On Line Real Time Health Monitoring of ICU Patients using On Line Real Time Health Monitoring of ICU Patients using On Line Real Time Health Monitoring of ICU Patients using On Line Real Time Health Monitoring of ICU Patients using ARM7ARM7ARM7ARM7

Abstract Care of critically ill patient requires prompt & accurate

decisions so that life-protecting & lifesaving therapy can be

properly applied. Because of these requirements, ICUs have

become widely established in hospitals. Difficulty found in most

hospitals is that Expert has to frequently visit the patient &

asses his/her condition by measuring different parameters.

These systems works when there is any emergency by using

different wireless technologies. This paper is mainly based on

continuous monitoring aspect of ICU patients.

I have designed, developed a reliable, energy efficient patient

monitoring system. It is able to send parameters of patient in

real time. It enables the doctors to monitor patients parameters

(temp, heart beat , ECG) in real time using http protocol The

timely manner of conveying real time monitored parameter to

doctor is given highest priority. Hence On line Real time Health

monitoring is becoming popular for the ICU patients.

Keywords: Sensors, ARM7 microprocessor, GSM /GPRS

UART modem, HTTP protocol

1. Introduction

1.1. Problem definition:

Currently there are number of health monitoring systems

available for the ICU patients. All these systems works

mainly when there is any emergency occurs. It means

information is transmitted to server mainly when there is

any abnormality occurs. But main problem with these

systems is that it is not capable of transmitting data

continuously also range limitations of different wireless

technologies used in the systems .So to overcome these

limitations of systems I have proposed a new system

This system is able to transmit the parameters of patient

continuously and over long distance by establishing HTTP

Connection via GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)

1.2. Proposed system:

Projected system involves different sensors, ARM 7

microprocessor, GSM / GPRS UART modem .The sensors

continuously sense the parameters of ICU patient & send

to ARM 7 microprocessor. Processor converts these in to

digital form and then these parameters are transmitted to

server PC by establishing HTTP connection via GPRS

(General Packet Radio Service).

Fig.1 proposed system

Sensor 1 Sensor 2 Sensor 3 ARM 7 - TDMI

Processor

RS-232 GSM /GPRS

TTL UART

modem

Bed Side

PC / Local

PC

Patient in ICU To Server PC (Expert Doctor)

Sensor sense Physiological parameters

Sends real time on line data

Long Distance

2. Actually developed system:

The actual system is shown in figure. Here I have designed 3

sensors it uses temp, ECG, heart beat sensor. All the parameters

are continuously sensed by sensors and then send to processor. It

converts these parameters into digital form and then these

parameters are send to modem and by establishing http

communication (via GSM / GPRS ) using AT commands

transmitted to server PC .On server side I have developed

VB.Net application which downloads all the data which is

transmitted. And then display these parameters in the form of

waveforms.

Fig2. Actually developed system

3. Designing:

The designing part includes basically three sections as follows,

� Hardware design

� Ready to use hardware modules

� Software design

3.1 Hardware design: It includes Power supply design, Temperature sensor, Heart beat

sensor, Electrocardiograph sensor and RS-232 connector circuit

3.1.1 Power supply circuit: The hardware of project requires different power supplies.

5 v: for temperature sensor circuit, heartbeat circuit, RS 232

connector circuit.

3.3 v: for ARM 7 TDMI microprocessor.

+/- 9 v: for ECG sensor circuit.

I have designed 5 v power supply using bridge rectifier,

regulator IC 7805 and a filter. This 5 v supply I have given to

the IC 1117 It is a 3.3 v regulator IC .This IC takes 5 v as a

input and gives 3.3 v as its output which is then given to the

ARM 7 microprocessor.

I also designed another power supply which is required for

modem; it is also 5 v supply, with high power and high current

capability.

