Low power IoT platform for vital signs monitoring

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed tremendous advances in wearable technology with many applications ranging from health and fitness, sports, security, and more recently augmented reality. Classical body area networks have been reduced to small, wearable devices such as smart watches where signal acquisition is accompanied by processing or streaming to a more powerful device such as a smart phone (or “fog”), or directly to the Cloud. We present a system based around EPIC electric potential sensors which are capable of acquiring bio-electric signals, including an electrocardiogram-like signal (ECG). The paper compares a set of validation algorithms for the extraction of Heart Rate (HR) and Respiratory Rate (RR) suitable for use on EPIC sensor data acquired with the proposed system. These algorithms are evaluated in terms of precision and the estimated robustness and variance. The system is of particular relevance in the field of Augmented and Virtual Reality, in which such a miniaturised, wireless platform becomes a necessity [1].