Design and Development of a Heart Rate Measuring Device using Fingertip

Abstract

In this paper, we presented the design and development of a new integrated device for measuring heart rate using fingertip to improve estimating the heart rate. As heart related diseases are increasing day by day, the need for an accurate and affordable heart rate measuring device or heart monitor is essential to ensure quality of health. However, most heart rate measuring tools and environments are expensive and do not follow ergonomics. Our proposed Heart Rate Measuring (HRM) device is economical and user friendly and uses optical technology to detect the flow of blood through index finger. Three phases are used to detect pulses on the fingertip that include pulse detection, signal extraction, and pulse amplification. Qualitative and quantitative performance evaluation of the device on real signals shows accuracy in heart rate estimation, even under intense of physical activity. We compared the performance of HRM device with Electrocardiogram reports and manual pulse measurement of heartbeat of 90 human subjects of different ages. The results showed that the error rate of the device is negligible.