3.1.2 Hear Beat sensor:

Fig.3 Heart beat sensor

For Heart Beat Sensor I am using IC LM 358.Its dual low power

operational amplifier Licit consists of a super bright red LED

and light detector. LED needs to be super bright as the light

must pass through finger and detected at other end. When heart

pumps a pulse of blood through blood vessels, finger becomes

slightly more opaque so less light reached at the detector. With

each heart pulse detector signal varies this variation is converted

to electrical pulse.

3.1.3 Temperature sensor:

Fig.4 Temperature sensor

For temperature sensor circuit, I am using LM35 its Precision

Centigrade Temperature Sensor. LM35 series are precision

integrated-circuit temperature sensors, whose output voltage is

linearly proportional to Celsius temperature.LM35 is rated to

operate over a −55° to +150°C temperature range. This is a 3

pin IC input, output and ground pin.

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Display of All Sensed

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3.1.4 Electrocardiograph sensor: For ECG I am using IC AD624AD it’s a precision

Instrumentation Amplifier IC. The amplifier takes the input

from 3 Leads / electrodes which are connected to the patient.

The lead arrangement is as shown in fig.

Fig.5 ECG sensor

Fig.6 Lead placement

3.1.5 RS-232 connector circuit: This connector is a serial port connector. It is used to connect

the hardware to the modem. It is used to send the sensed

parameters from patient to the modem, which then transmits all

the parameters to the server PC via http protocol via GPRS.

Another RS 232 connector is used to download the code into

processor.

Fig.7 RS-232 connector

3.2 Ready to use hardware modules:

For this section I am using modem which is readily

available in market by rhydolabz and using 9 v power

supplies for ECG circuit.

3.2.1 GSM/GPRS UART modem: It is built with Quad Band GSM/GPRS engine, works on 850 /

900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz. Frequency band can be set by AT

commands. The Modem is coming with RS232 interface, which

allows you connect PC as well as microcontroller with

MAX232. The baud rate is configurable from 9600-115200

through AT command. Modem is having internal TCP/IP stack

to enable you to connect with internet via GPRS. It is suitable

for SMS, Voice as well as DATA transfer application in M2M

interface. Using this modem, you can make audio calls, SMS,

Read SMS; attend the incoming calls and internet through

simple AT commands. This module connects to specific

application and air interface. It is integrated with HTTP

protocol. AT commands are developed to use HTTP protocol

easily which will be very useful for those data transfer

applications.

Fig.8 SIM 900 modems.

3.3 Software Design: This includes the coding of ARM 7 processor and coding for

downloading of data and for GUI (Graphical User Interface) on

server side.

For HTTP : AT+ commands

For ARM 7: Embedded c using Keil software.

For GUI : VB.Net

3.3.1 for HTTP: For http communication establishment and for data transfer I am

using AT commands. These are used in coding of ARM 7

processor. HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol.

It is a TCP/IP based communication protocol which is used to

deliver virtually all files and other data, collectively called

resources, on the World Wide Web.

A browser is works as an HTTP client because it sends requests

to an HTTP server which is called Web server. The Web Server

then sends responses back to the client. It is the protocol used

for the web. It is based on a request/request paradigm.SIM900

has an embedded TCP/IP stack that is driven by AT commands

and enables the host application to easily access the Internet

HTTP service.

Steps to be followed to data transfer:

STEP 1: Set the bearer profile.

STEP2: To open GPRS context.

STEP 3: HTTP POST method

STEP 4: Post the data

STEP 5: Post sessions start

STEP 6: Post successfully

3.3.2 for GUI: For graphical user interface I am using Visual studio 2008. I

have designed a GUI using VB.Net .On the server side the code

is developed. This code generates a GUI which includes blocks

for ECG, Temp & HB, and no. of samples; connect GPRS,

Received data, system error message.

3.3.3For ARM 7: The ARM7TDMI-S is a general purpose 32-bit microprocessor,

offers high performance and very low power consumption. ARM

architecture is based on RISC principles, instruction set and

related decode mechanism are simpler than CISC Pipeline

techniques employed ARM Pprocessor supports both 32-bit and

16-bit instructions via the ARM and Thumb instruction sets.

