Comparison of sensors performance for the development of wrist pulse acquisition system

Abstract

The radial artery pulse signals have been the reliable and easy means of diagnosing a disease since ancient time, not only in India (Ayurveda) but also in many parts of the globe. This pulse diagnosis technique commonly known as the ”Nadi Pariksha” has been recognized not only for monitoring the health status of patients but also for identifying the root cause of the disorder. However, it requires experience and expertise to learn, as a result, this highly promising technique is disappearing rapidly in the modern healthcare system. There is an acute need to save this proven and versatile art of investigating diseases based on very fundamentals of the biological system. In the past, research has been carried out for the computational pulse diagnosis, where sensors are used to acquire the nadi pulse wave for signal processing. Reliable acquisition of the pulse signal is an essential requirement for pulse based health monitoring and sensor's performance greatly affects the faithfulness of the signal to be processed. Therefore, in this work, the performance comparison of different pressure sensors is carried out for the design and development of wrist pulse acquisition system. The pressure sensors, used for pulse signal measurement can be grouped into two major categories i.e. piezoelectric and piezoresistive sensor. Different measurement constraint exists with both the sensor are discussed.