JASC: JOURNAL OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND COMPUTATIONS ISSN NO: 0076-5131

Design and Implementation of Wearable Wireless Health

Monitoring Module
V. G .Girhepunje#1, Santosh D. Chede*2
#E&Tc, Dept. Priyadarshini college of Engineering, Nagpur, 440019, India
*Principal,
Suryodaya College Of Engineering, Nagpur, 441110, India
1vyenktesh1973@gmail.com, 2santoshchede@rediffmail.com

Abstract— Low power, low cost, highly portable wearable wireless telemedicine system is the need today to serve
the patients efficiently. In this paper advanced data acquisition module to measure important body parameters such as
temperature, heart beats, ECG and blood pressure is developed and experimented. Data acquisition module consists of
peripherals like temperature sensor DS18B20, ECG sensor module AD8232, blood pressure sensor module 2SMPP-02,
Instrumentation amplifier MCP6N16 and TI’s MSP432P401R micro controller. A one wire digital thermometer DS18B20
measures the temperature directly and does not require an extra hardware. The 3 lead ECG signals are efficiently captured
with a low power sensor module AD8232 which in turn provide heart beats. This module extract, amplify and filter small
bio potential even in presence of different noisy conditions as a two pole high pass filter with cut off frequency 7Hz
eliminates motion artifacts and the electrode half-cell potential. An uncommitted OPAMP enables AD8232 to create a
three pole low pass filter with cut off frequency 25Hz to remove additional interfering noise. The blood pressure
measurement is carried out with fully automatic, compact size, low power pressure sensor 2SMPP-02 assembly which
comprises of a compact sized air pump to fill the air and a solenoid air valve to release the air. A very low voltage pressure
signal from the sensor is amplified by low power instrumentation amplifier specially designed using MCP6N16 IC,
featured with rail to rail output and enable pin. All acquired physiological signals are efficiently processed by ultra-low
power high performance, cortex core MSP 432P401R microcontroller. The real time bio-signal transreception is carried
out locally via Bluetooth and globally via GSM. Experimental results like body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and
ECG are verified and system current estimation is carried individually for each parameter as well as for the complete
system and also battery lifetime is estimated. Considering active/off duration of different modules and LiPo battery of
1000 mAH, estimated battery life is 550 -600 Hrs. System module seems to be advanced low power solution.

Keywords— Telemedicine, Acquisition module, Sensors, Microcontroller, Bluetooth, GSM.

I. INTRODUCTION

Telemedicine systems now days have emerged as the cost effective and flawless healthcare system especially for the old age
generation living in the interior part of the country. As the patient’s real time physiological information can be made
available on examiner’s end, such systems provide an easy going life to all those patients who require continuous health
check-ups. The system in turn fulfils the basic requirement like mobility, user friendly handling, privacy and security etc. [1,
2]. This paper describes telemedicine systems to monitor the physiological parameters such as body temperature,
Electrocardiogram (ECG), Heart rate and Blood Pressure (BP) etc. The various elements like sensors used, controller
chosen for the application, monitoring devices incorporated, various communication protocols (local and long distance)
used and the power consumption by the implemented module are also studied and analyzed. Extension of battery life is
the challenging as well as demanding issue now a day. It is the real motivation to propose the design and implementation
of an advance ultra low power portable wireless health monitoring module through properly selecting low power sensors
and controller as well as through precise coding techniques. [3, 4]

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II. PROPOSED LOW POWER WEARABLE WIRELESS HEALTH

MONITORING MODULE
The whole system is divided into three different modules as the data acquisition wearable module, an intermediate
transreceiver module (patient’s end) and transreceiver module (doctor’s end). The Wearable module is supposed to be
attached to the patient’s body for physiological signals accumulation. With an intermediate transreceiver module the
physiological signals are locally made available for the patient’s information. The Transreceiver module (doctor’s end)
receives the signals transmitted from patient’s end globally to the examiner (doctor) for the necessary diagnosis on the
dieses. The 3-lead ECG is acquired by low power AD8232 module. The body temperature is measured by one wire digital
thermometer DS18B20. The Systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings of the patient are acquired using an advanced
blood pressure sensor module 2SMPP-02. The complete data acquisition assembly is depicted in fig.1. The sensor outputs
are amplified and filtered before being processed by an ultra-low power cortex M4 (MSP432P401-R) microcontroller. All
the signals are wirelessly fed to an intermediate transreceiver module wherefrom the physiological information is received
by transreceiver module.

