Measurement of Human Heart Rate: A Cost-Effective Solution to Monitor Cardiovascular Health

IoT enabled devices are gaining huge momentum these days due to the rising importance for automation and interconnection among devices. This exponential growth has been mainly driven by the advancement in wireless communication, online storage, artificial intelligence and most importantly, high internet penetration among people. In this paper, a web-connected human heart rate monitoring system has been introduced. The system in question utilizes a concept known as photoplethysmography to register the heartbeats of an individual in a non-invasive way. Low-cost and commonly available electronic components are used to assemble the system. The sensing unit consists of a 5mm Infrared (IR) LED and a 5mm IR receiver. Data processing is carried out by an A VR microcontroller unit. Moreover, noise removal is achieved by the means of digital filtering method. The readings are then uploaded to an online server, which can then be viewed in a mobile phone application. The contribution of this research is two folds. First, to make health monitoring devices accessible to people in underdeveloped nations. Second, providing online connectivity will aid people living in remote areas where physical access to healthcare facilities or a doctor is difficult. Results show good agreement with actual heart rate reading. The analogue circuitry and the noise elimination technique described in this work can be extended to construct other similar health monitoring devices as well.