Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) Vol. 2 No.

1 (2022)

SMART HE ALT H MO NITO RING SYSTE M UT IL IZ ING

INT E RNE T O F T H ING S (IoT ) AN D ARDUINO

Ameyshafida Mihat1, Norhashimah Mohd Saad1,*, Ezreen Farina Shair2,

Rohana Abdul Rahim3 and Achmad Bayhaqi Nasir Aslam4

Fakulti Teknologi Kejuruteraan Elektrik Dan Elektronik, Universiti Teknikal

1

Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Jalan Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100, Durian Tunggal, Melaka,
Malaysia.

2 Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektrik, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Jalan

Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia.

Hospital Seri Manjung, Jalan Gapis, 32040 Seri Manjung, Perak, Malaysia
3

4 Radiology Department, Medical Faculty of Universitas Brawijaya - Saiful Anwar

Hospital, Jl. J. A Suprapto No 2 Malang, Indonesia.

*Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected]

Article History: Received January 9, 2022; Revised January 24, 2022;

Accepted January 24, 2022

ABSTRACT: The use of healthcare monitoring systems in hospitals and

other health facilities has grown exponentially, and portable healthcare
monitoring systems based on new technologies have emerged as a severe
concern in several countries throughout the globe. The emergence of the
Internet of Things (IoT) technology has contributed to the progress of
healthcare from face-to-face counseling to telemedicine. The project aims to
design a reliable health monitoring system utilizing the IoT, Arduino, and
Android applications. It can be used to measure body temperature, heart rate,
and level of oxygen in the blood in both hospitals and homes. The system is
also capable to verify that the transmission of the sensor’s data to the host
computer is done in real-time. The results show that the system reading is
approximately 100% accurate as of the purchased measuring instruments or
actual devices. Therefore, doctors and family members can now monitor and
track the patient’s health anywhere through this smart health monitoring
system.

KEYWORDS: IoT, Body Temperature, Heart Rate, Blood’s Oxygen Level.

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) e-ISSN: 2682-9177

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The Internet of Things (IoT) has connected everything inside during
the previous decade, and it has been labeled the next technological
revolution [1]. The Internet of Things is most widely used in healthcare
management, where it is used to monitor health and environmental
factors. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the process of establishing a
connection between computers and the internet using sensors and
networks. These interlinked components might be utilized in health
surveillance systems. Modern technologies now include a
customizable interface, personal assistant gadgets, and mental health
care to aid individuals in living more intelligent lives [2].
Health monitoring is a significant concern in today's climate.
Patients have serious health difficulties as a consequence of an
insufficient health monitoring system. The new health monitoring
system is unable to deliver real-time patient health warnings and is
constrained by the distance between the patient and the hospital [3].
Additionally, it requires time to collect data from patients. It is
inefficient in terms of cost. A low-cost contemporary gadget capable of
providing real-time data. The primary reason for developing this
system is to address the absence of effective health monitoring in
community life, the disparity between rural and urban health care
centers, and the inability of the present health monitoring system to
give real-time patient health alerts [4].
As a result, the usage of in hospitals and other health institutions,
healthcare monitoring systems has significantly enlarged, and new
technology-enabled portable healthcare monitoring devices have
become a serious issue in several nations worldwide [5]. The
emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology has contributed
to the progress of healthcare from face-to-face counseling to
telemedicine. Numerous Internet of Things (IoT) applications are also
being developed at the moment.
Thus, doctors and family members may now monitor or follow a
patient's health using the Android application [6]. When monitoring,
recording, and tracking changes in patient health metrics over time
becomes necessary, Internet of Things (IoT) Monitoring comes in
helpful [7]. This database of health parameter changes was created
using Internet of Things (IoT) health monitoring. This article presents
a smart health monitoring system that can monitor patients'
fundamental health symptoms in an Internet of Things (IoT)

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) Vol. 2 No. 1 (2022)

environment [8]. This device may be used in both hospitals and

households to monitor and record numerous factors such as body
temperature and heart rate [9]. This is a large sensor-based project
using cutting-edge technologies.
The project aims to create a prototype of a healthcare monitoring
device that can detect and wirelessly transmit a human body’s
temperature, pulse rate, and the level of oxygen in the blood to a host
PC. The health-monitoring equipment created here is an Internet-of-
Things (IoT) system. It’s based on the Arduino UNO. The Arduino
UNO is a common prototyping board that is often used in Internet of
Things projects. To develop this medical IoT system, the Arduino is
utilized to link the pulse LM-35 temperature sensor, MAX30100 pulse
oximeter, character LCD, and ESP8266 Wi-Fi modem. The computed
pulse rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation level in the blood are
shown on the character LCD attached to an Arduino and sent to the
cloud platform through a Wi-Fi access point. Regularly, health-related
data such as pulse rate, body temperature, and blood oxygen saturation
level are updated and recorded to the ThingSpeak platform. The data
may be utilized to maintain a patient’s medical history.

