Reusable, Cased and Mechanically Held Graphite-Based Dry ECG Electrodes

Abstract

In this work, we proposed the coupling of graphite pencil lead (GPL) electrodes with a custom designed 3D printed case and adjusting Velcro straps for the task of ECG acquisition. The proposed electrode and its attachment procedure were intended to provide reusable, easy-to-apply and long-lasting results in comparison to traditional adhesive electrodes, while simultaneously protecting the graphite-based electrode against mechanical stress. To this end, ECG data from twenty (N = 20) healthy volunteers were simultaneously acquired using commercial adhesive Ag/AgCl electrodes and the proposed cased and mechanically held graphite-based electrodes. The performance of the proposed electrodes was studied during still conditions via signal quality from ECG template signals as well as from heart rate (HR) time series. We found high correlation coefficients for the signal quality $$ (\rho = 0.9942) $$ and HR estimation $$ (\rho = 0.9495) $$. The obtained results look promising and shown the feasibility of developing reusable, simple, low cost, and waste-free ECG electrodes alternatives to traditional disposable, adhesive ones.