Rapid prototyping of pulse oximeter

Measurement of oxygen saturation levels in blood is a vital activity during most medical treatments. A pulse oximeter is a device most commonly used to perform this measurement. It provides convenient, non-invasive and continuous monitoring of oxygen levels in a human body. However, it is often a tedious task to select the appropriate hardware and software components to manufacture a pulse oximeter that gives accurate results. This paper describes a student project, which had the goals to expose the student to this important technique of applying rapid prototyping methods to the design of a state of the art pulse oximeter.