Figure 1: Smart Health Monitoring System Block Diagram

Based on Figure 1, this smart health monitoring system's inputs

include a temperature sensor and a pulse oximeter sensor, which
detects all of the health indicators that must be monitored. The inputs
then communicate the measured parameters to the Arduino UNO,
which interacts with the data and then exports it to the outputs. LCD
and wireless modules serve as outputs. All parameter data is shown in
the smartphone application, ThingSpeak Apps, which enables users to
monitor their health status based on the gathered data.
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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) e-ISSN: 2682-9177

2.0 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Hardware Design
For this Smart Health Monitoring System, based on Figure 2, the
flowchart displays the whole process of constructing a project system,
which includes both hardware and software required to operate the
system. The system is initiated when two distinct input signals
initialize the body temperature through an LM35, the heart rate
through a pulse sensor, and the blood oxygen saturation level through
a Max30100 pulse oximeter sensor.

START

BODY TEMPERATURE, HEART RATE,

LEVEL OF OXYGEN IN THE BLOOD;

TEMPERATURE PULSE OXIMETER

SENSOR SENSOR

NO NO
SENSOR
INITIALIZATION

YES

MICROCONTROLLER
( ARDUINO UNO )

DISPLAY ALL DATA

BODY TEMPERATURE, HEART RATE
AND LEVEL OF OXYGEN IN THE BLOOD

MOBILE APPS

END

Figure 2: Overall flowchart of project system

Following successful initialization of the input sensor, both input
sensors are sent to the microcontroller, which is an Arduino Uno Rev
3. After transferring the input data to the microcontroller (Arduino Uno
Rev 3), the Arduino Uno rev 3 will transmit the body temperature,
heart rate, and oxygen saturation level in the blood to the LCD as
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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) Vol. 2 No. 1 (2022)

output, which will be shown on the LCD screen as an output display.

The data is sent in real-time to the WiFi module and then to the mobile
application (www.thingspeak.com) for analysis and display.
Simultaneous real-time updates of the processed and visible data
represent the state of the human body's temperature, heart rate, and
blood oxygen saturation level.
The schematic circuit was installed using Proteus software as shown
in Figure 3. The Arduino Uno Rev 3 microprocessor acts as the
microprocessor in this system that interfaces with all component input
and output. These components include an LM35 and MAX30100 Pulse
Oximeter sensor. The LM35 sensor is used for body temperature
detection and a MAX30100 Pulse Oximeter sensor for heart rate and
blood's oxygen level detection. It is located on the MAX30100 Pulse
Oximeter board in the schematic as the gauge's initialization point. The
body temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen level are sensed when
the fingertips are put on the MAX30100 Pulse Oximeter sensor board.
The chip receives the collected data. The heart rate, blood oxygen
saturation level, and temperature of the human body are all detected
and shown on an LCD screen.

Figure 3: The architecture of a body temperature, heart rate, and

blood’s oxygen level system is shown schematically.
Based on Figure 4, this Arduino UNO serves as the system's brain in
this project. It connects all of the input and output components. It is
capable of reading inputs such as a pulse sensor, an LM-35 temperature
sensor, and a biosensor and converting them to outputs such as an LCD
and the ThingSpeak platform on a mobile phone.
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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) e-ISSN: 2682-9177

Figure 4: Arduino UNO Rev 3

The LM35 sensor as shown in Figure 5 is used to determine the body
temperature in this project. The sensor is positioned against the body
and detects the internal temperature of the subject. It is calibrated
linearly in degrees Celsius. It has the limited self-healing ability.
Additionally, it eliminates the need for external calibration.

Figure 5: LM35 Temperature Sensor

Based on Figure 6, a pulse oximeter is used to determine the oxygen
saturation of a patient's blood noninvasively. Light is transmitted
through a transparent, pulsating artery bed, which is often a fingertip
or earlobe, using a red and infrared light source, photodetectors, and a
probe.

Figure 6: MAX30100 Pulse Oximeter

Figure 7 shows a liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a type of flat panel
display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses liquid
crystals to regulate light. 20x4 refers to the fact that each of the LCD's
four rows will show 20 characters, for a total of 80 characters shown at

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) Vol. 2 No. 1 (2022)

any one moment. Our LCD has a total of 16 pins.

Figure 7: LCD 20X4 Display

NodeMCU as shown in Figure 8 is an open-source development
board and firmware. It allows you to program the ESP8266 WiFi
module using the Arduino IDE or the simple and powerful LUA
programming language. It combines the functions of a WIFI access
point and a microcontroller-based station.

Figure 8: NodeMCU V3 ESP8266 (Wifi Module)

2.2 Software Design

This project utilizes a separate Arduino IDE (Integrated Development
Environment) for software development. The Arduino IDE as shown
in Figure 9 is a free and open-source software development
environment for creating and compiling code for Arduino Modules. It
is the official Arduino program that simplifies the learning process for
non-technical individuals.

