Real time biomedical signal transmission of mixed ECG Signal and patient information using visible light communication

Abstract

The utilization of radio-frequency (RF) communication technology in healthcare application, especially in the transmission of health-related data such as biomedical signal and patient information is often perturbed by electromagnetic interference (EMI). This will not only significantly reduce the accuracy and reliability of the data transmitted, but could also compromise the safety of the patients due to radio frequency (RF) radiation. In this paper, we propose a method which utilizes visible light communication technology as a platform for transmission and to provide real-time monitoring of heart rate and patient information. White LED beam is used as the illuminating source to simultaneously transmit biomedical signal as well as patient record. On-off Keying (OOK) modulation technique is used to modulate all the data onto the visible light beam. Both types of data will be transmitted using a single data packet. At the receiving end, a receiver circuit consisting of a high-speed PIN photodetector and a demodulation circuit is employed to demodulate the data from the visible light beam. The demodulated data is then serially transmitted to a personal computer where the biomedical signal, patient information and heart rate can be monitored in real-time.