One of two project reports. The other is designated PART A: McMASTER (ON-CAMPUS) PROJECT / <p> It is well known that heart rate is an important physiological parameter. In some cases, continuous monitoring of active subjects is desireable. </p> <p> The report focuses on the feasibility of a miniaturized, portable heart rate monitor. Good artifact rejections, low power consumption small size and ease of use are of primary importance in such design. In order to keep size as low as possible a single cell (1 .5 V) supply voltage is used. </p> <p> A LED - phototransistor type of transducer was chosen for its good artifact rejection and simplicity of application. The transducer clips on the subject's earlobe. Light transmitted through the earlobe is amplitude modulated by the heart (blood) pulses and detected by the phototransistor thus providing electrical signal. </p> <p> In order to keep current drain low, the LED was powered by ~ 1% duty cycle pulses. The rest of the system was designed to comply with the requirements of the transducer. The detected train of pulses were preamplified and the original modulating waveform (heart pulse) reconstructed by a "sample and hold" circuit. The reconstructed signal was amplified by a narrow-band-pass amplifier filter. </p> <p> An astable and two monostable multivibrators perform the necessary timing. Two integrated circuits were also employed: a voltage regulator, to provide stable reference voltages where needed and the output amplifier filter, providing the bulk of the gain. </p> <p> A working prototype was built and suggests that a personalized heart rate monitor is quite feasible. The whole circuit can be integrated, with the exception of few capacitors and perhaps some trimming potentiometers. </p> / Thesis / Master of Engineering (MEngr)

A low cost Heart Beat Monitoring device (HBMD) for detecting heart beat in beats per minute is presented in this thesis. An optical technique called “Photoplethysmography” is utilized by attaching to the base of the finger for monitoring beat to beat pulsation. Two major design issues addressed in this research is to achieve a strong and accurate PPG signal and simultaneously minimizing physiological artefacts and interference. In order to achieve the aim and objectives of the research, this thesis thoroughly explores two new signal conditioning hardware designs. Firstly is the design and fabrication of a low cost reflectance mode PPG heart monitor using parallel port interfacing and secondly are the design and development of a portable transmission mode PPG heart monitor using microcontroller PIC16F84A and PIC16F87. Both PPG heart monitor design is divided into three phases. First is the detection of weak pulses through the fingertip. The PPG signal is then amplified, filtered and digitized by the signal processing unit. Finally the heart rate is calculated, analyzed and displayed on the computer using parallel port interface and on the liquid crystal display using microcontroller PIC16F87. A comprehensive circuit design and analysis work was implemented verified by Proteus VSM circuit simulations and laboratory experiments. Data is presented from the method comparison study in which heart rates measured with the reflectance mode PPG and portable transmission mode PPG heart monitor were compared with those measured with standard techniques on 13 human subjects. Benchmarking tests with approved pulse oximeter and blood pressure monitor Omron M6 reveals that the PPG heart monitor is comparable to those devices in displaying the heart rate. It is also verified through experiments that both PPG heart monitor design fulfill the objectives, including achieving strong and accurate PPG signal, reduction in physiological artefacts and interference and financially low in cost. As the conclusion, the current version of the reflectance mode PPG and portable transmission mode PPG heart monitor successfully measure heart rates fast and reliably in most subjects in different body position. The PPG heart monitor proposed avoid the need to apply electrodes or other sensors in the correct position which directly minimizes the preparation time drastically. This makes the PPG heart monitor more attractive for heart monitoring purpose and its advantage should be explored further.

