IoT Health monitoring system with novel sensing material

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Tong, Wenxin
Area of Honors:
Electrical Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Hui Yang, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Timothy Joseph Kane, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
IoT
ECG
Sensing Textiles
Cardiac Monitoring
Abstract:
Recent advances in sensing and communication prompt the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). In the past few years, IoT technology has been increasingly adopted in various ar-eas, including manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture. In particular, IoT has been used to monitor and exchange data between devices to improve efficiency. For example, IoT devices are used in industrial automation for the continuous monitoring of production lines’ conditions and machines parameters. However, very little study has been done on the application of IoT in home-based healthcare and the sensitivity of sensing textiles. Current home-based IoT health monitoring device does not offer complete health monitor and it is usually limited to only users to view their health conditions. There is no such IoT health monitoring system that can enable both users and physicians to receive timely and complete health condition updates. Rapid advances in material science and mobile technology bring the new generation of wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensing systems. In particular, sensing textiles have been widely used in cardiac monitoring due to its high flexibility and reusability. Unlike conventional gel elec-trodes, sensing textiles are non-adhesive, which provide a comfortable and stress-free experience that enable 24/7 continuous monitoring of cardiac conditions. However, the quality of textile-based ECG sensing is more sensitive to external factors (such as sensor placement and contact pressure). There is an urgent need to investigate how the quality of ECG sensing is influenced by these factors and improve the design of wearable textiles. In this study, we first designed and developed an IoT smart weight scale, as a part of our IoT health monitoring system, that can wirelessly monitor patients’ weight and then we experimentally investigate the sensitivity of textile-based ECG sensing to four factors, i.e., contact pressure, textile placement, user’s activity, and muscle activity. Specifically, an IoT weight scale has been developed to measure patients’ weight and wirelessly send to cloud for users’ and physicians’ use. In the second experiment, ECG signals are collected using sensing textiles under above-mentioned four factors. Then, heart rate and ECG morphology are characterized from the obtained ECG signals and compared with true signals (obtained from standard gel electrodes). Experimental results of IoT smart weight scale show that our scale works as expected that both patients and physicals can obtain timely weight results. The weight scale is able to precisely measure weights and wirelessly upload to cloud server with a reasonable delay. Sensitivity analysis of sensing textile shows that the quality of textile-based ECG sensing is not sensitive to the contact pressure as long as it is ≥ 6N. When the patient is walking, nevertheless, the sensing quality can be strongly influenced by the textile placement. Furthermore, textiles placed on areas with fewer muscles achieve better signal quality. This study shows strong potentials of IoT health monitoring system and the possibility of the integration of textile materials with IoT to empower smart and connected cardiac health.