Nadi Yantra: A Robust System Design to Capture
the Signals from the Radial Artery for Non-
Invasive Diagnosis
Abhinav, Meghna Sareen, Mahendra Kumar, Sneh
Anand
Centre for Biomedical Engineering- IIT Delhi & AIIMS
Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi
New Delhi, India
Email: abhinav_cbme_iitd@hotmail.com
Abstract— Radial artery is one of the most significant arteries
for non-invasive diagnosis for ages. Ayurvedic and other
alternative medical practitioners throughout the world have been
diagnosing diseases and the organ at distress by feeling the
palpations at three close yet precise positions of the radial artery.
This paper presents a robust system Nadi Yantra1 that monitors
pressure variations from the points of interest for pulse diagnosis,
thereby eliminating subjective errors and overcomes the
limitation of mastering the art of pulse diagnosis with experience.
This system comprises of three identical piezo based sensors,
amplifier and filter circuit, a mechanical set-up and a data
acquisition system (BioPac-150TM) which captures the signal
from those three precise positions of the radial artery thereby
giving an objective approach to the science of pulse diagnosis.
Morphology of the waveforms obtained from our system concurs
with standard physiological arterial signals. Our technique
reveals subtle variations in real time that holds promise in
quantitative assessment of pulse. Advances over the earlier
systems are that Nadi Yantra allows recording for hours by an
automated external pressure on the three positions thereby
completely removing the potential for errors incurred when a
person does the job of applying pressure. The locking mechanism
significantly resists the motion artifacts as well. Repeatability,
reproducibility and stability of the system has been verified.
Signal processing techniques were applied to obtain
morphological features such as amplitude, power spectral
density, bandpower and spectral centroid to reflect variations in
signals from the three channels. Data acquired from the system
at three points gives unique information and can be used for
disease diagnosis.
Keywords- Radial artery, pulse diagnosis, amplitude, power spectral
density, bandpower,spectral centroid.
1-Nadi Yantra has been applied for patent(pending approval); Nadi
stands for Pulse and Yantra means Instrument.
I. INTRODUCTION
In ancient literatures, be it Ayurveda, Chinese, Unani, or
Greek, pulse based diagnosis has its own unparalleled
importance. The organ under distress is zeroed down by
978-1-4244-1748-3/08/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
Ashok Salhan*, Jayashree Santhosh**
DIPAS- Defence Research & Development
Organization*
Computer Services Centre- Indian Institute of
Technology - Delhi**
New Delhi, India
feeling the palpation from the three fingers (index, middle and
ring) placed on the radial artery. These pulsations dictate the
physiological status of the entire human body [3]. This is a
tedious and inconvenient process and hence it takes years of
practice to master this art [4]. As a result this approach is
subjective in nature.
Pulse has been ubiquitously accepted by modern clinicians as
well. They examine the pulse using the method of trisection
i.e. apply pressure until the pulse is maximal, and then vary
pressure while concentrating on the phases of the pulse. The
arterial pulse variants (for example pulsus alternans,
bisferiens pulse, bigeminal pulse) are basically used in
detecting cardiac disorders. However, alternative medicine
practitioners carefully examine pulses at different depths, each
connected with a specific part of the body and each believed to
register even the slightest physiological based changes.
Ayurveda meaning the 'science of life' believes that cosmos
comprises of five basic elements - air, water, earth, fire and
space. Human life is considered as a conglomeration of three
humors (Vata Pitta and Kapha), seven dhatus (tissues) and
three mains (waste products). According to ancient literatures,
any ailment in the body brings about a change in the
constitution of these humors. These changes are then sensed
by the fingers of a pulse examiner [6,7].
In this paper we discuss our device Nadi Yantra, the three
sensors of which simulate the human fingers to a large extent.
In section II the instrument has been explained in detail.
Section III describes the experiments conducted. The signal
processing aspect has been dealt with in Section IV along with
the results. Inferences are drawn in Section V.
II. THE INSTRUMENT-NADI YANTRA
There is a need for the development of a quantitative system
for pulse diagnosis [7]. Investigations have been attempted
globally to develop a system that replicates the human three-
finger method of pulse based diagnosis [8]. From the literature
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available and practical experiences we considered these points A standard pulse from the radial artery comprises of the
while devising Nadi Yantra-a mechanical-cum-electronic following waves: [9]
device: a)Percussion Wave
1. Signals have been captured for a very small span of b)Tidal Wave
time (1-2 minutes) in most of the cases. c)Dicrotic Wave
2. External pressure applied over the sensors varies d)Valley
while recording especially when a person holds them.
3. Motion artifacts become a reasonable consideration
when the recordings are for a longer duration of time.
4. The system should remain steady and errors should
not be incurred due to system malfunctioning. No
noise should disrupt the nature of the signal.

