DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A LOW - COST PORTABLE VITALS

MONITORING DEVICE.

BY

JACOB CHIGODI TSIMBA

D/MET/19001//084

A Trade Project Submitted to the Department of Medical Engineering in Partial Fulfilment for

the Requirement of the Award of Diploma in Medical Engineering of Kenya Medical Training

College

2022
 CERTIFICATION

The undersigned certify that they have read through, understood and recommended to the

department of medical engineering and technology for acceptance of the dissertation entitled

Internal supervisor

Name: Signature………………… Date…………………

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 DECLARATION
This project is a result of an independent investigation and contribution by others has been duly
acknowledged.

I hereby declare that this project is my original work and has never been presented in any other
institution for academic qualification.

Name: JACOB CHIGODI TSIMBA Signature: ……………………. Date……

Student No.: D/MET/19001/084

Supervisor Name: Signature: ……………………. Date……

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 DEDICATION

I dedicate this work to my family for the endless support, love and encouragement that kept me

going to the completion of this work. May God bless you all.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I thank God for his grace, sustenance and providence that has seen me through this project

successfully.

My sincere gratitude to my cousin brother, Omar Ndawa for your guidance and support. Your

encouragement has been a pillar of strength.

I am extremely grateful to my supervisors, for their valuable advice, suggestions, criticism and

encouragement that they gave me during this period.

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 Table of Contents
CERTIFICATION.............................................................................................................................................i
DECLARATION..............................................................................................................................................ii
DEDICATION................................................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.................................................................................................................................iv
LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................................vii
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................................viii
LIST OF SYMBOLS........................................................................................................................................ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS...................................................................................................x
OPERATIONAL DEFINATIONS.....................................................................................................................xii
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................................xiii
CHAPTER ONE..............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Problem Statement............................................................................................................................2
1.3 Broad Objective.................................................................................................................................2
1.3.1 Specific Objectives......................................................................................................................2
1.4 Justification of the Study...................................................................................................................2
1.5 Limitations.........................................................................................................................................2
1.6 Assumptions......................................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER TWO.............................................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................3
2.1 Related work:.....................................................................................................................................6
2.1.1 Proposed IoT-Body Temperature Monitoring System................................................................7
2.1.2 Proposed Framework of Body Temperature Monitoring of IPD.................................................7
2.1.3 Temperature Monitoring Importance.........................................................................................7
CHAPTER THREE..........................................................................................................................................9
DESIGN METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................................................9
3.0 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................9
3.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF A VITALS MONITOURING DEVICE.....................................................................9
3.1.1 Power Supply..............................................................................................................................9
3.1.2 Arduino UNO............................................................................................................................10
3.1.3 MAX30102 sensor.....................................................................................................................11

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 3.1.4 Push Button..............................................................................................................................14
3.1.5 LCD Module..............................................................................................................................15
3.1.6 SD Card Module........................................................................................................................16
3.1.7 GY-906 IR Contactless Temperature Sensor Module................................................................17
3.2 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF A BIOMETRIC DOOR LOCK SYSTEM..............................................................18
3.2.1 Principle Operation of the Circuit.............................................................................................19
3.2.2 Components used.....................................................................................................................20
CHAPTER FOUR..........................................................................................................................................21
4.1 TEST RESULTS...................................................................................................................................21
CHAPTER FIVE............................................................................................................................................22
5.1 DISCUSSION.....................................................................................................................................22
5.2 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................22
5.3 RECOMMENDATION........................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................23
APPENDICES..............................................................................................................................................24
APPENDIX I: WORK PLAN.......................................................................................................................24
APPENDIX II: LIST OF COMPONENTS AND THEIR PRICES.......................................................................25

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 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE: APPENDIX 1...................................................................................................................................................25

TABLE: APPENDIX 2...................................................................................................................................................26

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1.0: Block diagram of A Biometric Door Lock System.................................................9

