ECG Monitoring

System using Arduino and AD8232

Dr. N.Shanmugasundaram*,R.Bharathkumar*, T.Gowthamraj*, V.Kaliyugathuayyan*,A.Manojkumar*
*Sri Eshwar College of Engineering, Coimbatore,Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract— This paper describes the design of a system which monitors ECG subject by Ag / Cl
simple Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring sticking electrode on the arms and then showing the
system using AD8232 and Arduino ECG on monitor window and Liquid Crystal
Microcontroller. The system gets the pulse input Display[1].
using Ag/Cl 3-lead electrodes placed on the arms
and right leg of the patient under inspection. The
model comprehends ECG module(AD8232) which
is used for signal conditioning of the input pulse II. SYSTEM ARCHTECTURE
from the patient’s body and viewed on Serial
Monitor Window as the ECG waveform. Thus Figure.1 represents the block diagram of
conditioned signal is also processed by the the proposed system. It consists of the Electrodes
microcontroller Arduino Uno to control and which are placed on the Left Arm, Right Arm and
transmit the function of ECG wave to monitor and Right leg of the patient’s body. The input is taken
Displaying the condition of the ECG wave in LCD from the human body and then it is transmitted to
display whether it is a normal ECG or Abnormal. ECG module (AD8232). The ECG module
processes the data and it produces the continuous
Key Words— Electrocardiogram (ECG), analog values according to the input given by the
Electrodes, LCD display, Arduino, Patient. electrodes to the Arduino microcontroller. The
Bluetooth module is connected to the Arduino
I. INTRODUCTION microcontroller for transmission purpose. On the
other side, we have Android Application on our
At the present time, people suffering from mobile for the reception of ECG signal.
heart diseases are increasing at an alarming rate.
The ECG is one of the medical kits that can
measure the heartbeat per unit time, convert it into
a signal and display the data on a display device.
An ECG is a recording of the electrical activity on
the body surface generated by the heart muscles.
ECG information is collected by electrodes placed
at selected locations on the patient’s body. It is the
best way to monitor and diagnose abnormal
rhythms of the heart muscles, mainly abnormal
rhythms caused by damage to the conductive tissue
that carries electrical signals. It is possible to be in Figure.1 Pictorial representation of the System
cardiac arrest with a normal ECG signal (a
condition known as pulseless electrical activity). A. Electrode:
Electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the frequently
used and accurate methods for monitoring the 3-lead Ag/Cl Electrodes transform bio-
electrical activity of the heart. ECG is an high- medical signals into electrical voltage. The voltage
priced equipment and its use for the measurement lies in between 1 mV ~ 5 mV. The pair of sensors
of the heart rate only below an economic level. are placed on the right arm (RA), left arm (LA) and
Low-cost devices are available in the form of wrist right leg (RL) of the patient (see Figure 2). [4]
watches for the instantaneous measurement of the
heart rate. Such devices can give accurate data but
they are expensive. Most hospitals and diagnostic
centers in India use incorporated devices designed
to measure the heart rate, temperature, and blood
pressure of the patient. Although such devices are
valuable, their cost is usually uneconomical. This
paper depicts the design of an ECG monitoring
 Figure.4 Arduino Uno Microcontroller

Figure.2 Placement of the Electrodes

D. LCD Display:

Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) is an

B. ECG Module (AD8232): electronic display device and it has the wide range
of applications in real time. A 16x2 LCD is the
The AD8232 is an integrated signal very basic component and is very commonly used
conditioning block for ECG and other bio-metric in various devices, equipment and circuits. These
measurement applications. It is designed to pull modules are chosen over 7 segments and other
out, amplify, and filterless energy bio-potential multi-segment light emitting diodes. The reasons
signals in the presence of noisy conditions, such as being: LCDs are cost-effective; easily
those created by movement or remote programmable; have no drawback of displaying
electrodeposition. This design allows for an special & even custom characters, animations and
ultralow power analog-to-digital converter (ADC) so on. A 16x2 LCD means it can display 16
or an embedded microcontroller to obtain the characters per line and there are 2 such lines. In this
output signal. The AD8232 can execute a two-pole LCD each character is displayed in the 5x7 pixel
high-pass filter for eliminating motion artificial matrix.
facts and the electrode half-cell potential. This filter
is tightly coupled with the instrumentation
amplifier design to allow both large gain and high-
pass filtering in a first stage, thereby saving money
and space.

