Mervyn Larrier

a.

b. The pulse matches up with the peaks of the ECG.

c. While somewhat obscured when theyre shorter due to the increased noise, the R
peaks are still visible. The P-waves, however, are totally obscured.

Mervyn Larrier
d.
1. Active band-pass filter; c. OP2/LM358; iii. Removes baseline drift artifacts
2. Differential amplifier; a. AD623A ; v. Amplifies the difference between + and
inputs
3. Low-pass filter; e. Cf & Rf; ii. Removes noise artifacts
4. High-pass filter; d. Ci & Ri; iv. Amplifies and filters out noise and baseline drift
5. Voltage follower; b. OP1/LM358; i. Provides a stable reference voltage or driven
ground
e. When I remove the reference voltage lead, it appears if I died, because the graph
zeros out.

f. While the R peaks are just as visible as they are in plot a, albeit much more
exaggerated, the rest of the graph is completely obscured by noise, making it
impossible to determine the P-wave, the QRS complex, and the T-wave, along with
any of the associated intervals.

Mervyn Larrier
g. By bypassing the HPF we allow the graph to drift and then zero out. By bypassing
the HPF, the amplifier outputs as much or more current than it took in, thus the
amplifier is saturated. Because we are working with an inverting op-amp that is
saturated, we get the graph below.

h. When I flex my biceps an incredible amount of noise is generated, and it becomes

impossible to gather any information at all about the graph, save that it is noisy.

i. When I flex my pectoral, abdominal, or leg muscles, nothing happens. This leads
me to believe that interference can only come from the muscles directly interfacing
with the electrodes, in this case my biceps and the muscles in my forearm, and
muscles that interact with those muscles, such as the muscles controlling my
fingers.

Mervyn Larrier

j. When I hold my breath, the R-peaks decrease, indicating that my heart is trying to
ration blood thats carrying oxygen. When I begin breathing again, the peaks return
to normal amplitude.

Before:

During:

Mervyn Larrier

After

k. The R-peaks have a much higher amplitude, theres a little more noise and
theres a higher frequency in the plot overall.

l. Using the ECG, I could make a plot of my heart rate. I could then take the distance
between any R-peak and use that value to determine my instantaneous heart rate.