Figure 3.1.1: Lithium battery..................................................................................................10
Figure 3.1.2: Arduino UNO diagram.......................................................................................11
Figure 3.1.3(a): MAX30102 Sensor.........................................................................................12
Figure 3.1.3(b): How MAX30102 sensor works......................................................................13
Figure 3.1.3(c): A cross-section of a fingerprint scanner........................................................13
Figure 3.1.4: Control push button..........................................................................................15
Figure 3.1.5(a): 20x4 LCD screen............................................................................................15
Figure 3.1.5(b): 20x4 LCD screen............................................................................................16
Figure 3.1.6: Micro SD Card Reader Module..........................................................................17
Figure 3.1.7: GY-906 IR Contactless Temperature Sensor Module........................................17
Figure 3.2: Circuit diagram of the system..............................................................................18

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 LIST OF SYMBOLS

SYMBOLS NAME

- Resistor

- LED

- Ground

- Voltage Regulator

ix
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

SD - Secure Digital

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display

ROM – Read Only Memory

DSP – Digital Signal Processors

RAM – Random Access Memory

AVR - Automatic Voltage Regulator

RISC – Reduced Instruction Set Computer

MHz - Megahertz

CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

KB – Kilo Bytes

LED – Light Emitting Diode

UART – Universal Asynchronous Receiver-Transmitter

DCS – Distributed Control System

RFID – Radio-Frequency Identification

UHF – Ultra-High Frequency

USB – Universal Serial Bus

ICSP – In-Circuit Serial Programming

PWM – Pulse Width Modulation

SRAM – Static Random-Access Memory

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EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

IDE - Integrated Development Environment

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 OPERATIONAL DEFINATIONS
Arduino - This is an open-source hardware and software company project, and user community
that designs and manufactures single board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building
digital devices.

Read Only Memory – Refers to computer memory chips containing permanent data.

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory – This is user modifiable read only
memory (ROM) that allows users to erase and reprogram stored data repeatedly in an
application.

Random Access Memory – This is a form of computer memory that can be read and changed in
any order, typically used to store working data and machine code.

Digital Signal Processors – They take real world signals like voice, audio, video, temperature,
pressure, or position that have been digitized and then mathematically manipulate them.

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 ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the Internet of Things (IoT) projects are very popular and they are developed for

numerous fields. In order to detect various medical problems on time, it is required to monitor

the subjects either human or non-human. This could be used on regular or specific activities, like

sport or work. It is necessary to determine the factors that could lead to medical problems.

Another important aspect is to quantify the factors, to monitor them, to collect data and to make

the proper interpretation. This could be achieved using dedicated sensors, controlled by an

application embedded on a development board. When a dangerous value is reached, the system

has to inform the subject (if human) or someone else (if non-human). Nevertheless, the IoT

comes with a lot of limitations such as the need for the users and their devices to always be

online, plus the challenges that come along with the use of Internet; like the availability of

internet coverage in different locations, the possibility of hackers interfering with the devices'

communication systems, battery usage, the fact that the users need to be conversant with the IoT

technology and generally the costly nature of the devices availability and usage, just to mention

but a few. Due to the mentioned limitations and many others discussed herein, we were thinking

about the opportunity to design an inexpensive portable device to be used for continuous oxygen

concentration and body temperature monitoring for humans and non-humans, while eliminating

the need for internet access. This paper presents an Arduino based project used for monitoring

the vital signs for human and non-human and the results based on its usage. The paper details the

hardware and software components of this project.

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 CHAPTER ONE

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Vital signs are very important in detecting and monitoring various medical problems from early
stages because they show the quality of the basic functions of the body, indicating the general
status of a person’s physical health. The acceptable values may vary depending on multiple
factors, like the person’s sex, age, weight, medical background, life style, geographical location,
and so on. The medical theory is consistently pointing out four primary vital signs: body
temperature, pulse, blood pressure and respiratory rate. Vitals can be very useful for prevention,
while the pain must be considered a sign of an already existing illness. The body temperature and
pulse are showing a general view over a person’s health condition, while the respiratory rate and
blood pressure are highly specialized indicating potential respiratory dysfunctions or heart failure
risks. This is the main reason why the most important vital signs are considered to be the body
temperature (BT), and the pulse, also called heart rate (HR), so the continuous monitoring
appears to be a must. Arduino-based development platforms are very popular for the
development of such systems due their low price and capabilities, being easily programmed and
integrated. One important aspect for this solution is the dimension, having in mind that such a
device could be used by humans or non-humans. The paper is structured as follows. The
sections Human Vitals and Vital Signs for Non-Human presents the main factors that can be
monitored in order to detect signs of illness or infection for human, respectively non-human. The
section Hardware Design describes the proposed Arduino-based solution for monitoring the vital
signs on human or non-human. Software Design deals with the software component of the
proposed system. The results are presented in Findings and Results section. The paper ends with
conclusion and future work.

