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The goal for this master thesis is to develop a prototype that uses ultra-wideband (UWB) communications to wirelessly transfer electrocardiogram (ECG) data from an ECG measurement unit to an Android device (smartphone or similar) which is used to process and display the ECG signals. The prototype should consist of two hardware nodes; (1) Node one having a ECG measurement unit (an AD8232 single lead heart rate monitor), an UWB communication module (a Decawave DWM1000 module) and a microcontroller (an Arduino DUE); and (2) Node two having an Android device (an Android smartphone), an UWB communication module (a Decawave DWM1000 module) and a microcontroller (an Arduino DUE). On Node one the AD8232 monitor for ECG measurements is connected to an analog input (with an analog to digital converter (ADC)) on the Arduino and the DWM1000 module is connected to the Arduino via serial peripheral interface (SPI). On Node two the DWM1000 is connected to the Arduino via SPI to receive ECG data from Node one, and the Arduino is connected to the smartphone through a serial USB cable with an USB on-the-go adapter to send the ECG data to the smartphone, where it is filtered and displayed with an Android application. The application has the potential to add, for example, ECG analysis for diagnosing heart activities with artificial intelligence (AI) and further transmit the ECG data for remote medical care. The Arduino is programmed in Arduino IDE (integrated development environment) to handle ECG measurements and UWB communications (transmitting and receiving ECG data), which is limited to a single UWB channel because of limitations of the DWM1000 module. The Android application is created using Android studio, and it can process (with a notch filter) and display 1-12 channel ECG. The prototype has been built and tested. The results show that a single lead ECG measurement can be sent via UWB communication to a smartphone to display in real time. Multiple data channels (1-12 analog inputs on the Arduino) can be multiplexed, transmitted and displayed in real time. This thesis concludes that UWB has huge development potential, and will likely be used for various wireless devices in the future.

Ultra wideband (UWB) communications has been a subject of much discussion over the last decade. The method of UWB has had a hard time to establish itself among other methods such as Bluetooth and WiFi but as internet of things (IoT) gains a foothold in our daily lives, UWB has presented some new application areas. These application areas are, among other things, self driving cars, energy efficient data transfer, health care applications, sensor networks and real time location systems. This project aims to use UWB communications to real-world applications, specifically, electrocardiography (ECG) - an application in health care in this project, and develop a prototype for the application. The prototype consists of two Android smart phones and two UWB modules (EVK1000 evaluation kits from DecaWave, Inc). Each smartphone connects a UWB module so that the two smart phones, one as sender and the other as receiver, can communicate directly through UWB radios. This is intended to serve as a proof-of-concept that UWB devices are well suited for short range data transfer applications. The result achieved by the project is an android application along with sending and receiving programs for the development boards by Decawave and additional information regarding UWB and its uses. The results also include a comparison of UWB, Bluetooth and WiFi as of todays standard. The goal of the project is to learn how android applications are programmed, how UWB is used in todays technology and how to program and use development boards presented by companies. The prototype has been built and shown that 12-lead simulated ECGsignals from the sender can be transfered to the receiver through the UWB communications. The work includes programming (in C) the two UWB modules for UWB communications, and Java for the android applications (programs) on the smart phones. The Android application is handling transmission of ECG signals to the sending UWB module and then receiving them from the receiving UWB module as well as displaying them on the receiver. The future work to continue the present project is to replace the sending smart phone by an ECG device that sends real ECG signals.

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