A wireless wearable ECG sensor for long-term applications

Abstract

Ubiquitous vital signs sensing using wireless medical sensors are promising alternatives to conventional, in-hospital healthcare systems. In this work, a wearable ECG sensor is proposed. This sensor system combined an appropriate wireless protocol for data communication with capacitive ECG signal sensing and processing. The ANT protocol was used as a low-data-rate wireless module to reduce the power consumption and size of the sensor. Furthermore, capacitive ECG sensing is a simple technique that avoids direct contact with the skin and provides maximum convenience to the user. In our work, small capacitive electrodes were integrated into a cotton T-shirt together with a signal processing and transmitting board on a two-layer standard printed circuit board design technology. The entire system has small size, is thin, and has low power consumption compared to recent ECG monitoring systems. In addition, appropriate signal conditioning and processing were implemented to remove motion artifacts. The acquired ECG signals are comparable to ones obtained using conventional glued-on electrodes, and are easily read and interpreted by a cardiologist.