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1.2 Problem Statement

Some disease and disorder such as heart disease require constant monitoring to enable fast
response if incident occurs. For instance, ventricular tachycardia is one of the types of
arrhythmias that needs continual long-term monitoring. In emergency at home for example,
where the patients could not help themselves or seek help, there is a need for long distance health
monitoring for early and faster response for treatment. This device facilitates frequent and faster
monitoring of Spo2 and temperature which is stored for later check by the physician.

1.3 Broad Objective

Construction of a low - cost portable vitals monitoring device.

1.3.1 Specific Objectives.

1. To use Arduino UNO as my microcontroller.

2. To display values of temperature and oxygen concentration.
3. To store data taken in a SD card module.
4. To make the device portable.

1.4 Justification of the Study

Monitoring of vital signs like the body temperature and oxygen level sp02 has been a major
problem in hospitals. This device facilitates frequent monitoring of the patient’s temperature and
oxygen concentration easily and records the patient’s data in a SD card.

1.5 Limitations

The name of the patient, date and time when the measurement was taken is not displayed on the
data.

1.6 Assumptions

It is assumed that the readings monitored are accurate.

It is assumed values will be retrieved immediately after being taken.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

Patient monitors are tools used to monitor a patient's condition. This device records and displays
the results of the patient's condition. The monitoring process is carried out in real-time so that the
patient's physiological conditions can be identified at that time. The parameters that can be
displayed in patient monitors include "ECG, Respiration Rate, Blood Pressure or Non-Invasive
Blood Pressure (NIBP), oxygen levels in SpO2 blood, Temperature, and in addition to Invasive
Blood Pressure (IBP). This study designed a tool that is able to monitor the patient's condition
including ECG, BPM, Respiration Rate, Body Temperature, SpO2. SpO2 using photodiode as an
optical sensor to capture light from an Infrared LED. The signal produced by the photodiode is a
natural signal from the body with a small frequency that mixes with noise. While to monitor
body temperature using the infrared temperature sensor. To the knowledge of researchers, the
level of monitoring of physiological parameters in patients treated is still not maximal. Nurses
are still monitoring patients with direct contact; this is feared to cause high rates of transmission
of the disease to nurses. This makes handling patients less effective. Therefore, the author wants
to design a module "PATIENT MONITOR WITH TWO DISPLAYS (SpO2 and Temperature)"
In a previous study this tool had been made by (Raden Duta Ikrar Abadi, 2016) entitled
"Monitoring Heart Rate, Respiration Rate equipped with a Temperature Sensor to a Personal
Computer using Bluetooth)". Which is capable of displaying BPM values, Respiration Rate, and
Body Temperature, then developed by (Muhammad Alimul Husni ,2017) entitled "Patient
Monitor PC Display (SpO2 and BPM)" which adds SpO2 and ECG. However, this tool still does
not have the appearance and parameters that we will make, namely with the Character LCD
display and adding Respiration Rate and Temperature parameters. Based on the identification of
the above problems, the objective of this paper is to design a patient monitor with two
parameters (SpO2 and Temperature). this is a refinement of the design that has been made by the
previous study. Several types of digital pulse measuring devices were found. Most of the designs
were based on microcontroller. One such paper by (Laghrouche et al.) claimed the design of a
low-cost microcontroller and medical sensor node-based device for concurrent measurement of
the arterial blood’s oxygen saturation level and heart rate that can be used by the general people
at home easily and safely. Though they claimed it is a low-cost device but the cost analysis and