Fig. 1 Block schematic of wearable health monitoring module

III. WEARABLE DATA ACQUISITION MODULE

A. An Advanced Microcontroller Unit
The 32-bit MSP432P401-R from Texas Instruments influences it’s about 20 years of low-power governance and
proficiency to provide maximum performance with optimal power efficiency. MSP432 MCU with high performance ARM
Cortex-M4F core has an inbuilt emulator as well as an energy trace unit. It is also featured with DSP extensions and an
integrated floating-point engine and is the most power-optimized processor available now a day.

B. ECG Sensor Module

Electrocardiogram signals are acquired with AD8232 which is an integrated signal conditioning unit has 3-leads
arrangement. The small signals (up to ±300 mV) are acquired and amplified by a specialized instrumentation amplifier
(gain=100) and are high pass filtered (Fchpf=7Hz) simultaneously. Another operational amplifier (Gain=11) serve the
purpose of low pass filter (Fclpf=25Hz).Thus the ECG signals are amplified with an overall gain of 1100 with high CMRR
(80 dB for 0 Hz to 60 Hz).The module also is capable to detect the lead status whether are connected. If not the ECG
signals are restored shortly after leads are reconnected.

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The AD8232 module has only one lead front end which draws just 170μA with 2V to 3.5V supply voltage. Moreover, due
to shut down pin the module can be made off if not required to develop a power efficient telemedicine unit [1, 2]. The
module also provides the heart rate as it is the total number of ECG waves repeated in one minute.

C. One Wire Digital Temperature Sensor

Body temperature can be measured by completely digital one wire thermometer DS18B20.Being digital it do not
require any external hardware and can be directly connected to the processor. The thermometer can be powered externally
by the supply from 3.0 volt to 5.5 volt. It can also be powered from the data line itself by parasitic powering method. It
can measure temperature from -550C to +1250C (i.e. -670F to +2570F) with accuracy of +0.50C. It converts temperature
into 12 bit digital word in just 750 ms with a special feature of user selectable resolution from 9 to 12 bits. [1]

D. Blood pressure Measurement Unit

It consists of fully automatic, compact size, low power blood pressure sensor 2SMPP-02 assembly followed by
instrumentation amplifier and 2nd order low pass butter worth filter. The low voltage pressure signal (0 to 40 mV) from the
pressure sensor proportional to the applied differential input pressure is amplified by low power instrumentation amplifier
(Gain=100) specially designed using MCP6N16 which consists of three OPAMPs required to construct an
instrumentation amplifier. The arm cuff can be pumped up to only 160 mmHg (approximately 21.33 kPa) which
corresponds to the output voltage of approximately 18 mV. Amplifier is chosen to provide the DC output from 0 to 4V.
Hence gain of approximately 200 is needed. Amplified DC and AC component of the signal is passed through low pass
filter designed using LM358 to provide a sufficient gain (Gain = 2 to 3 approx.) so as to get about 4 volt output at around
1 to 5 Hz frequency and to attenuate any signal that is out of pass band. The AC components from the low pass filter
determine the systolic/diastolic pressure. The pressure sensor is driven by a constant current source of 100 µAmp
designed byLM358.The implemented wearable module is shown in fig.2.

Fig.2.The Implemented Wearable Health Monitoring Module

IV. AN INTERMEDIATE TRANSRECEIVER MODULE

As the GSM SIM1200) if connected directly to the wearable module the power consumption will be extensively increased.
As an alternative an intermediate transreceiver module is developed separately to receive the physiological signals
accumulated by sensors and processed by MSP432 MCU wirelessly via Blue-Tooth. The Trans receiver unit consists of
Bluetooth module (HC04), GSM module (SIM 1200), central processing unit and local display monitor. The physiological
signals from patient can be made available onto the local displays via Bluetooth and also transmitted globally to the
examiner’s smart phone through GSM. The doctor/examiner then examines the information available onto his portable
display and puts his diagnosis/suggestions/prescriptions back to the patient’s end [5].

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V. RESULTS
A. ECG Sensor Output and Heart Rate Calculation

Fig.3. ECG Sensor Output on DSO

The DSO output of low power 3-lead ECG sensor module is shown in fig. 3. From the output it is clear that one
ECG pulse takes 684msec time. 1 minute = 60,000msec. So number of pulses in 1 minute would be =60,000/684= 88
(approx.) and this is the value of heart rate.

