THE HR TRACKER

A heart-rate tracking device

Dr. K. Rama Krishan (India)

MSc from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India
PhD from JNTUH HYDERABAD, India (Specialized in Material
Science)

Ms. Amman Nadeem (Pakistan)

BSc in Chemistry from Lahore University of Management
Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan.

Eng. K. M. S. L. Fernando (Sri Lanka)

BSc (Hon) Eng. from University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka
(Specialized in Textile process Engineering)
INTRODUCTION
“The internet of things which is abbreviated as IoT, is a system of interconnected computing devices,
mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers
(UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-
computer interaction”. In an IoT system there are several web-enabled smart devices to gather, transmit
and process the data collected from their own environment. Some benefits of IoT are listed as follows:

• Access to information from anywhere at any time on any device

• Improves the automation of tasks and reducing the human interaction
• Saves time and money and generates more revenue
• Boosts the employee productivity

In modern world, healthcare sector has numerous challenges without IoT system, namely, high costs, an
ageing population, shortage of skilled healthcare professionals and precision of treatments etc. IoT has
addressed these challenges in various ways. For instance, tracking the heartbeat over 24 hours and coming
up with a real time regulation of medicines injected into a body would not have been possible manually. It
requires an automated process which incorporates with an IoT system.

In this report, we have put forward an idea to construct a wristwatch (HR Tracker) which will be able to
track the heartbeat. The working principle behind this device is tracking the blood flow rate using an
optical sensory method. Tracking and analyzing the heartbeat helps us in unusual ways; many more
diseases can be diagnosed such as blood pressure, high blood cholesterol level, diabetes, and thyroid
imbalance etc. These benefits are not only limited for disease diagnosis but can also be used in our day to
day life. For example, we can keep a track of our heartbeat before, in between and at the end of a workout
in order to keep a check on our health and body temperature. This way the HR Tracker will prove to be a
very helpful device.

MOTIVATION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Since the chronic diseases are growing rapidly nowadays, drawbacks of conventional healthcare services
are becoming noticeable increasingly. The most advance health care services are available only in the
hospitals which makes it very inconvenient for elderly or disabled people to rush to the medical centers
for every emergency condition1.

According to research statistics, nearly two million people suffer from heart attack every year and a
person dies in 10 seconds. World Health Organization (WHO) reports that heart disease rate might
increase to 23.3% by the year 2030. Based on this aspect, developing heartbeat monitoring system is a
very hot field for research. Herein, we are going to report about a reflection-type pulse sensor which will

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monitor our heart rate. Many researchers have focused on different projects while several prototypes have
been developed with distinct aims, unfortunately, none or a very few were able to explore the area of
heart rate monitoring systems.

Rofouei2 and Bsoul3 reported on sleeping issues of human beings using Internet of Things whereas the
researcher, Lin, C4, developed a system to monitor the bio-electrical activities of human brain with IoT
sensor. In addition, W.Y Lin5 and E.sardini6 reported a system especially for elderly people which
allowed them to monitor their postures or defect falls. Dohr, A7 monitored blood pressure level using
keep in touch (KIT) and closed loop health care. It works by magnetic induction. Jassas, M. S8
manufactured a raspberry pi board in cloud-based system to monitor body temperature. Furthermore,
Mansor, H9 also worked on body temperature detection using LM35 temperature sensor and Piyare, R10
explained about the use and importance of android based smart phone to control and monitor home
appliances.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
Internet of things (IoT) greatly increases the data value, performance, capacity, accuracy
and speed of entire system and production results. Nowadays, cardiac arrest is becoming a
major concern within the entire population, however, the advancements in IoT have
successfully developed wireless sensor devices to keep the track of a person’s heartbeat, body
temperature and oxygen level etc.

The device we are going to develop is a wristwatch named as ‘HR Tracker’, which, as the name
suggests, will be able to detect a person’s heart rate at a particular time. This system will be
divided into three components: the sensing part, the transport part, and the application part.
Data will be captured via sensors, complex algorithms analyze the data, and temporarily display
it on liquid crystal display (LCD) screen of the watch. The patient can wirelessly access the
information on their smartphone via Bluetooth or cloud application through internet to keep a
track of his/her history. This data will then be used by a medical professional for treatment or
drug prescription etc. This way the heart rate monitoring at home will be made undemanding and
efficient. This wristwatch will be compact and portable. It will also be user-friendly and
easy to use.

We will use optical sensor (reflection-type pulse sensor) which will emit green light with a
wavelength between 520-560 nm which will penetrate the skin into the blood and then will
measure the reflected light using a photodiode made up of gold nanoparticles. For the emission
of green light, we can use different quantum dots (QDs), for instance, Indium-phosphorous

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based cores incorporated with Zinc, Gallium and ZnSeS/ZnS multi-shells QDs or Carbon QDs
(prepared by turmeric and bran). The hemoglobin in blood has a tendency to absorb the light
hence the amount of reflected light will not be same as the emitted light. Furthermore, the
change in blood flow rate due to the rhythmic relaxation and contraction will allow us to
measure the pulse rate. Pulse rate measurement using green light will be specifically preferred
here because if a person wears the watch outdoor, the infrared radiations from the sun will not
interfere with the results as well as green light has higher adsorption rate in hemoglobin.
This device will consist of an optical pulse sensor (emitter and receiver), an amplifier, the LCD, a
3V-4V battery incorporated on a 28x28 (mm) PCB with a stretchable and adjustable strap.

CONCLUSION
Healthcare sector is one of the leading sectors which uses IoT based systems to address most of the
challenges faced. Optical sensor-based HR Tracker, which detects the heartbeat depending on the blood
flow rate, can be conveniently used in our everyday life. This device can further be manipulated to form
numerous novel devices which will be able to track other body parameters such as hormone levels, brain
waves, body temperature and white blood cells or platelet count etc. as well in future.

REFERENCES
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