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cost comparison are not shown. Measurement data were not compared with that of the standard
device. It was also claimed that the device is small-sized and lightweight, has the capability of
wireless signal transmission, standardized signal processing, and data processing. However, this
is not shown in detail in their paper. Another paper described the implementation of an oxygen
meter that connects an oximeter to the smartphone through the headset jack audio interface and
verifies the system via a simulator for auto authentication of the sensor interface smartphones.
The results of both oxygen saturation level and heartbeat rate matched remarkably based on
simulation and experiments by the designed oximeter over a wide range of optical spectrum on
various types of the 4th and 5th generations of the iPod Touch and iPhone devices. However,
these iPhones or iPods are expensive devices and are not used by the mass people of a middle-
income country like Bangladesh. Another research article intended to design an oximeter to
monitor human health parameters like oxygen saturation level in real-time. The authors tried to
use the best method to achieve a good accuracy of their results for both heart rate and SPO2
considering the reliability. They tested copious MCU based ARM cortex 32-bit and different
sensors and methods and then compared it with the results taken from the literature. However,
they did not explain why this method is reliable and how reliable it is. A solar-powered pulse
oximeter is proposed in research work to utilize solar energy for the device to increase the
lifespan of the device, make it eco-friendly and cost-effective. Additionally, the device was
interfaced with the Internet of Things (IoT) technology to monitor and alert the data of the blood
oxygen saturation level from any remote place and also to update the monitoring device in real-
time. Hence, the doctor can keep track of and monitor the patient’s condition. The device was
designed with the MAX30102 model by using the Eagle software. However, this paper did not
show any cost analysis. Due to the enhanced features, its cost must be higher. Some other
researchers evaluated the use of red and infrared-reflective PPG to extract the pulse oximetry and
respiration data at eight anatomical locations of the human body at rest and during walking. They
inferred that if the heart rate and SpO2 data are measured at the lowest possible location of the
human body’s skin, then the most accurate results may be obtained subject to the condition that
there is an insignificant movement of the contact between the sensor and the skin. They aimed to
find an optimum anatomical location on the human body from where a reflective PPG sensor
would detect and record accurately the three most important physiological parameters, such as
heart rate, SpO2, and respiration, at rest and during walking. Their sensor took roughly 1 cm2 of

4
the body area. To measure the two important physiological parameters like blood oxygen
saturation and pulse measurement, two other researchers used a near-infrared portable tissue
oximeter with a detection module based on STM32 microprocessor to obtain the oxygen
saturation (SpO2) level from the human body non-invasively. Continuous-wave spectrometers
provided the semi-quantitative changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin in small
blood vessels like arterioles, capillaries, and venules. After obtaining the values, the portable
device can send the data to the smartphones of the coaches or doctors who are at remote places
via GPRS/Wi-Fi/Zigbee networks. The values can be displayed as per the need of the users. The
signal produced due to the blood oxygen saturation data.

fluctuation is sensed by the detection module and is sent to the STM32 microprocessor to
processes it by the expert decision-making system to deliver accurate data to the coaches and
doctors. Their test results and measured data were found very accurate and stable. Digital Signal
Processing (DSP) based power electronics systems are being designed and implemented. Now,
this technique was found to be applied in detecting important physiological information, like
ECG signals to observe it in the monitor to assist the physicians or cardiologists. Besides, the
DSP hardware-based system has been designed and implemented with memory, display system,
and analog interfacing circuit. This type of system with DSP can operate as stand-alone and to
update the data in real-time according to the onboard pre-program algorithm for ECG analysis.
So, this processor can also be extended for designing the pulse oximeter machine. But in several
research articles, it has been found that the microcontroller-based circuit can reduce the overall
system costs in the case of several biomedical applications. The system contains an Arduino
microcontroller, a pulse oxygen sensor, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) unit, and a DC power
supply unit. We would like to design the circuit in Proteus and then implement the whole system
and measure the pulse oxygen saturation level. MAX30100 Arduino library function is used to
convert the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) value to get the oxygen saturation level in
percentage. The MAX30100 is an IC for pulse oximetry. It can monitor the heart-rate and pulse
level. It comprises two LEDs and a photodetector, and it blends the optimized optics and low
noise analog signal processing techniques to sense the signals related to the pulse oxygen
saturation level and heart-rate of the human body. The MAX30100 IC can be operated from
1.8V and 3.3V power supplies; however, the maximum power supplies are 2V and 5V
respectively for these two voltage levels while it draws a current of 0.6 mA and 1.2 mA