Figure.5 LCD Display

III. DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM

Figure.3 AD8232 ECG Module Here we have described briefly the hardware are an
implementation of the system. The hardware part
C. Arduino Microcontroller Uno: depicts briefly about the ECG monitoring circuit
system parts such as Ag/Cl electrodes and ECG
The Arduino Uno is an 8-bit module. Figure.6 depicts the circuit diagram of the
microcontroller board based on the ATmega328. It interfacing between ECG module and Arduino
has 14 digital input/output pins, 6 analog inputs, a Uno[2].
16 MHz crystal oscillator, a power jack, an ICSP
header a USB connection and a reset button. It has
everything required to hold up the Arduino;
Basically, connect it to a Laptop with the help of
USB cable or power it with an adapter or battery to
get initiated. The Uno differs from all previous
boards in that it does not use the FTDI USB-to-
serial driver chip. Instead, it features the
Atmega8U2 programmed as a USB-to-serial
converter.
 Figure.6 Interfacing of AD8232 and Arduino The program is written in assembly C
Uno[5] language. Figure 7 depicts a flow chart to ECG
measurement.
Here, The ECG module is getting three
inputs from the human body using 3-lead
electrodes. The ECG module(AD8232) has
Instrumentation Amplifier and High pass filter for
the working purpose. After, processing the inputs,
It produces the single output. This output is given
to the Arduino Uno Microcontroller with the help
of the Analog pins.

Figure.7 depicts the circuit diagram of

interfacing between Arduino and LCD display
module.

Here, Arduino Uno was interfaced with

Liquid Crystal Display. Using 4 data lines. The
displayed data were transmitted to the LCD. We
can increase and decrease the brightness using the
Potentiometer which is interfaced with the LCD.

Figure.8
Figure.7 Interfacing of Arduino Uno and LCD The flow starts from getting inputs from
Display[5] the ECG module. After, getting the input, The
microcontroller checks whether all three inputs are
IV. THE SOFTWARE SYSTEM
given properly. If anyone of the inputs is not
detected well, The system will send the signal to
A. Arduino Software the LCD.After getting the signal the LCD will
The Arduino provides the Arduino display “The ECG is Abnormal” or else It simply
Integrated Development Environment (IDE), which displays “The ECG is normal”.[2]
is a platform Independent Application written in
Java. It originated from the IDE for the languages
Processing and Wiring. It includes a code editor V. WORKING OF THE SYSTEM
with features such as text cutting and pasting,
searching and replacing text, syntax highlighting The system gets the input bio-metric signals from
automatic indenting, brace matching and provides the human body using 3-lead electrodes. After
simple one-click mechanisms to compile and processing all the three inputs, the ECG module
upload programs to an Arduino board. It also has a produces the single analog output. It was given to
message area, a text console, a toolbar with buttons the Arduino Microcontroller. Arduino is the
for common functions and a hierarchy of operation responsible for the remaining operations. It checks
menus. The ECG wave is displayed on the Serial whether all the three inputs are received properly.
Monitor. If there is any problem while getting the input it
sends the signal to LCD then the LCD shows “It is
Abnormal” or else it shows “Normal”. This is the
working of the system. [3]
B. Flowchart of the program

VI. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

We could get the display of ECG waveform on REFERENCE
Monitor Window and the condition of the ECG
wave is displayed in the LCD module whether it is [1] Braunwald E. (Editor), Heart Disease: A
Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, Fifth
a normal ECG or Abnormal through electronic
Edition, p. 108, Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Co.,
hardware implementation of this project
1997. ISBN 0-7216-5666-8.
successfully. This can be seen in Figure.9, which
shows an ECG signal acquired by the electrode on [2] Naazneen M. G., Sumaya Fathima, Syeda
a Serial Plotter[4]. Husna Mohammadi, Sarah Iram L. Indikar, Abdul
Saleem, Mohamed Jebran " Design and
Implementation of ECG Monitoring and Heart Rate
Measurement System” Volume 2, Issue 3, May
2013, pp. 2319-5967
[3] Varsha Wahane and P. V. Ingole "An Android-
based wireless ECG monitoring system” Volume 5,
Issue 8, June 2015, pp.1398-2375.
[4] Pulsar heart rate monitors web site:
http://www.heartratemonitor.co.uk.
[5] Interfacing with Arduino, website:
http://www.circuitstoday.com/

Figure.9 Output

CONCLUSION

This project mainly concentrated on energy

efficient and cost-effective. This system can be
easily understood by the patient. When compared
to the high-cost monitoring systems, It is more
efficient.

FUTURE SCOPE

This system is for the Real-time Monitoring

purpose. We can enhance this system by
transmitting the ECG wave using IoT to Doctors or
Analysts. We can build an Android Application for
monitoring with more proficient.