Designing a Heart monitoring jacket – Part A

1. Introduction:

The human heart is a muscular organ responsible for circulating blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues while eliminating carbon dioxide and waste. Positioned in the thoracic cavity between the lungs, it generally weighs around 250–350 grams and is approximately the size of a human fist. Anatomically, the heart consists of four chambers: two upper chambers known as atria and two lower chambers known as ventricles. Blood moves from the atria into the ventricles, which then eject it to the lungs or the rest of the body. The heart contains four primary valves (tricuspid, pulmonary, mitral, and aortic) that prevent the backflow of blood, ensuring it flows in a single direction.

2. importance of a heart monitoring:

Monitoring the heart is crucial for preserving cardiovascular well-being and identifying potential problems at an early stage. there are several advantages of heart monitoring including:

Early Detection of Heart Disease
tracking heart health more regularly
Detecting Abnormal Heart Rhythms
Managing Physical Activity and Exercises
Emergency Response
Medication and Treatment Effectiveness

Heart monitoring:

Heart monitoring is the practice of observing and documenting the heart’s activity to evaluate its condition and identify any irregularities. There are several methods available for monitoring the heart, ranging from basic wearable gadgets to sophisticated clinical instruments, with each approach offering valuable information about heart rate, rhythm, and overall cardiac performance.

There are some devices to monitor heart rate nowadays including smart-watches, smart phones, etc.

The Problem about current monitoring devices:

most of the current monitoring devices are not effective in long term. Devices such as smart phones and smart watches are not accurate and can not be used long term since they are not designed for only one task. So, specially designed device for heart monitoring is essential as there are at least 200 million heart patients world wide.

Can we create DIY heart monitoring system:

yes, it is very possible to create a heart monitoring system. there are several articles that can be found on the internet on this topic.

How I built my heart monitoring jacket(project heart-ware)!

building a heart monitoring is a essential invention in modern days. So, first we need to understand the project. The concept I have developed is simple. following is the explanation.

The inspiration

The inspiration comes from the rising percentage/number of heart related patients around the world. according to data, About 620 million people worldwide have heart and circulatory diseases, which is about 1 in 13 people. also according to the data, Cardio-vascular-disease caused 20.5 million deaths, or about 56,000 people per day. So, it is important have a specific and technologically advanced wear that is specifically designed for people with heart conditions.

requirement/components/equipment

The prototype mainly will be developing on Arduino platform. Arduino is one of the best and easiest platforms to build prototypes for technological ideas. Arduino microcontroller boards can control several sensors and actuators for several purposes. For this prototype we are using a:

Arduino UNO micro-controller board
jumper wires
ECG Heart Pulse Monitoring Sensor Kit AD8232
Pulse Rate Heartbeat Sensor Module for Arduino
batteries
Arduino IDE

We can create a basic Arduino program to see the heart rate and develop an IoT device based on the basic concept.

the basic program testing is follows. connect the sensor module to ECG monitor pads using the connecting wire and use jumper wires to (male-female) connect the circuit it to the Arduino UNO board. then we can program the board with following basic program.

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(10, INPUT) //setup for detection input LO+
  pinMode(11, INPUT) //setup for detection input LO-

}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  if(digitalRead(10) == 1) || (digitalRead(11) == 1){
    Serial.printIn('!!!');
  }
  else
  {
    Serial.printIn(analogRead(A0)); //send the value of analog input 0:
  }

  delay(10); //Wait for keep serial data from saturating

}

Then We need to connect the Arduino port via serial plotter and upload the program into the board. Then we can execute the program.

You will see numerical values that are constantly update every second in the IDE terminal. Then open the serial monitor tab to visualize the output data by the sensor. Then we can see a final result just like in following photo.

This is the basic Arduino-based program for developing a heart monitor system based on Electrocardiogram(ECG).

During the part B- we will discuss about how I developed an entire wear/clothe based on this simple system.

Vishwa GW