5
respectively at both SpO2 and heart rate modes. Also, its power can be lowered using software
with insignificant backup current, allowing the power supply to continue linked to the circuit
always. The DC power supply unit of 5V supplies the required current to the microcontroller,
pulse oximetry sensor, and the LCD unit that has 2 lines each having 16 characters

2.1 Related work:

The application of remote health monitoring is still new in Thailand and many other countries.
Some papers researched health monitoring; (Sumit M. and et al.) innovated wearable sensors for
remote health monitoring. They have researched the remote health monitoring systems on
physiological parameters and activity monitoring systems—moreover, (Tamilselvi. V and et al.)
have studied the IoT-based health monitoring system. Their proposed system was specially
designed for actual-time monitoring of the health parameters of the coma sufferers. The
technologies used in this system were GSM and IoT to recognize the patient's condition. The
parameters studied were temperature, heartbeat, eye blink, and peripheral capillary oxygen
saturation (SPOS). Those parameters were detected using sensors for fetching the patient's body
temperature, coronary heart rate, eye movement, and oxygen saturation percentage. Similarly,
(N. Saowakhon and et al.) also studied the development of IoT heartbeat and body temperature
monitoring systems for community health volunteers. The device uses Arduino that connects to
the heartbeat and temperature sensors with the data connection to the Thing Speak IoT platform
in real-time through an internet network. Many works were researched the health parameters of a
patient using remote monitoring. Similarly, M. Goncalo and P. Rui have studied a non-contact
infrared temperature acquisition system based on the internet of things for laboratory activities
monitoring. The temperature monitoring inside the building was the proposition that needs to
solve the problem. The iRT non-contact temperature sensor was used for a data acquisition
system based on IoT, which was designed to be a cost-effective solution. Their work was similar
to the proposed contactless body temperature monitoring of IPD via an IoT network because the
iRT non-contact infrared was used. However, the proposed work uses non-contact infrared
temperature sensor MLX90614-DCI with a long distance from 1 cm up to 50 cm supported
medical tool promotion during COVID-19 spreading because it can be safe the medical doctor
and medical personnel as well.

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2.1.1 Proposed IoT-Body Temperature Monitoring System

The contactless body temperature monitoring of IPD via the IoT network proposes to use in a
hospital during the COVID-19 situation. The concept was not complicated using a non-contact
infrared temperature sensor embedded with an ESP32-IoT module.

2.1.2 Proposed Framework of Body Temperature Monitoring of IPD

The related studies of "Contactless body temperature monitoring of IPD via the IoT network"
were reviewed. This Section presents the overall system that designed and developed an
embedded system using an infrared temperature sensor that works with an IoT-Wifi controller on
the NodeMCU ESP32 board. The detected data will be transferred to users via the internet The
system was designed to embed the software programming according to the user's requirements.
The monitoring module for IPD using IoT network uses innovative embedded medical sensor
and smart monitor applied in conjunction with the IoT technology. The information can be
viewed at any time, and it alerts when something goes wrong. The information data will be
stored on the cloud network, which is a storage system on the internet). The highlight of this
innovation is storing data in real-time, and it can be browsed through the online internet system
with the notification system. Therefore, this prototype improves hospital management and
patient care because it can reduce infection risk from working in a risky area network, and it will
be stored on a cloud internet system.

