Design and implementation of portable electrocardiogram recorder with field programmable gate arrays and IoT interface

Abstract

The electrical activities of the heart are used to monitor cardiovascular diseases. It can be measured using electrocardiogram (ECG), a simple, painless test that can be recorded graphically. The physician, to predict the patient’s heart conditions and recommend suitable treatments, uses electrodes placed on the patient’s skin surface, to record these signals. The P, Q, R, S, T waves in the ECG signal can be used to determine the normality and abnormality of the heart's condition. The time interval differs for each cardiovascular condition of the heart. In this work, the ECG signal is acquired real-time using an intelligent sensor module, and the recorded value is processed to find the peak values. The data is sent to the web server using internet of things technology at a minimal time, where the physician can view it and proper decision can be taken. The real-time ECG data acquisition is also made using the field programmable gate array kit as it is a low cost, high-speed device and the output is viewed in the computer. The developed model is validated through MATLAB software and implemented for real-time applications.