Fig.9 Flowchart of code

ARM 7 having Various 32-bit timers, single or dual 10-bit 8

channel ADC(s), 10-bit DAC, PWM channels and 47 GPIO

lines with up to 9 edge or level sensitive external interrupt pins

make these microcontrollers particularly suitable for industrial

control and medical systems, CPU Clock unto 60MHz

I am using LPC 2148 IC for ARM7.For microprocessor I am

using Keil software. The coding includes different steps as

shown in flowchart.

4. Results

The result of this project includes results of compilation,

sensors and GUI. The compilation of C code is done using

Micro Vision Keil software and indicated the generation

of Hex file. The sensor results are generated at different

conditions like normal, after running, after wake up etc.

Reas Data from Port Pins of ARM

7 processor (TEMP, HB, ECG)

Using HTTTP POST method sends

all the data to UART buffer.

Data is sent in packet form, to

server PC.

Check the data on SERVER PC in

the form of WAVEFORMS

(Server PC uses VB based

Make array of the data which is read

by sensors.

A

START

Initialization of all ports of ARM

7 microprocessor

Initialization of UART, ADC

channels

Initialization of SIM 900 Modem

Initialization of GPRS for Modem

A

Initialization of HTTP

communication for Modem

4.1Results of ARM7 code compilation:

4/23/2012 On Line Real Time Monitoring

Fig.10

4.2 Result of Temp & HB Sensors:

Fig.11

5 Final Hardware modules:

Fig.12 Complete designed hardware

6. Future modification or enhancement:

There is always chance to improve any system as research &

development is an endless process. Our system is no exception

to this phenomenon.

The following measurements can be done in future

� Blood pressure

� Pulse oximetry

� Galvanic-Skin Resistance

� Amenia

� WEBCAM technology can visualize patient situations

In future

We can design a system which works in two ways, that means

when the expert receives the data in the form of waveform, after

observing these waveforms the expert will suggest or prescribe

the drug for that situation or condition of patient.

7. Conclusions

From the above designed project I can conclude that we are able

to transmit the data which is sensed from ICU patient to the

server PC by establishing http communication to server via

GPRS .The data is transmitted to server in real time, but if there

is any network error or GPRS error then the data transmission

might be get delayed. We can also check the data transmission

and data downloading status on hyper terminal. So that we can

remove the error if any.

The leads of the ECG sensor must be stick properly to the

patient, which is nearest to the chest side of patient. So that we

get more and more correct ECG.

References [1]IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL CIRCUITS

AND SYSTEMS, VOL. 4, NO. 1, FEB 2010 11 An Energy-

Efficient ASIC for Wireless Body Sensor Networks in Medical

Applications Xiao yu Zhang, Hanjun Jiang, Member, IEEE,

Lingwei Zhang, Chun Zhang, Zhihua Wang, Senior Member,

IEEE, and Xinkai Chen

[2]Design and Implementation of Wireless Biomedical Sensor

Networks for ECG Home Health Monitoring ‘08 International

Conference on Electronic Design December 1-3,2008, Penang,

Malaysia Rozeha A. Rashid, Mohd Rozaini Abd Rahim, Mohd

Adib Sarijari, Nurhija Mahalin

[3]2011 International Conference on Information and Network

Technology IACSIT Press, Singapore Remote Patient

Monitoring- An Implementation in ICU Ward Arun E 1+,

Marimuthu V2, Pradeep E3 ,Karthikeyan M4

[4]Wireless Transmission Design for Health Monitoring at

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Wei Chen1, Son Tung Nguyen1,

Roland Coops1 1. Department of Industrial Design,Eindhoven

University of Technology, Den Dolech 2, 5612 AZ, Eindhoven

Netherlands,Sidarto Bambang Oetomo1,2, Loe Feijs1

[5] TRG wireless ECG sensor for mesical Heathcare Application

by Nor Syahidatual nadiah Ismail , Sharifah H.S. Ariffin and