2.1.3 Temperature Monitoring Importance

The importance of clinical temperature measurement is traced back to the times of Hippocrates.
At that time, hands were used to estimate the heat or cold of a human body. The first physician to
use a thermometer at his patients' bedside is considered to be Hermann Boerhaave in the 16th
century. Sir Thomas Allbutt invented in 1867 the first practical medical thermometer used for
taking the temperature. It was portable, 6 inches in length, and able to record a patient's
temperature in 5 min. Many devices were developed for temperature measurement. One of the
most common devices for measuring temperature is the glass thermometer which uses the
thermal expansion properties of a liquid (spirits, mercury). Modern thermometers are based on
semiconductor temperature sensors and are capable of taking a measurement in 5 to 10 s.
Temperature sensors are available from different manufacturers. A sensor needs to be selected
based on size, accuracy, type of output (analog or digital), power consumption, sensor price, and,
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for digital sensors, the choice of I2C or SPI communication protocol. 7 For this project, a low-
cost temperature sensor, the TMP121 from Texas Instruments (TI), Dallas, Texas, with ± 1.5 °C
accuracy and with the 0.0625 °C resolution was selected. For continuous monitoring, body
tracking temperature variation is more important than accuracy. Body temperature varies based
on gender and on different locations on the body

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 CHAPTER THREE

DESIGN METHODOLOGY

3.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter entails; block diagram of a low-cost portable vitals monitoring device and its circuit
diagram operation.

3.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF A VITALS MONITOURING DEVICE.

Figure 3.1.0: Block diagram of A Biometric Door Lock System.

3.1.1 Power Supply

The Arduino UNO can be powered via the USB connection or with an external power supply.
The power source is selected automatically.
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The board can operate on an external supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less than 7V,
however, the 5V pin may supply less than five volts and the board may be unstable. If using
more than 12V, the voltage regulator may overheat and damage the board. The recommended
range is 7 to 12 volts.

In my case I decided to use 2 lithium 9V batteries connected in series to produce a total of 18V
which I regulated to 12V using a LM7812 voltage regulator.

Figure 3.1.1: Lithium battery

3.1.2 Arduino UNO

Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board, developed by Arduino.cc, based on the Atmega328
microcontroller
3.1.2.1 OVERVIEW
Arduino UNO is a very valuable addition in electronics that consists of a USB interface, 14
digital I/O pins (of which 6 Pins are used for PWM), 6 analog pins and an Atmega328
microcontroller. It also supports 3 communication protocols named Serial, I2C and SPI protocol.

 Operating Voltage - 5V
 Input Voltage (recommended) - 7-12V
 Input Voltage (limits) - 6-20V
 Digital I/O Pins - 14
 Analog Input Pins - 6 (A0 to A5)
 DC Current per I/P Pin - 40mA
 DC Current for 3.3V Pin - 50mA

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  Flash Memory - 32 KB of which 0.5 KB used by boot loader
 SRAM - 2 KB
 EEPROM - 1 KB
 Clock Speed - 16 MHz

Figure 3.1.2: Arduino UNO diagram

3.1.3 MAX30102 sensor.

The module features the MAX30102 – a modern (the successor to the MAX30100), integrated
pulse oximeter and heart rate sensor IC, from Analog Devices. It combines two LEDs, a
photodetector, optimized optics, and low-noise analog signal processing to detect pulse oximetry
(SpO2) and heart rate (HR) signals. Behind the window on one side, the MAX30102 has two
LEDs – a RED and an IR LED. On the other side is a very sensitive photodetector. The idea is
that you shine a single LED at a time, detecting the amount of light shining back at the detector,
and, based on the signature, you can measure blood oxygen level and heart rate.

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Figure 3.1.3(a): MAX30102 Sensor

 Power supply 3.3V to 5.5V

 Current draw ~600μA (during measurements) ~0.7μA (during standby mode)
 Red LED Wavelength 660nm
 IR LED Wavelength 880nm
 Temperature Range -40˚C to +85˚C
 Temperature Accuracy ±1˚C

How MAX30102 sensor works

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Figure 3.1.3(b): How MAX30102 sensor works
The MAX30102 works by shining both lights onto the finger or earlobe (or essentially anywhere
where the skin isn’t too thick, so both lights can easily penetrate the tissue) and measuring the
amount of reflected light using a photodetector. This method of pulse detection through light is
called Photoplethysmogram.

The working of MAX30102 can be divided into two parts: Heart Rate Measurement and Pulse
Oximetry (measuring the oxygen level of the blood).

