Competency Demonstration Report - Remote Monitoring Of Physiological Parameters

Name of the project: Remote Monitoring of Physiological Parameters

Location of the project: Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala (E), Mumbai

Project Duration: 2013-2014

Organization: Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, Wadala (E), Mumbai

Role and Designation during the time: Team Member

Characteristics of the Project

Heart rate is the number of heat beats per unit of time. The number is represented as beats per minute. The functioning of the heart can vary from person to person. The measurement of the heart rate is used by the medical professionals to determine the health of the patient. Ups and downs in the heart rate determines the occurrence of certain diseases in the human body. The measurement is also followed by athletes who wants to push themselves to the limit to gain maximum efficiency. The sinusoidal wave which had the R wave to the R wave determines the inverse of the heart rate.

Objectives Developed for the Project

The objectives which were set forward for the development of the project are as follows:

• To help people to track their health on their own.
• To provide periodic reports and alert the individual if there is a change in the heart rate.
• To develop a cost effective in nature for accurate monitor of the vital signs.

My Area of Work

The project was composed of two parts: hardware and corresponding software. For the project I was in charge of making the hardware module of the device. The main components of the hardware was to get the reading of the temperature and the heart beat count of the patient. I was also in charge of testing the product and making the final documentation of the project which would be eventually be submitted to my university.

Figure 1: The hierarchy of the project

My Responsibilities Throughout The Project

My area of working for the project was the implementation of the hardware module of the device. The device would record the heart rate and the temperature of the patient and share to the online portal of the registered user. After the implementation of the device I had taken up the responsibility to test the device for multiple users and then make up the documentation of the project. The test results were attached to the document to show the working procedure of the device.

Comprehending the theory of the project

I proposed the use of a LTH1550-01 is a photo interrupter which forms the photoplethysmographic sensor for the hardware section. The main working of this portion was to receive the heart beat count from the finger tips and transmit it to the programming module of the Arduino. A subsequent portion of the device was the two active working low pass filters composed of opampLM324. Resistor R23, R17 and capacitor C5 works in setting the gain and cutting off the frequency of the first filter.

Project Background

The software part of the device was compiled in Java. The analog output which is obtained from the heart rate sensor and the thermistor is sent directly to the Arduino board. This board converts this signal to the equivalent digital output. The following are some of the library functions which are used by the Arduino.

FreqMeasure.begin(); - Begins the frequency measurement procedure

FreqMeasure.available(); - Returns the number of measurements available to read, or 0 if no measurements are unread

FreqMeasure.read(); - Read a measurement from the sensors

FreqMeasure.end(); - Stop frequency measurement from the sensors

The library has the following limitations that is when using a multiple software serial ports, only one of the port can receive data at a time.

The various Arduino functions used are:

analogReference(type) – used to configure the reference voltage which has been used for analog input

analogRead() – used to read the values from the specified analog pin.

digitalWrite() – used to write high or low values to a digital pin of the Arduino

The following is the Bluetooth APIs of Arduino:

1. Bluetooth Adapter - It is used to represents the local Bluetooth adapter. The BluetoothAdapter is used as an entry for all Bluetooth interaction with the Arduino.

2. Bluetooth Device - It is used to represents a remote Bluetooth device in the project. This is used as a requesting point for a connection with the remote device through the use of the BluetoothSocket.

3. Bluetooth Socket - It is used to represents the interface that is used as a Bluetooth socket. This is the point of connection that allows an application to be able to exchange data with another connected Bluetooth device with the help of InputStream and OutputStream.

4. Bluetooth Server Socket - It is used to represents an open socket server which listens for an incoming requests. In order to produce a connection between two Android devices, one of the device must contain an open a server socket with the help of this class.

Engineering knowledge and skills applied in the project

The knowledge which was applied for the development of the project pertained to the domain of Biomedical Engineering. The basic knowledge of the working of different devices were taught to me during my degree course. Additional information about the working procedure was collected form the research journals which cleared the knowledge base of the theoretical approach of the device. Other than this more information was shared to us by our supervisor who looked after the working of the project.

Project Group

Accomplishment and task performed

The major portion of the project which was compiled by me was the hardware portion of the device. I used LTH1550-01 which is a photo interrupter sensor that forms the photoplethysmographic sensor module in the project. LTH1550-01 is a simple infrared diode which works as a light transistor receiver pair in a single package. For the next phase of the circuit I had used of two active working low pass filters composed of opamp LM324. The LM324 is composed of a quad op amp that can be operated from a mono rail supply. Two resistors R23, R17 and a capacitor C5 works in setting the gain and cutting off the frequency of the first filter. The reference voltage of the comparator has been set to a minimum of 0.3V. The result will be a pulse fluctuating between the values of 0 and 5V at a rate which is equal to the heart rate.

Figure 2: Circuit diagram of the project

Identified issues and their solutions

Issues

The major issue which was faced during the production of the project was the incompatibility with the transmission of the data from the device to the online portal. The data was being stored to the respective database of the user who had registered for the product. I had also found that the transmitter was getting electromagnetic interference during the transmission procedure of the process of the project.

Solutions

The issue were solved when I found that the device not able to transmit the data from the device to the online database. The transmission medium was not up to the standard of the device. The device was not synchronized with the timer which was to send the information collected from the sensors of the device. The timer was changed to be in time with respect to the internal clock of the device. This helped in transmission of the data from the device to the online portal. The interference was removed with the help of better use of cabinet components in the project. I had also implemented the use of good ground connection for the whole project to reduce the Electromagnetic interference of the transmitting signals.

Plan to Produce Creative and Innovative Work

If I was provided with more time I would have been able to implement an online database for each user who has registered in the website for the application. This data base then can be synchronized with the hospital the user visits with the addition of the doctor’s details and facilities. Moreover I implemented the project to get the pulse from the wrist of the patient with the help of a small watch like device. The device can also be implemented in a hospital to provide real time feedback to the doctors so speed up the procedure.

Collaborative Work

I had collaborated with my team mates to produce the project in best quality. I had also received help from my project supervisor who helped us to understand the main working procedure of the generally found heart rate monitor. I had also collected research materials on the topic which was later on explained to us by our supervisor.

Project Overview

The project was completed in a year. The user will be able to track their personal heath on a regular basis or periodically. The project can also be used to monitor the health o a child or a senior patient at home from a remote location. The data obtained can be used by the hospitals to start assessing the emergency situation of the patient as soon as he is brought into the hospital.

My Contribution to Work

For the project I had taken up the responsibly of making the hardware deice of the device. This was the main module of the project. I had communicated with the assistant teacher for getting the project approval. The module would record the temperature and the heart beats of the patient and send it to the online portal of the connected device. I collaborated with the project team members before finalizing the plan and the sensors to be used. The user can then view the statistics of the monitored user in a graphical format. At the end of the project I had conducted the testing of the device using different users and then documented the working procedure of the device and the process the device the produced. I had initiated meetings with the assistant teacher and team members. I had also helped my team mates in their area of work so that the best quality project can be delivered.