Physiological measurement platform using wireless network with Android application

Currently, many people suffer from arrhythmia or hypoxia, which are abnormal health conditions. Arrhythmia occurs when a person has an irregular or abnormal heart rate, while hypoxia is realized when there is a deficiency in oxygen reaching the tissues. When a person suffers from arrhythmia, there is the possibility that the person has cardiovascular disease. A low oxygen level eventually leads to organ failure, which can result in death. To prevent such conditions, a mobile physiological measurement platform has been proposed in this paper. This system will continuously monitor the heart rate and the oxygen level of a patient. The proposed system is mainly beneficial because the medical staff or the caregiver can provide care to patients without being in close proximity. In this way, multiple numbers of patients can be treated by the physician at the same time. In this paper, two main physiological signals: the electrocardiogram (ECG) and the photoplethysmogram (PPG) are recorded, to measure the heart rate (in beats per minute) and the peripheral capillary oxygen saturation level or SpO2 (in percentage) of the patient. This is done by using a convenient graphical user interface (GUI) in the Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB). Pre-processing of the bio-medical signals is done in the GUI and the calculated results are saved as text files in the current directory of MATLAB. We further propose an Android application, which will display the physiological parameters after the text files have been accessed via a wireless network. The heart rate and the oxygen level can both be monitored via this application. In case the results show an abnormal reading, the physician is notified immediately via text messaging.