Multi-sensor system with Bluetooth connectivity for non-invasive measurements of human body physical parameters

In the last few years, the availability of powerful personal computing devices, like smartphones, has opened new scenarios to the so called "Body Area Network" (BAN), i.e., sensor networks specifically designed to monitor physical conditions of the user. The traditional methods adopted to monitor physical parameters, like heart beat rate or exertion level, are not suitable for real-time measurements. However, a continuous monitoring of such kind of parameters would allow the athletes to constantly control their physical conditions, furnishing useful information to prevent overstrain and to improve their performance. In this work, a simple, portable and low-cost system for non-invasive and real-time measurement of physical parameters is proposed and experimentally characterized. It is composed of three units: the sensor apparatus, electronic interface circuit, and the data transmission unit. Two different sensors are combined in a unique structure to be placed in a clip-like fashion on the earlobe or other body part of a person. A photoplethysmographic sensor is used to optically measure the changes of blood volume in the arteries, thus to acquire information about heart beat, blood pressure, and arrhythmias. The second sensor is composed of two electrodes, hence an impedance measurement of the tissue is carried out. The impedance estimation can be used to monitor the dielectric properties of biological tissues and fluids, like blood flow. A commercial battery-operated Bluetooth earphone is used both to transmit sensor data and to provide the power supply for the sensors and the first conditioning electronics. Data transmission is operated by the standard Bluetooth Hands-Free profile; therefore, sensor data can be easily acquired, elaborated and visualized by a broad range of commercial devices. In fact, Hands-Free is the only Bluetooth data communication profile supported by any smartphone, from the low-cost ones to the high-end devices. The experimental characterization of the prototype, performed by using a specifically designed application for Android smartphone systems, has demonstrated the validity of the proposed approach. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.