A low cost Heart Beat Monitoring device (HBMD) for detecting heart beat in beats per minute is presented in this thesis. An optical technique called “Photoplethysmography” is utilized by attaching to the base of the finger for monitoring beat to beat pulsation. Two major design issues addressed in this research is to achieve a strong and accurate PPG signal and simultaneously minimizing physiological artefacts and interference. In order to achieve the aim and objectives of the research, this thesis thoroughly explores two new signal conditioning hardware designs. Firstly is the design and fabrication of a low cost reflectance mode PPG heart monitor using parallel port interfacing and secondly are the design and development of a portable transmission mode PPG heart monitor using microcontroller PIC16F84A and PIC16F87. Both PPG heart monitor design is divided into three phases. First is the detection of weak pulses through the fingertip. The PPG signal is then amplified, filtered and digitized by the signal processing unit. Finally the heart rate is calculated, analyzed and displayed on the computer using parallel port interface and on the liquid crystal display using microcontroller PIC16F87. A comprehensive circuit design and analysis work was implemented verified by Proteus VSM circuit simulations and laboratory experiments. Data is presented from the method comparison study in which heart rates measured with the reflectance mode PPG and portable transmission mode PPG heart monitor were compared with those measured with standard techniques on 13 human subjects. Benchmarking tests with approved pulse oximeter and blood pressure monitor Omron M6 reveals that the PPG heart monitor is comparable to those devices in displaying the heart rate. It is also verified through experiments that both PPG heart monitor design fulfill the objectives, including achieving strong and accurate PPG signal, reduction in physiological artefacts and interference and financially low in cost. As the conclusion, the current version of the reflectance mode PPG and portable transmission mode PPG heart monitor successfully measure heart rates fast and reliably in most subjects in different body position. The PPG heart monitor proposed avoid the need to apply electrodes or other sensors in the correct position which directly minimizes the preparation time drastically. This makes the PPG heart monitor more attractive for heart monitoring purpose and its advantage should be explored further. / Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Orientador: Maria Lucia Gomes Lourenço / Resumo: A modulação autonômica da frequência cardíaca reflete-se na variabilidade da frequência cárdiaca (VFC). Estudos em humanos hígidos mostraram que a VFC sofre redução com o avançar da idade e também que há uma imaturidade autonômica em neonatos, alterando esses índices. Esta análise apresenta perspectivas interesantes em cães, contudo, antes mesmo que possa ser utilizada, é pertinente que se estabeleça melhor compreensão sobre o comportamento fisiológico da modulação autonômica cardíaca. O objetivo desse estudo foi descrever um padrão característico de comportamento autonômico cardíaco em cães saudáveis em diferentes faixas etárias. Foi analisada a VFC no domínio do tempo e no domínio da frequência, utilizando o Holter e o frequencímetro em curto prazo em 87 cães. Observou-se que cães entre um e sete anos de idade, apresentaram maior VFC quando comparada a outras faixas etárias. Cães idosos (> 8 anos), exibiram tendência natural a diminuição dos marcadores parassimpáticos cardíacos da VFC, enquanto cães filhotes (< 1 ano), apresentaram maior predomínio simpático e consequentemente, menor VFC. Conclui-se que o balanço dos sistemas simpático e parassimpático, sofre influência da idade em cães, alterando os valores da VFC. Então é de extrema importância obter valores de referência, para futuras análises em diferentes afecções clínicas. Estas análises podem ser realizadas pelo Holter e frequencímetro cardíaco, mesmo apresentando limitações para cães, ambos os métodos avaliam a VFC. / Abstract: Autonomic heart rate modulation is reflected by heart rate variability (HRV). Studies in healthy human subjects show that the HRV is reduced with the advancing age and also, that there is an autonomic immaturity in neonates, which alters these parameters. This analysis presents interesting perspectives in dogs, however, even before it can be used, it is pertinent to establish a better understanding of the physiological behavior of cardiac autonomic modulation. The objective of this study was to describe a characteristic pattern of cardiac autonomic behavior in healthy dogs in different age groups. Time and frequency domain of HRV were analyzed using Holter and the short-term heart rate monitor in 87 dogs. It was observed that in dogs between one and seven years of age, they present higher HRV when compared to other age groups. Older dogs (> 8 years) had a natural tendency to decrease cardiac parasympathetic markers of HRV, while puppies (<1 year) had a upper sympathetic predominance and, consequently, lower HRV. It is concluded that the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, is influenced by age in dogs, changing HRV values in the short term. Therefore, it is extremely important to obtain reference values for future analyzes in different diseases. These analyzes can be performed by the Holter and cardiac frequency meter, even with limitations for dogs, since both evaluate the heart rate variability. / Mestre

Magister Curationis - MCur / The objectives of this study were to determine midwives’ knowledge in performing foetal heart rate monitoring, to assess midwives’ abilities in the interpretation of foetal heart rate patterns according to their years of clinical experience as a registered midwife.

