A wearable multi-sensor solution for daily activities monitoring with an expanded respiratory part

In this paper, we propose a wearable multi-sensor solution for monitoring daily activities, with an expanded respiratory part. The solution is based on a set of wearable sensors and microcontroller-based acquisition unit with both analog and digital sensor interfaces. The designed wearable device enables acquisition of the following signals: single-lead ECG, respiration signal, body and ambient temperature, barometric pressure, light intensity and acceleration. Two separate wearable respiration sensors were designed based on a conductive thread and a piezo film element. In the experimental part, the signals were recorded during selected activities of daily life (ADL). The evaluation of the wearable breathing sensors showed that all breaths were detected correctly. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the developed hardware can be successfully integrated into a wearable health monitoring system for ADL activity monitoring. Additionally, it can be a valuable platform for educational engineering purposes due to its compatibility with Arduino and standard sensor interfaces. Several limitations and drawbacks of the designed system have also been identified.