Figure 3.1.3(c): A cross-section of a fingerprint scanner

Pulse oximetry is based on the principle that the amount of RED and IR light absorbed varies
depending on the amount of oxygen in your blood. The following graph is the absorption-
spectrum of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (Hb).

13
As you can see from the graph, deoxygenated blood absorbs more RED light (660nm), while
oxygenated blood absorbs more IR light (880nm). By measuring the ratio of IR and RED light
received by the photodetector, the oxygen level (SpO2) in the blood is calculated.

3.1.4 Push Button

The push button is used in the device to reset it in case of values resetting. It’s connected to the
reset pin of the Arduino

Figure 3.1.4: Control push button

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3.1.5 LCD Module

A Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen is an electronic display module that uses liquid crystal to
produce a visible image. The 20x4 LCD display is a very basic module commonly used in
circuits that translates or displays 20 characters per line in 2 such lines. In this LCD each
character is displayed in a 5×7-pixel matrix.

LCD modules form a very important in many Arduinos based embedded system designs to
improve the user interface of the system. Interfacing with Arduino gives the programmer more
freedom to customize the code easily. Any Arduino board, a 20x4 LCD display, jumper wires
and a breadboard are sufficient enough to build the circuit. In this circuit it is interfaced with
Arduino Mega to enable or guide the user on how to operate the device. The figure below shows
a LCD module.

Figure 3.1.5(a): 20x4 LCD screen

In this project we have combined the lcd module with an i2c. I2C_LCD is an easy-to-use display
module that make it easier to display. Using it can reduce the difficulty of make, so that makers
can focus on the core of the work. It enables the programmer to have just need a few lines of the
code to achieve complex graphics and text display features. The module has a contrast
adjustment pot on the underside of the display. This may require adjusting for the screen to
display text correctly. It has an inbuilt PCF8574 I2C chip that converts I2C serial data to parallel
data for the LCD display. Figure 3.1.5(b) shows an i2c adapter

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Figure 3.1.5(b): 20x4 LCD screen

3.1.6 SD Card Module

The micro- SD Card Module is a simple solution for transferring data to and from a standard SD
card. The pin out is directly compatible with Arduino, but can also be used with other
microcontrollers. It allows you to add mass storage and data logging to your project.

This module has SPI interface which is compatible with any SD card and it use 5V or 3.3V
power supply which is compatible with Arduino UNO/Mega.

SD module has various applications such as data logger, audio, video, graphics. This module
greatly expands the capability of an Arduino with their poor limited memory. In this project after
the buttons activate the loops for scanning, adding new user or close the door, the SD card log
print the data after each loop and we can read the data.

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Figure 3.1.6: Micro SD Card Reader Module

3.1.7 GY-906 IR Contactless Temperature Sensor Module

Contactless Temperature Sensor Module is an infrared thermometer for use with Arduino or any
microcontroller that can communicate with it through its I2C interface.

This is an infrared thermometer designed for non-contact temperature sensing. An internal 17-bit
ADC and a powerful DSP contribute to the MLX90614’s high accuracy and resolution. It has a
huge number of applications including body temperature measurement and movement detection.
The sensor has a field of view of 35 degrees and returns the average temperature value of all
objects within this field of view.

Figure 3.1.7: GY-906 IR Contactless Temperature Sensor Module

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3.2 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM OF A PORTABLE VITAL MONITORING DEVICE

Assembling all the parts shown in the block diagram and the explanation below we will end up
with a circuit diagram where the jumper wires will connect each module as per the digital pins
shown on the Arduino UNO.

Figure 3.2: Circuit diagram of the system

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3.2.1 Principle Operation of the Circuit.
In this project consist of a variety of modules that work synchronously to produce the reading
needed with high accuracy. When the device is switched on and powers from lithium battery
cells that produce a 12V dc, it displays booting on the screen and after 3secs displays the last
oxygen saturation and temperature taken from the patient. A safety mechanism incorporated in
the device is it cannot boot without the presence of a SD card for data storage. This facilitates
future reference of the data taken by the physician on the patient. In order to take the reading the
patient has to take both the temperature and oxygen saturation measurement simultaneously. If
the readings are abnormal, that is low spo2 (less than 90%) and high or low temperature (less
than 33 or more than 39) the red led goes high thus indicating abnormality with the patient’s
vitals. If the readings range within the normal reading required the green led goes high. The
values taken takes less than 3-4 seconds to stabilize. This reading is stored in the SD card module
for later referencing in form of a data text file. Incase the physician wants to take another reading
from another patient immediately a reset button is pressed and the system resets ready to take
another vital sign test.

