IoT Contest MINI ECG

25 Jun 2015

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Idea:

Currently on the market we can find doznes of applications which monitor health parameters in real-time. They gather data (like pulse, calorie consumption, time of sleep etc.) from sensors and show them on some built-in display or send them wirelessly to mobile phone using for example Bluetooth Smart technology.

However, there is still no available wireless device that could show electrical activity of the heart. Inside doctor’s office we can potentially see only a professional device called - Holter ECG. This device is attached to a belt or is hung around the neck. Its long cables are connected to the electrodes, which collect electrical signal. The patient has to carry the equipment for 24 hours, then he gives it back to the doctor, who reads measures from the memory card.

As you can probably imagine, this solution is not a particularly convenient one. Considering all these, we hit on an idea to create simple, small device that allows us to see ECG in comfortable way. As we also see a big potential in IoT technology, we decided to public collected data after all in the cloud. Moreover, it had to be done in 1.5 month, due to participation in the Nordic’s IoT Contest.

Project:

On the below picture the block diagram of our whole idea has been presented.

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The main aims of the project:

- Create a amplifier that allows us to detect signal and filter out all interferences

- Integrate Nordic’s Beacon (PCA20006) with amplifier

- Add a software digital filter in nRF51

- Send collected data using Nordic’s S110 SoftDevice to the Android phone

- Create a mobile application using Nordic’S Android SDK to draw ECG curve

- Give a nice case to our electronic

- If time allows – connect phone with a cloud, then monitoring an ECG from any place

Achievements:

As the final project we introduce a nice small box incorporates beacon and measurement amplifier and the ECG electrode.

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We managed to create the hand-made PCB of just 3x4cm. We put there couple of amplifiers and filters that change very low-voltage and noisy signal from electrode, to be sharped and strengthened to whole power range. Such a signal is measured by ADC in nRF51, then send over Bluetooth Smart.

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We also created a mobile application using Nordic’s Android SDK. It collects data that are sent from Beacon Board through Bluetooth Smart using HRS profile. Application draws an averaged ECG curve in run-time.

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