Nadi Yantra caters to all the above needs.

Fig 7
Fig 7: A standard signal from the radial artery.

The signal acquired by Nadi Yantra corresponds well with the

standard signal as shown below.
Fig 1 Fig 2 Fig3 (Note: No digital filters have been used to capture these raw
signals)
Fig 1: A practitioner evaluating the patient’s pulse.
Fig 2: Recording the Pulse using Nadi Yantra.
Fig 3: Signals (zoo med) as observed in the three channels.

In the mechanical design, we have tried to imitate the

practitioner’s fingers (Fig 1). The system has three finger like
projections whose positions can be played with at the tip
region to find out the best locations to capture the
signal. Springs attached to them help in damping thus
imitating the natural damping present due to muscles in the tip
region of the practitioner’s fingers (Fig 5).
Fig 8
Special care was taken for the proper resting of the subject’s
arm. Once the three best positions are found, they are locked Fig 8: Zoomed signal as acquired by Nadi Yantra.
with another hard spring fitting. This lock resists the motion
artifacts as well. Discrete increments in pressure are possible III. EXPERIMENTS
by changing the lock's position towards the slant side. (Fig 6).
The working of the system has been tested on over 100
people. We chose 5 healthy volunteers to carry out the whole
day analysis. Here we are showcasing the variations of an
individual when the signals were captured for the entire day.
The volunteer was asked to relax for some time and the system
was fixed on his wrist. The positions of the three sensors from
Fig 4 Fig 5 Fig 6 which the signals were acquired correspond with the humor
positions (Vata, Pitta and Kapha) in ayurvedic texts.
Fig 4: Flexibility of the system.
Fig 5: Simulation of fingers with the pressure sensors.
Fig 6: Lock mechanism for discrete pressure increment.
The control used in our analysis was the 20 sets of signals
captured from the same subject over a period of time prior to
In the electrical design, we used three identical piezo film lunch. The post lunch signals were compared with the control
based sensors to capture the waveform. The raw signal was signals and the results are shown below (Figs 9-12). Signals
filtered, amplified, and transferred to the computer using were recorded at 1245 hrs, 1315 hrs, 1355 hrs and 1705 hrs
BioPac 150TM (Signal Acquisition System) operated at a where lunch was administered at 1420 hrs.
sampling rate of 1000 samples per second.

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 Fig 9 Fig 10 Fig 11
Fig 18 Fig 19
Fig 9 : Signals captured at 1245 hrs.
Fig 10: Signals captured at 1315 hrs.
Fig 11: Signals captured at 1355 hrs.

It can be observed that the amplitude of the 1st channel rises

steadily prior to lunch and then falls post lunch. It can also be
seen that the amplitude of the signals from the 2nd and 3rd
channels rises post lunch (Figs 9-12).
Fig 20

Fig 18: FFT of the 1st channel after lunch

Fig 19: FFT of the 2nd channel after lunch
Fig 20: FFT of the 3rd channel after lunch

Fig 12 Fig 13 Fig 14

Fig 12: Signals captured at 1705 hrs.
Fig 13: Zoomed view of a portion of signals from Fig. 10.
Fig 14: Zoomed view of a portion of signals from Fig. 12.