B. Temperature, ECG, Heart Beats and Blood pressure on Remote Monitor

Fig. 4. Patient’s Biomedical Information on Remote Receiver

The patient’s information from wearable module is received by an intermediate transreceiver via Bluetooth which
are transmitted to the doctor’s end via SIM 1200 as well as can also be made available on the patient’s personal monitor
(optional) through HC04 module as shown in fig.4.

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C. System Observations for Battery Life Estimation

TABLE I
MEASUREMENT OF SENSOR CURRENT AND BATTERY LIFE ESTIMATION FOR 1000 MAH BATTERY
Name of the sensor module Extracted Time per No. of Battery Battery life
(Voltage) current observation Observat life in Hrs In days
ion
Full Circuit (5V) 352.6 mA -- -- -- --
Circuit with temp.
0.2 µA 3 minute 04 56.49* 282.45
sensor (3V)
ECG sensor (3 V) 5.48 mA 3 minute 04 43.14* 215.7
Solenoid 87.8 mA
Pump Motor
230 mA
Blood Constant Current
100 µA
Pressure Source
1 minute 04 2.885* 43.275
module
(5V) Instrumentation 1.03 mA
Amplifier
10 mA
LPF circuit
17.7 mA 03 minute 04 56.497 282.48
MCU,RS232,HC04 (3V)
*indicates that the total current extracted by an individual sensor module plus the current extracted by MCU, RS232 and
Bluetooth is considered for the battery life calculation.

D. Sample calculation for Battery Life Calculation

The battery life for temperature. Sensor in Hrs =Rating of battery/total current extracted by the module Therefore
battery life in Hrs = 1000mAH/ (0.2 µA+17.7mA) = 56.490 Hrs (if used continuously) Measurements are carried out 4
times a day and each measurement is done for 3 minutes. So battery is utilized for 12 minutes/day and is considered off
for rest of the day. Hence battery life (Temperature module) = 56.490 Hrs/12 minutes/day = 282.45 days. For the battery
life calculation the processor sleep duration is neglected as it can be compensated with battery decay.

VI CONCLUSION
Wearable monitoring module is realized using an ultra-low power MSP32 processor and various low power sensors. The
necessary amplifiers and the filters are optimally designed so as to acquire errorless bio potential signal corresponding to
ECG, Heart rate blood pressure and temperature. The patient’s information useful to the doctor for necessary diagnosis is
received wirelessly on remote monitor. The system seems to be beneficial for the patients as even being at distant places
they are medically in touch with the doctors and so can leave fear free life without getting hospitalized. The battery life
estimation is done by considering prescribed duration of measurement and the total measurements per day from which it
can be concluded that for all measurements as prescribed the lightweight battery of 1000mAh may last long up to 30 to 35
days minimum. The design and implementation approach therefore seems to be low power low cost solution.

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REFERENCES
[1] V.G.Girhepunje, Santosh Chede,” Realization Development of Low Power Cardiac Telemetry System”2015 IEEE International
Conference on Communication Networks (ICCN),November19 – November21, 2015, (Gwalior M.P,India) ISBN: 978-1-5090-0051-
7/15/$31.00©2015 IEEE
[2] V.G.Girhepunje, SantoshChede,” Realization of Low Power Telemedicine System to MonitorTemperature and Heart
Beats”ICESA,October,30-November1, 2015,Pune(India) ISBN: 978-1-4673-6817-9/15/$31.00©2015 IEEE.
[3] M.Abo-Zahhad, Sabah M. Ahmed and O.Einahas,”A wireless Emergency Telemedicine system for patients m onitoring and
Diagnosis”IJTA,vol.2014,Jan.2014.
[4] Andreas Kliem, Matthias Hovestadt, Odej Kao,” Security and Communication Architecture for Networked Medical Devices in
Mobility-aware e Health Environments” 2012 IEEE First International Conference on Mobile Services, 978-0-7695-4754-1/12 $26.00
© 2012 IEEE
[5] Rashkovska, I. Tomašić and R. Trobec, “A Telemedicine Application: ECG Data from Wireless Body Sensors on a Smartphone”
MIPRO 2011, May 23-27, 2011,Opatija Croatia.

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