The number of users adopting cellular system technologies over the past years has been enormous. This rapid adoption is not comparable in any other technology. Additionally, this has meant that these users have (at least some of the time) the possibility of connectivity to others and to remote services (advanced data and voice services, such as video conferences, mobile TV, navigation, and location services). Increasingly there is no longer a clear boundary between the wide area cellular network and Internet services, as the wide area cellular network is evolving from circuit switched based technologies to an IP based system; hence these wide area cellular systems are simply becoming part of the Internet. This evolution has become a challenge for the telecommunication operators, who have been used to completely controlling their network services and billing. In an attempt to maintain this traditional role for telecommunication operators, telecommunication vendors have introduced the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). A system designed to enable telecommunication operators to be able to bill the user for all of the different services accessed through the wide area cellular network. The goal of such a system is to prevent the telecommunication operators from becoming a "bit pipe" (i.e., simply providing "commodity priced" connectivity). Another relevant change that has direct impact upon this project is the role of mobile handsets as gateways between sensor networks and other networks (especially the wide area cellular networks or Internet). This has lead to integrated solutions, such as the smart house concept, mobile health monitoring, and others. This thesis project is a collaboration between Ericsson Research and SUUNTO, in which we have implemented a system for monitoring a user’s heart rate via IMS. The system (has a special focus on sports activities, but it could easily be adapted for health care) is based on internetworking sensor networks, specifically a heart rate belt that transmits data wirelessly, with the IMS network through a mobile phone or a PC. The implemented service runs on top of the SIP Presence service. This project examines two alternatives. The first is a mobile scenario, in which a person is jogging outdoors, in this setting the sensor node communicates via the person’s mobile phone, through the IMS network to a monitoring application. The second scenario is more fixed; such as a gym environment, where the sensor node communicates with a personal computer which in turn publishes the data via IMS. Once the data has been published to the Presence and group management sever, an application server subscribed to the athlete’s Presence service will be notified. The people interested in viewing this data will be able to see it through any web-browser. It will even be possible to archive, and download the data for later use by other applications. The system is not optimized yet for a truly real-time communication, as the Presence service does not offer this as other technologies (RTP, SRTP or XMPP) do. There is a big delay difference between the mobile and the fixed solution. We can say that the fixed solution is almost a real-time system for transmitting low frequency data as heart rate information. This project is a first approach to a final high performance system. / Antalet användare som har fått tillgång till mobiltelefon under de senaste åren har varit enorm. Detta snabbt antagande är inte jämförbar med någon annan teknik. Dessutom innebär också detta att dessa användare har (åtminstone ibland) möjligheten till anslutning till andra och till avlägsna tjänster (avancerad data-och taltjänster, t.ex. videokonferenser, mobil TV, navigation och lokaliseringstjänster). Idags läget finns det inte längre en tydlig gräns mellan cellulära nätet och Internettjänster. Efter cellulära nätets utveckling från kretskopplad teknik till ett IP-baserat system, så håller dom cellulära systemem på att bli en del av Internet. Denna utveckling har blivit en utmaning för telekommunikationsföretag, som har varit vana att helt kontrollera sina nättjänster och fakturering. I ett försök att bevara denna traditionella roll för telekommunikationsföretag, har telekom-leverantörer infört IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). Ett system som syftar på att kunna göra telekommunikationsföretagen kapabla till att debitera användaren för alla dem olika tjänsterna som han har tillgång till via deras cellulära nät. Målet med ett sådant system är att förhindra telekommunikationsföretagen från att bli en "bit pipe" (dvs bara ge prissatt konnektivitet). En annan betydelsefull förändring som har direkt inverkan på detta projekt är den roll som mobiltelefoner kan utföra som gateways mellan sensornätverk och cellulära nät eller Internet. Detta har påverkat flera integrerade lösningar, såsom smarta hus begrepp, mobil hälsoövervakning och andra. Denna examensarbetes projekt är ett samarbete mellan Ericsson Research och Suunto, där vi har implementerat ett system för övervakning av en användares hjärtslag genom IMS. Systemet (har en särskild inriktning på sport, men det kan lätt anpassas för hälso-och sjukvård) är baserad på Internetworking sensornätverk, särskilt en hjärtfrekvens bälte som överför data trådlöst till en mobiltelefon eller en dator, som sedan skickar ut datan via IMS-nätverket. Tjänsten genomförs ovan på SIP Presence service. Projektet undersöker två alternativ. Den första är en mobil scenario; exempelvis där en person joggar utomhus, vid ett sådant tillfälle kommunicerar sensorn noden genom personens mobiltelefon, via IMS-nätverk med en övervaknings application. Det andra scenariot är mer statiskt och ger inte samma rörlighet, denna lösning passar bättre in på gym activiteter eller liknande. I denna implementering kommunicerar sensorn noden med en persondator som i sin tur publicerar uppgifterna via IMS. När uppgifterna har publicerats hos Presence and group management (PGM) servern. En applikations server som är uppskriven på att få friidrottarens närvaro tjänst kommer att meddelas. De människor som intresserade av att se denna data kommer att kunna göra det via någon webbläsare. Det kommer även att vara möjligt att arkivera och hämta datan för senare en användning men andra tillämpningar. Systemet är inte optimerad ännu för en verkligt realtid, eftersom Presence service inte erbjuder detta ännu som andra tekniker (RTP, SRTP eller XMPP) gör. Det finns en stor fördröjning skillnad mellan den mobila och fasta lösningen. Vi kan säga att den fasta lösningen är nästan ett realtids-system för överföring av lågfrekventa uppgifter som hjärtslag information. Detta projekt är en första strategi för en slutlig högpresterande system.

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