CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
Heart beat rate means the number of heartbeats per unit time, usually
expressed as beats per minute (bpm). The human heart pounds to pump
oxygen rich blood to the muscles and carry cell waste products away from
the tissues. Heartbeat rate can vary according to the demand of the muscles to
absorb oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide changes such as during exercise or
sleep. It also varies significantly between individuals based on age, fitness
and genetics. This means that the heart must beat faster to deliver more
oxygen rich blood. During exercise routines, the heartbeat rate gives a strong
indication of how effective the exercise is to the body.
The patient monitoring systems is one of the major improvements in the
global health care program because of its advanced technology. A patient
monitoring system measures the heartbeat and body temperature by using
embedded technology. This advancement in technology is highly needed
because many sick patients at the hospitals die because of high fever and
heart attacks. The trend of cardiovascular disease has shown that heart beat
rate plays a key role in determining the possibility of a heart attack while an
increase in the body temperature can induce fever on a patient. Heart diseases
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such as heart attack, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, and
congenital heart disease are the leading causes of death for men and women
in many countries. Most of the time, the aged people of the society are more
prone to heart disease problems than the younger ones. For people who live
alone with no one to monitor their health condition, this device offers an
opportunity to them for a constant monitoring of their health status, it is
developed to monitor and alert the doctors about the heartbeat and
temperature condition of a patient. It is developed to give patients a timely
and proper heath care.
These days it is not easy for doctors and the nurses to remain close to a
patients bed side to monitor their heath condition. In the past, a huge and
fixed monitoring device was used (only in the hospitals) to know the health
status of a patient when on a bed. These monitoring devices are only
available in the hospitals and are constantly on the patient’s body. Many of
them are not user friendly so it is important that the doctors and family
members will have a handy device that can always monitor their patients
when they are not around. One of the vital things to monitor on a patient is
the body temperature. This has to do with the measurement of the body’s
ability to generate and get rid of heat. Temperature monitoring is one of chief
indicators of the normal functioning of health. The nature of the human body
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is to keep its temperature within a narrow, safe range in spite of large
variations in temperatures outside the body. Normal human body temperature
depends upon the place in the body, from which the measurement is made,
and the time and level of activity of the person. The typical body temperature
is 37.0 °C ± 0.4°C (98.6 ° F ± 0.7°F). When the body temperature is high, the
blood vessels within the skin expand (dilate) to carry the excess heat to the
patients skin surface. One may begin to sweat, and as the sweat evaporates, it
helps to cool his/her body. When one is too cold, the blood vessels narrows
(contracts) so that blood flow to the skin is reduced to conserve body heat.
This may cause an involuntary shivering in some people due to cold which is
a rapid contraction of the muscles. This extra muscle activity helps to
generate more heat. Under normal condition, thus keeping one’s body
temperature within a narrow, safe range. Body temperature is regulated by
neural feedback mechanism which operate primarily through the
hypothalamus. The hypothalamus contains not only the control mechanisms,
but also the key temperature sensors. Under control of these mechanisms,
sweating begins almost precisely at a skin temperature of 37°C and increases
rapidly as the skin temperature rises above this value. The heat production of
the body under these conditions remains almost constant as the skin
temperature rises. If the skin temperature drops below 37°C a variety of
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responses are initiated to conserve the heat in the body and to increase heat
production. These includes: Vasoconstriction to decrease the flow of heat to
the skin, Cessation of sweating, shivering to increase heat production in the
muscles, Secretion of nor epinephrine, epinephrine, and thyroxin to increase
heat production.
Another vital thing to monitor in a patient is the heartbeat rate. It is very
important that the heartbeat is to be normal. That is 72 BPM. If there is any
abnormality, then the patient is in distress. Heartbeat rate means the number
of heartbeats per unit of time. The normal heartbeat rate of a resting person is
about 70 bpm for adult males and 75 bpm for adult females. The average
heartbeat per minute for 25-year old ranges between 140-170 beats per
minute while for a 60-year old it is typically between 115-140 beats per
minute and body temperature is 37 degree Celsius or 98.6 Fahrenheit. .
Normally it is difficult to keep track of the abnormalities in the heartbeat
count of by manual means. Patients are not well versed with the manual
treatments, which the doctors normally use for tracking the count of the
heartbeat. Thus, there must be some kind of device which would help patients
and their family member to keep track of their health by themselves. This
sole reason is why this project presents a heartbeat and temperature
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monitoring device using radio frequency (RF.). The concept of developing
an RF. based patient monitoring device is to have a simple home and
hospital based pulse and body temperature monitoring device for sick
person’s that are in critical condition and needs to be constantly or
periodically monitored by clinician or family.
1.2 WHAT IS A PATIENT HEARTBEAT AND TEMPERATURE
MONITOR USING RF.?
A patient heartbeat and temperature monitor using RF. is a radio frequency
based pulse wave and body temperature monitoring system, which allows the
control of a sick person’s condition in real time. The system monitors the
heart beat and temperature of a patient simultaneously and if the patients
heartbeat rate or body temperature is abnormal, the system alerts sends an
alert to the doctor or patient’s family members to quickly examine or
diagnose the patient’s condition and take early precaution to save the
patient’s life. The alerts sound can be triggered at any time as long as there is
a deviation in the health condition of the patient from the normal, such that
the status of the patient can be known on time. The system consists of a
sensor, which monitors the patient and sends a signal to a microcontroller,
which processes it to determine the temperature and heartbeat rate of the
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patient before sending an alert to a receiver using radio frequency. The
receiver has to be in the possession of the patient’s doctor or family
members. This project can also be used by athletes who engage in physical
exercise and by medical professionals. Individuals, such as athletes, cyclists
or those who are interested in monitoring their heartbeat rate and body
temperature to gain maximum efficiency from their training can also use this
project. It can be used during physical exercise and healthcare.