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3.2.2 Components used
Hardware

No. Components Specifications Quantity Price in

Ksh

1 Arduino UNO 1 1400

2 Oximeter Sensor MAX30102 1 600

3 IR Contactless GY-906 1 1500

Temperature Sensor

4 SD Card Module Micro-SD SPI Interface 1 800

5 LCD Module 20×4 LCD display 1 600

6 I2C Adapter PCF8574 I2C chip 1 200

7 Lithium Battery 9V 3 350

8 Push Button Normally Open 1 75

9 Resistors 2k 3 15

10 Jumper Wires Male to Female 200 150

11 Printed Board Continuous 1 50

12 Casing Wooden 1 200

13 Screws Star-Half Inch 6 60

14 SD Card 8GB Micro SD card 1 500

TOTAL 6450/=

Software

 Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

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4.1 TEST RESULTS
Analysis of the Results
To use Arduino UNO as my
microcontroller.
To display values of temperature and
oxygen concentration.
To store data taken in a SD card
module.
To make the device portable.
Table 4 1: Test Results
CHAPTER FOUR
Explanation
In this project I was able to use an Arduino uno as my
microcontroller that coordinated the calculation and
control of the other modules.
Body temperature and spo2 vitals were able to be
measured by the device and were of the required
accuracy.
This was archived by use of a SD card module and the
measured vitals were able to be stored in form of a text
file.
This was achieved by making introducing a 2 9v
batteries connected in series to a voltage regulator to
power the device. It doesn’t require to be powered
from a socket outlet
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 CHAPTER FIVE

5.1 DISCUSSION

Though this project seems to pave great ways for improvement in terms of giving more
measurement on other vital signs such as heart rate it has proven to be more reliable due to its
ability of being portable and easy to store the data taken from the patient. On booting it also
shows the last taken measurement on spo2 and temperature thus low risk of data being lost. More
to that its cheaper and easy to use.

5.2 CONCLUSION

This project talks about an affordable oxygen concentration monitoring device with a body
temperature sensor running on an Arduino platform. I can monitor spo2 and human body
temperature and based on the measured values analyses the health status and indicates if they fall
in the normal ranges. It later stores this information in a SD card module and also shows the last
taken values. It is made to be portable to facilitate mobility of the device.

5.3 RECOMMENDATION

It’s recommended an addition of RTC (Real Time Clock) module to give time and date of when
the measurement was taken. This is to facilitate improved give of information.

Its also recommended addition of more measurement of other vital signs to enable the doctor or
physician get better understanding of the patient health.

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REFERENCES

23
 APPENDICES

APPENDIX I: WORK PLAN

Activity October Novembe December January February

r

Topic Cover

Objective
Formulation

Project Write-Up

Project
Construction

Presentation

Table: Appendix 1

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APPENDIX II: LIST OF COMPONENTS AND THEIR PRICES

No. Components Specifications Quantity Price in

Ksh

1 Arduino UNO 1 1400

2 Oximeter Sensor MAX30102 1 600

3 IR Contactless GY-906 1 1500

Temperature Sensor

4 SD Card Module Micro-SD SPI Interface 1 800

5 LCD Module 20×4 LCD display 1 600

6 I2C Adapter PCF8574 I2C chip 1 200

7 Lithium Battery 9V 3 350

8 Push Button Normally Open 1 75

9 Resistors 2k 3 15

10 Jumper Wires Male to Female 200 150

11 Printed Board Continuous 1 50

12 Casing Wooden 1 200

13 Screws Star-Half Inch 6 60

14 SD Card 8GB Micro SD card 1 500

TOTAL 6450/=

Table: Appendix 2

25