ECG Signal Extraction on Palms and Fingers using Bluetooth for Low-Cost Cardiac Health Monitoring System

Equipment for electrocardiography (ECG) is essential for the diagnosis of heart conditions. Continuous electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring is vital for patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). The lack of appropriate ECG equipment in hospitals and health facilities in developing nations worsens the conditions of the patients. Availability of continuous ECG monitoring devices is limited, and the expensive cost of these devices combined with a shortage of qualified physicians contribute to a greater prevalence of CVD in developing nations. The conventional method uses limbs and surface of the chest to extract signals, which leads to fake copies of the relevant physiological traits due to biological impedance of human body. To overcome these obstacles, the low-cost ECG monitoring system has been designed to extract the signal from various points on palms and fingers. The incoming ECG signals from an integrated signal conditioning unit, the AD8232 which converts pulse into voltage from the electrodes. Integrating Arduino Uno and bluetooth modules HC-05, to process, samples and transmit serially via Bluetooth wireless link to display the real-time ECG waveform in smart-phone. The Ketai library and BtSerial were used to receive serial data from the Bluetooth module for developing software in laptop/personal computer. The Processing IDE is used to develop Android applications, and it requires API level 33 and Android version 13. This program does not require the USB host API. Because of this, about 98% of Android smartphones on the market are compatible with this system and the low power consumption enables long-term monitoring.