to enable efcient and fawless deployment of WBAN. WBAN is playing role in improving e-healthcare and quality of life. At MAC layer, it is useful to implement wireless sensor protocols in WBAN [6, 12]. Several protocols have been proposed to guarantee emergency handling in WBAN, such as the one presented in [13]. Due to resource constraints, routing protocols designed for mobile ad hoc networks or wireless sensor networks cannot be used in WBAN. Research community is trying to design specialized routing protocols for WBAN such as TARA [14], ALTR [15]. Tese protocols are concerned with body heat and fnding alternate path. Few LEACH based clustered routing protocols are also presented [16]. Moreover, other alternatives for m-health and low-power wearable sensor networks, such as delay tolerant routing protocols [17] and cooperation mechanisms [18], have been proposed. In Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks Volume 2014, Article ID 534760, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/534760