An IoT Based Multi-Parameter Data Acquisition System for Efficient Bio-Telemonitoring of Pregnant Women at Home

This paper presents a non-invasive, multi-parameter and real-time data acquisition system for reliable bio-telemonitoring of pregnant women for the assessment of feto-maternal wellbeing during pregnancy and labor. The working hardware prototype named Feto Maternal Care Unit (FMCU) is developed which consists of several biomedical sensors attached to the mother's body which collects bio-physiological signals like maternal respiration rate, maternal body temperature, abdominal ECG, fetal movement, photoplethysmogram (PPG) and phonocardiogram (PCG). National Instruments (NI) myRIO is employed for data acquisition and transmission of the acquired physiological signals wirelessly to a PC running NI LabViewsoftware for real-time signal visualization, processing and data logging. Various advanced signal processing algorithms like Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD), Variational Mode Decomposition(VMD), Empirical Wavelet Transform (EWT), Fast Independent Component Analysis (FastICA), etc. are utilized for preprocessing, decomposition and feature extraction process. To assist patients in efficient bio-telemonitoring of the vital information, we have also developed an Android-based smartphone application that syncs the data directly to the cloud which can be accessed by an authorized doctor for further medical supervision and diagnosis. This proposed noninvasive and realtime system is well suited for home-based health monitoring of pregnant women's living in remote and underprivileged parts of India.