1.3 PROBLEM DEFINITION
The human health is one of the most important concerns in the world today.
Anything/everything becomes meaningless when one becomes sick and dies
due to improper Medicare. For health reasons, people, governments and
several voluntary bodies spend a lot of money to ensure a better health
condition for themselves and the entire populace. Scientists and Engineers are
always at work to device a means of supporting/sustaining a sound health
condition for all through the invention of numerous technologies both
Electrical/Mechanical gadgets that are in use for health care delivery today.
The heart is a very delicate organ in the human body (once it stops beating,
nothing else matters). Thus, If early actions are taken (and on time) the heart
condition can be managed effectively and many patients can be cured and
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saved. The problem of patients slumping and dying is associated with
cardiovascular arrests and can be checkmated this sensitive and highly
effective device (the patient heartbeat and temperature monitor). This device
has an outstanding advantage that it is easy to handle and access. Heartbeat
rate and body temperature monitors are part of the most vital tools needed in
first aid kit for saving lives. Unlike the x-ray, the heartbeat and temperature
monitor does not impose any hazard to the human health. There devices in the
market which can provide raw measurement data of the patients to the
doctors, but the patients may not be able to interpret the medical measurement
into a meaningful diagnosis due to their limited medical background. On the
other hand, if raw medical data is delivered to the doctor, time is wasted and
may pose a problem, but in emergencies waste of time can never be tolerated.
It is tough to share data over large area within a short period. Most of the
products available in the market have this drawback of limitation in flexibility
and portability. If the heat that is produced from metabolism cannot be
checkmated on time, it will cause a turbulent body temperature, which could
be worse than 40°C and lead to headache, vertigo, low blood pressure, high
energy consumption, unconsciousness and crocking up of body temperature
regulation function. On the other hand, when the produced heat is less than
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the dissipating heat, the body temperature cannot hold on and it will result to a
decrease in metabolism.
1.4 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The major aim and objective of this design [of a patient heartbeat and
temperature monitor using RF.] is to help the doctors and family members to
keep track of the heartbeat condition of their loved ones [as well as their body
temperature] in the case of an abnormality in the health condition (for those
with heartbeat defects and those that run excessive high temperature beyond
normal). If any varied change takes place, it is notified. This notification
through RF. Channel would to take an appropriate action at an instance of
time, thereby alerting the appropriate persons..
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
There are various instruments available in the hospitals to keep track of the
internal body changes, but many of them have limitations regarding to
maintenance, cost, size of instruments, and mobility. This project is so
significant because it is mobile, small in size, cost effective, very easy to use,
highly efficient performance, portable and light in weight etc. It uses RF. to
help both the patient and the concerned doctor to take an appropriate action.
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It is beneficial in terms of cost. It saves time and is very helpful to patients
who lives alone. It offers a freedom of movement to patients. It has a low
power consumption though the stability of its wireless data communication is
still to be enhanced. To some degree, the wireless data communication via RF
has anti-jamming ability.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
This project operates at a 30 feet’s distance on open space. It is designed
to operate with an alkaline battery of a minimum of 9 volts to a maximum of
12v consumes 50mA. It uses a buffer, temperature sensor, AT89c51
Microcontroller and a led display with buzzer for the alert. The hardware and
soft ware of the system is oriented towards the AT89c51 single chip
microcontroller. Hence, reducing the size of the device. A regulated 3.7v RF.
operates in the frequency range of 415 MHZ per second used for data
transmission, which can easily penetrate over three floors of a building and go
over 30 feet’s in open space.
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1.7 PROJECT REPORT ORGANIZATION
The organization of the project report is well detailed and vast in its
coverage. It covers all the activities encountered during the research work as
shown in the block diagram below.
Fig 1.1: PROJECT ORGANIZATION BLOCK DIAGRAM
The first chapter is the introductory chapter, which covers the background,
project objectives, scope of the project, constraints and block diagram overview
of the states. Chapter 2 presents the literature review. Chapter 3 covers the
system analysis and design including the design methodology in block diagram
form. Chapter 4 presents the system implementation, which shows the component
layout, the wiring schedule, the wiring diagram and the complete schematic
diagram. Chapter 5 covers the testing and integration of the project design. The
system testing was first carried out in a laboratory. Chapter 6 is the summary and
Abstract Introduction Literature
Review
System
implementation
& testing
System
design
Methodology
and system
analysis
Summary
and
conclusion
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conclusion, which includes the summary of achievements, problems encountered
during project design, recommendation and suggestion for further improvement.
BLOCK DIAGRAM OF THE TRANSMISSION BETWEEN THE
TRANSMITTER AND THE RECEIVER
Fig.1.2. Basic idea of a transmitter and receiver transmission using RF.
With the aid of a simple, low cost microcontroller based heartbeat rate and
temperature measuring device with LCD output. The heartbeat rate of a patient is
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measured from the index finger or the wrist or neck using IRD (infrared device)
sensors and the rate is then averaged and displayed on a text board LCD.
The device sounds an alarm when the heartbeat and body temperature exceed
the safe threshold value. The programmer stipulates this threshold value at the
time of programming of the microcontroller. The threshold value given for the
device is between 20 to 120 pulses per minute for heart beat indication and 18
degrees Celsius to 38 degrees Celsius for temperature.
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