Methods and apparatus to retrofit wired healthcare and fitness systems for wireless operation

1. A system for monitoring a physiological parameter of a subject with the aid of a relay station that converts a wired sensor system into a wireless sensor system, comprising:

a host device configured to monitor said physiological parameter of said subject;

a relay station that is in communication with said host device wherein said relay station comprises i) at least one antenna, ii) at least one radio coupled to said at least one antenna, and iii) a host interface unit that, with the aid of said at least one radio, transmits data from the relay station to said host device, wherein said relay station is integrated as at least one application specific integrated circuit, and wherein said relay station is configured to convert a wired sensor system into a wireless sensor system; and

a portable patch that is in wireless communication with said relay station, wherein said portable patch comprises i) at least one antenna, ii) at least one radio coupled to said at least one antenna, iii) at least one sensor, and iv) an application specific integrated circuit coupled to said at least one sensor,

wherein, with the aid of said at least one sensor, said portable patch collects sensor data from said subject and, with the aid of said at least one radio of said portable patch, transmits said sensor data to said relay station,

wherein said relay station receives said sensor data from said portable patch, rearranges said sensor data to an analog or digital format, and transmits said sensor data to said host device, and

wherein said at least one radio of said relay station and said at least one radio of said portable patch are complementary radios such that, upon operation of said at least one radio of said relay station and said at least one radio of said portable patch, power is distributed asymmetrically between said relay station and said portable patch.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the relay station further comprises a transcoder that demultiplex data received by the relay station into a format recognizable by said host device.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the host interface unit transmits data from the relay station to the host device using a host device bus scheme.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the host bus scheme is at least one of a universal serial bus, a mini universal serial bus, a secure digital, a mini secure digital, a peripheral component interconnect, a mini peripheral component interconnect, or an analog bus.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a connector to communicate with a host device.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the connector comprises a bus that is in communication with the host device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the relay station further comprises more than one radio.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the portable patch is integrated with said application specific integrated circuit.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the relay station transmits data from said host device to said portable patch.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the relay station uses at least one host radio to wirelessly send data received from said portable patch to said host device having wireless connectivity with the relay station.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein said host radio uses at least one of radio scheme.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the at least one radio scheme is selected from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, wireless medical telemetry service, medical implant communications service, a narrowband radio, or an ultrawideband radio.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the complementary radios are ultrawideband and narrowband radios.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the complementary radios operate in a low power mode and a high power mode.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the complementary radios operate in a short range mode and a high range mode.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the relay station is in communication with two different radios.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein the portable patch further comprises an analog to digital converter.

18. The system of claim 1 further comprising more than one portable patch in communication with the relay station.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the relay station receives more than one signal.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein said at least one radio of said portable patch comprises a radio containing an ultra wideband (UWB) transmitter and a narrowband receiver.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein said at least one radio of the relay station comprises a UWB receiver and a narrowband transmitter.

22. The system of claim 1 , wherein the portable patch is integrated as at least one application specific integrated circuit.

23. A method for monitoring a physiological parameter of a subject, comprising:

(a) detecting sensor data from said subject with the aid of a portable patch comprising i) at least one antenna, ii) at least one radio coupled to said at least one antenna, iii) at least one sensor, and iv) an application specific integrated circuit coupled to said at least one sensor;

(b) transmitting the sensor data from said portable patch to a relay station that is in wireless communication with said portable patch, said relay station comprising i) at least one antenna, ii) at least one radio coupled to said at least one antenna, and iii) a host interface unit, wherein the relay station is integrated as at least one application specific integrated circuit, and wherein the relay station is configured to convert a wired sensor system into a wireless sensor system;

(c) processing the sensor data received with the relay station, said processing comprising rearranging said sensor data to analog or digital format; and

(d) transmitting the processed data to a host device configured to monitor said physiological parameter of said subject,

wherein said at least one radio of said relay station and said at least one radio of said portable patch are complementary radios such that, upon operation of said at least one radio of said relay station and said at least one radio of said portable patch, power is distributed asymmetrically between said relay station and said portable patch.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the sensor data comprises at least one signal that is an analog signal.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising the step of converting the analog signal to a digital signal prior to step (b).

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising the step of converting the digital signal to an analog signal prior to step (d).

27. The method of claim 23 , wherein processing the data in (c) comprises rearranging the data received from the patch into a format that is readable by the host device.

28. The method of claim 23 , wherein the portable patch is integrated as at least one application specific integrated circuit.

29. The method of claim 23 , wherein the relay station uses at least one host radio to wirelessly send data received from said portable patch to said host device having wireless connectivity with the relay station.

30. The method of claim 29 , wherein said host radio uses at least one of radio scheme selected from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, wireless medical telemetry service, medical implant communications service, a narrowband radio, and an ultrawideband radio.

31. The method of claim 23 , wherein said at least one radio of said portable patch comprises a radio containing an ultra wideband (UWB) transmitter and a narrowband receiver.

32. The method of claim 31 , wherein said at least one radio of said relay station comprises a UWB receiver and a narrowband transmitter.

33. The method of claim 23 further comprising applying said portable patch to said subject prior to (a).