IV. SIGNAL PROCESSING AND RESULTS

Fig 21 Fig 22
The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the three channels was
calculated before and after lunch (Figs 15-20). Further, the
Power Spectrum Density (PSD) calculated by a Fourier
Transform approach is shown in Figs 21-23.

Fig 15
Fig 17
Fig 15: FFT of the 1st channel before lunch
Fig 16: FFT of the 2nd channel before lunch
Fig 17: FFT of the 3rd channel before lunch
Fig 23
Fig 21: PSD of the signal acquired before lunch at 1315 hrs
Fig 22: PSD of the signal acquired before lunch at 1355 hrs
Fig 23: PSD of the signal acquired after lunch at 1705 hrs
Fig 16
It can be seen from the cumulative PSD plots that the signals
from the three channels have the same frequency components
in pre-lunch and post-lunch signals. The frequency peaks are
more in number in the signals before lunch as compared to
that after lunch. The magnitude of power in the 1st channel
increases as appetite increases from 1315 to 1355 hrs and then
falls post lunch at 1755 hrs. Thus, the dynamic properties of
the three signals (magnitude of power and frequency
information) change before lunch and after lunch. Further, a
30 minute post-lunch signal (1705 hrs) was divided into 6
segments of 5 minutes each and PSD for every segment was
calculated. It can be inferred that the magnitude of power in
the 2nd channel decreases and that of the 3rd channel increases
over time.

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Fig 24 Fig 25
Fig 26 Fig 27
Fig 28 Fig 29
Fig 24-29:PSD of a post-lunch signal divided into 6 segments.
Fig 30 Fig 31
Fig 30: Variation in Band power with segment
Fig 31: Variation in Spectral Centroid with segment
A post-lunch 30 minute signal was divided into 15 segments
of 2 minutes each and bandpower calculated for each segment.
The calculated bandpower is the area under the curve of a PSD
in the bandlimits 0.5-10 Hz, appropriate for arterial pulse
signals. It can be seen from Fig. 30 that bandpower for the 2nd
channel falls after lunch whereas bandpower for the 3rd
channel increases. Bandpower for the 1st channel remains
predominant.
Spectral centroid frequency commonly referred to as median
frequency was also calculated. It can be seen from Fig.31 that
the centroid frequency of the 2nd channel is higher than the 1st
and the 3rd channels.
V. CONCLUSION
There is enough evidence in ancient literature that there is not
a single disease in the human body which cannot be diagnosed
by examining the pulse. However, ancient medical
practitioners had to totally rely upon years of clinical
experience in order to come to any conclusive diagnosis.
Clinicians today have limited examination of the pulse to its
rate, rhythm and volume by virtue of which they hardly come
to a concrete diagnosis based upon pulse alone. If there could
be a system by which the radial pulse could be critically
examined just like the ancient ayurvedic practitioners and
others, it could be one of the most useful tools in the field of
non-invasive modern medical diagnosis of disease. From the
results in section IV, it can be seen that Nadi Yantra captures
the variations in the three channels. Thus it has potential to
objectively measure and display the changes occurring in the
radial artery in accordance with ayurvedic principles without
having to undergo subjective interpretations. Future research
will concentrate on the diagnosis of disease using the system
designed and correlation of signal features with the principles
of ancient medical sciences.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We would like to extend our thanks to Dr. Mitali Mukerji, Dr.
Bhavana Prasher, Dr. Shilpi Aggarwal and Dr. Tavpritesh
Sethi from the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology,
New Delhi and Mr. Nandakumar Selvaraj from CBME – IIT
Delhi for their support and encouragement.
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[5]V.Lad, Secrets of the pulse : The ancient art of Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis.
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[6]O. Lau and A. Chwang, Relationship between wrist pulse characteristics
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