DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST BIOSIGNAL ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR ECG, EMG AND STRESS MONITORING

The advancement of health monitoring electronic devices in real time provide tracking and analysis of patient?s health through different parameters but these systems and resources are still very limited and expensive in Pakistan. Efforts are being made in field of portable electroni

Project Title

DEVELOPMENT OF LOW COST BIOSIGNAL ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR ECG, EMG AND STRESS MONITORING

Project Area of Specialization

Wearables and Implantable

Project Summary

The advancement of health monitoring electronic devices in real time provide tracking and analysis of patient’s health through different parameters but these systems and resources are still very limited and expensive in Pakistan. Efforts are being made in field of portable electronic to develop new smart systems, which can be used for bio-signal data acquisition to engage patients in online data inquiry. Data acquisition system consists of intelligent monitoring sensors that provides real time viewing and health monitoring.

The aim of this project is to design a portable and low cost bio-signal acquisition system using Arduino and MATLAB  that can record electrocardiogram (ECG), Electromyogram (EMG) and physiological data of a human being. A user friendly graphical interface is also to be designed to present this collected data along with other useful parameters that can assist a specialist to detect different diseases related to heart and muscles by monitoring of ECG and EMG respectively. Moreover, this system will also be capable of measuring stress as it is one of the causes of many diseases like diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma etc.

Project Objectives

Following are the objectives of our project

• Development of small,  portable and low-cost biosignal data acquisition system
• Recording signals of ECG and EMG through acquisition system
• Detection of stress level using galvanic skin response, heart rate and respiratory rate.
• Monitoring of ECG, EMG and Stress using user friendly graphical interface
• Extraction of different parameters (like QRS duration in ECG) from the recorded data

Project Implementation Method

This project consists of three major modules which include ECG, EMG and stress level detection. In first phase, circuits are designed and implemented for acquisition of electrical activity of heart and muscles. This data is recorded by placing surface electrodes (dry noninvasive electrodes) on recommended areas of the body where the biosignals can give accurate readings. These signals are further passed through signal conditioning phase to make the acquired signals smooth and amplified. The major parts of these circuit modules comprises of amplifiers, resistors, chips and capacitors.

In the second phase of this project, stress monitoring module was designed and implemented. Like previous modules, it also comprises of both hardware and software. The hardware consists of three different sensors:

•           Photo-plethysmography (PPG) circuit ascertains the user's heart rate.

•           Thermistor ascertains the user's breathing rate placed below user’s nostril.

•           Galvanic skin response (GSR) circuit ascertains the user's skin conductance level.

Thus, the data coming from all the electrodes (of EMG and ECG) and sensors (for Stress level detection) is sent to the ADC (Analog to Digital Conversion) of an Arduino board. Then, data is transmitted to receiver (PC or Laptop etc ) using Bluetooth module. On PC, MATLAB will be used to graphically display the results after performing signal processing.

Benefits of the Project

It is not easy for the patients living in remote areas to get medical services on time; therefore, our implemented Bio Signal Data Acquisition System can be used as a lifestyle product for routine health monitoring. Low cost, portable, it consumes low power and most particular feature is to provide graphical user interface for real time viewing and health monitoring to enhance analysis on data collected by system. It is adaptable and user friendly. Human health could have great advantage and improvement by using this accurate and convenient health monitoring system.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The Project covers the three main modules for health monitoring, which are related to the Heart, Muscles and mental stress. The final deliverable of our project is a small portable device based on these three modules and there will be separate ports for each module.

ECG module measures electrical activity of heart. ECG signal has three main components P -wave, QRS complex and T-wave. The range of measured voltage is around between 1mV and 4mV that’s why; ECG signal requires high amplification so that it can identify clearly. Firstly, by using three dry electrodes ECG data (signal) is taken from body then two stage amplification is done. For filtering, high pass filter is implemented. After the high pass signal’s amplification ECG signal is again filtered by using low pass filter. MATLAB software is used for the display of final output signal of ECG. On GUI, parameters of ECG signal will be detected and graphical representation of interval between P to U and R to R will be done. On the basis of analysis of signal pattern and signal parameters, diseases related to cardiovascular diseases can be detected such as Tachycardia and Bradycardia etc.; Tachycardia is abnormally beating of heart and Bradycardia is a slow heart rate disease.  Without having expensive ECG measurement system, the implemented system is also helpful for bio medical research as well.

The EMG module consists of Data acquisition, Amplification, Filtering and smoothing part which help to acquire a low noise signal from muscles.The placement of electrode for EMG is not specified as it can be placed on any muscle of human body to note the muscles activity.The acquired signal through EMG cable and electrodes can further send to Arduino board for ADC and with the help of arduino the signal can be viewed on MATLAB. In the analysis of received signals on MATLAB, there will be extraction of features in time and frequency domain which can further help to compare a healthy signal with any unhealthy signal e.g. neuropathic signal and myopathic signal. Apart from comparisons of Healthy signal with unhealthy this device would also be capable of monitoring the muscular activity of different muscles and their graphical representaion.

The Stress detecting module consists of three parameters i-e heartrate sensor, respiration rate using thermistor and galvanic skin resistance (GSR) which will help to detect stress.The acquired signal through sensors will be  further sent to Arduino board for ADC and with the help of arduino the signal can be viewed on MATLAB. The analysis of received signals is performed using MATLAB. Features including mean, median and standard deviation would be extracted and set thresholds will be  used  to detect stress. Apart from comparison of normal and stress values this device would also be capable to provide a pie-chart indicating ratio of Stress and Normal values.

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

Medical , Health , Telecommunication

Technologies

Wearables and Implantables, Others

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com