A Wearable Non-invasive Pulse Oximeter

Final year Project

2016 (Winter semester)

Team Members
Prasoon Prakash (12BEC0215)
Harsh Vardhan (12BEC0224)
Shubham Gangwal (12BEC0596)

Faculty Advisor(Guide)
Prof. Sangeetha A

ABSTRACT
The design and implementation of a low-cost, portable and wearable
pulse oximeter is presented. A pulse oximeter is a non-invasive device capable of
monitoring the bloods oxygen saturation. It has been widely used in the medical,
fitness and clinical care worlds. A low-cost wearable oximeter can significantly
expand its applicability. The goal of this project is to design and build a low-cost
wearable pulse oximeter, by using wearable electronics. The system consists of three
main parts:
The optical sensor: consisting of the optical transmitter and receiver for
emitting the light and receiving it and filter.
The microcontroller: which receives and processes the signal to display the heart
rate and bloods oxygen saturation on an LCD display in real time.
Mobile phone app which is designed to receive data wirelessly through Bluetooth.

Working Of an Oximeter
A pulse oximeter works by shining light from two Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) at different
wavelengths, typically 660 nm (visible red) and 910 nm (near infrared), through the arterial
blood of a finger or an ear and detecting the transmitted light with a photodiode.
Haemoglobin molecules with and without oxygen attached have different optical absorption
characteristics at these wavelengths, and the oxygen saturation, SpO 2, can be deduced from
the ratio of the transmitted light at the two wavelengths. SpO2 is the percentage of
haemoglobin molecules that have oxygen attached compared to those that are not bound to
oxygen

Oxy Hb absorbs more infrared light than red light

Deoxy Hb absorbs more red light than infrared
light

The pulse oximeter works out the oxygen

saturation by comparing how much red light
and infra red light is absorbed by the blood.
Depending on the amounts of oxy Hb and
deoxy Hb present, the ratio of the amount of red
light absorbed compared to the amount of
infrared light absorbed changes.

Codes And Standards That Significantly Affect The

Project
Bluetooth

Specification v2.0+Edz.
Class 2(10 m).
GSFK modulation.
Baud rate (4800/9600(default)/19200/38400/57600/115200/230400/460800/
921600/1382400.

Arduino

Microcontroller (Atmega 8)
Flash memory (16Kb)
Clock Speed (8 MHz (3.3V model) or 16 MHz (5V model) )

LEDs

660 nm (visible red)

910 nm (near infrared)

Significant Realistic Design Constraints That Are Applied To

The Project
Spectral Considerations
The accuracy of pulse oximeters depends largely on the stability of the spectral
emission pattern of the LEDs used and a shift in the emission pattern of a LED will
cause an inaccuracy in the calibration curve. This is especially the case for the red
LED (660 nm), which operates in a region where the absorption pattern of Hb and
HbO2 is very steep and a small shift has a large impact.

Ease Of Use
With the Oximeter primarily being designed to be wearable, Ease of Use is a major design
aspect to be monitored. The final design should emphasis on the product being ergonomic
and simple to operate.

Problem of calibration
The Oximeter design has to account for the variations in human bodies that occur in
different people i.e., The blood pressure variations in different people can cause
constriction or expansion of arteries, resulting in variation in readings due to light
absorption error. Thus a mean value needs to be used for calibration.

Problem of optical shunting

The pulse oximeter operates best when all the light passes through arterial blood.
However, if the probe is of the wrong size or has not being applied properly, some of
the light , instead of going through the artery, goes by the side of the artery
(shunting).This reduces the strength of the pulsatile signal making the pulse oximeter
prone to errors. It is therefore important to select the correct sized probe and to place
the finger correctly in the chosen probe for best results.

Problem of too much ambient light

As discussed before, in addition to the light from the LEDs, ambient (room) light
also hits the detector. For good functioning of the pulse oximeter, the strength of the
LED light falling on the detector should be good when compared with the strength
of the ambient light falling on the detector.

Significant Trade-offs Considered In The Design,

Including Options
Bluetooth instead of Wifi or NFC
Bluetooth is used instead of either wifi or NFCs, that offer better data transmission
rate and a wider range of products, was because of a significant rise in power
demand and thus the use of a compatible power source would have made the
product too bulky and ergonomically crude. Wi-Fi Module needs to be connected to
an external antenna which consumes too much space, so it cannot be implemented
on a wearable device

Variable LED brightness vs Complexity of Design

Brightness of the LEDs is currently constant, complex algorithm can be
incorporated in which the brightness of the LEDs will be determined by the
thickness of the skin. But incorporating this will render the system too complex and
prone to bugs.

The Computing Aspects, If Any, Of The Project. Specifically

Identifying Hardware-software Trade-offs, Interfaces, And/Or
Interactions
The major computing needs are associated with the Arduino microcontroller,
specifically programming the microcontroller to follow the specific laid down
guidelines of the Oximeter action.
Another major computing need is associated with the smartphone app to receive
information via Bluetooth and to display the appropriate data to the end user.