Graphene sensor for smart phone based continuous monitoring of ECG signals

ECG (Electrocardiography) is an important vital sign in the body of a human, which can detect different illness including cardiac arrhythmias, heart attacks and cardiomyopathy. Continuous monitoring of ECG can prevent such type of diseases on time and help to control the death rates and decrease the healthcare costs by enabling early intervention. In this regard, this paper presents a graphene-based ECG sensor for continuous monitoring using behind the ear location. Due to excellent electrical conductivity, the graphene layer is coated on the surface of Ag/AgCl ECG measurement electrodes using a drop casting technique for the improvement of skin to electrode contact. The quality of the contact is further compared with traditional Ag/AgCl electrodes to evaluate the performance in terms of the better output signal. The obtained results showed that the signal from graphene-based electrodes is better than the one obtained with conventional electrodes in term of SNR (signal to noise ratio) and shoes that all the waveforms of a cardiac cycle very clearly. Furthermore, the ECG acquisition unit is integrated with the CBT (Core body temperature) sensor capable of measuring temperature from the tympanic membrane (in the ear). Both sensors are capable of measuring the vital signs from the ear location. Moreover, the device is capable of sending the data to the mobile application via Bluetooth communication, the application running in the phone of the user would allow continuous monitoring of their ECG and CBT in real time by providing a user-friendly environment. *Correspondence to: Wamadeva Balachandran, Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK, Tel: +44 (0) 1895 265774; Fax: +44 (0) 1895 269782; E-mail: wamadeva. balachandran@brunel.ac.uk