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) e-ISSN: 2682-9177

Figure 9: Integrated Development Environment (Arduino IDE)

Proteus Design Suite 8.9 as shown in Figure 10 is used to develop
drawings and validate the traceability of project systems. The Proteus
Design Suite is a collection of proprietary software tools used mostly
for electrical design automation. Electronic design professionals and
technicians create electronic schematics and print them for the
production of printed circuit boards by using the Proteus software.

Figure 10: Proteus Design Suite 8.9 Version

Figure 11 shows the Overview of ThingSpeak. ThingSpeak is an
open-source Internet of Things platform that enables the storage and
retrieval of data from HTTP-enabled devices. ThingSpeak enables
users to construct sensor recording applications, location tracking
applications, and social networks for things that continuously update
their state.

Figure 11: Overview of ThingSpeak (www.thingspeak.com)

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) Vol. 2 No. 1 (2022)

3.0 RESULTS
Based on Figure 12, the smart health monitoring with Internet of Things
(IoT) and Arduino has been successfully implemented using an
Atmega328 microcontroller that uses Arduino Uno Rev 3. This
Arduino serves as the primary controller for the project, allowing it to
communicate with all of the gear involved. It is capable of measuring
and monitoring fundamental human health by using the LM35 sensor,
which functions as a body temperature sensor, and the MAX30100
sensor, which functions as an oximeter sensor, which measures heart
rate and detects oxygen levels in the blood. Additionally, the Arduino
gathers real-time health data via a MAX30100 sensor that measures
heart rate, oxygen levels in the blood, and a temperature sensor that is
linked to the Arduino.

Figure 12: Shows the prototype Smart Health Monitoring System

(DocMeetsPatient)
Apart from that, the Arduino is also responsible for collecting,
displaying, and transmitting data to the ESP8266, an IoT module, in
this project. The common ESP8266 Internet of Things module is linked
to the Arduino through a Universal Uniform Transmitter (UART)
Receiver, which is responsible for connecting the circuit to the internet
and transmitting health data to an IoT (ThingSpeak) server as shown
in Figure 13 (a), (b), and (c). This ThingSpeak application is in charge
of storing and monitoring medical data. Furthermore, this circuit is
capable of not only transmitting health data to a server but also
displaying real-time data on a 20x4 LCD. This is advantageous for
healthcare workers monitoring patients on-site.

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) e-ISSN: 2682-9177

(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure 13: Shows the successful development of the Internet of Things
(IoT) for (a) Body Temperature, (b) Heart rate, and (c) Blood Oxygen
Level.

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Health monitoring is performed non-invasively with this method by

simply putting a finger on the sensor and detecting it straight through
the skin. Simply by putting a finger on the input sensor, the user will
be able to immediately measure and monitor their heart rate, body
temperature, and oxygen saturation levels in their blood.

4.0 ANALYSIS
The Smart Health Monitoring System uses the LM35 body temperature
sensor, and the MAX30100 pulse oximeter sensor to detect the heart
rate and oxygen levels in the blood. From these experiments, 10 reading
values were taken from 10 different people to test the level of accuracy
of the sensor readings used as shown in Figure 14, Figure 15, and

Body Temperature (°C)

37
36.5
36
35.5

Infrared Thermometer DocMeetsPatient

Figure 14: Results of 10 trial sample readings for Body Temperature.

Heart Rate (BPM)

120
90
60
30
0

Fingertip Pulse Oximeter DocMeetsPatient

Figure 15: Results of 10 trial sample readings for Heart Rate

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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) e-ISSN: 2682-9177

SpO2 (%)
100
99
98
97
96
95
94
93
92
91
90

Fingertip Pulse Oximeter DocMeetsPatient

Figure 16: Results of 10 trial sample readings for Blood Oxygen

Level

Figure 17: Shows a comparison of body temperature, pulse rate, and

blood oxygen levels that have been measured using a real device with
readings measured using a designed Smart Health Monitoring System.

Figure 16. Once the testing is carried out, the readings from all these
sensors show values that are approximately the same as the purchased
measuring instrument (the actual device) as shown in Figure 17. This
indicates that the design of a reliable smart health monitoring system
has been successfully developed. However, if the finger is not properly
placed on the MAX30100 Pulse Oximeter, an erroneous reading may
be generated. For pulse rate, only infrared light is needed. Both red
light and infrared light are used to measure oxygen levels in the blood.
The amount of ambient light hitting the sensor can affect the final
value. While using the MAX30100, keep the finger still to avoid an
inaccurate reading. Never press the MAX30100 sensor too hard when
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Asian Journal of Medical Technology (AJMedTech) Vol. 2 No. 1 (2022)

using it. This impairs blood flow, resulting in inaccurate readings. To

avoid this, insert the finger gently and keep it still, as this will ensure
the most accurate reading.

5.0 CONCLUSION
This project is presented to present the construction of a smart health
monitoring system by applying the use of Internet of Things (IoT)
technology, Android applications, and an Arduino microcontroller.
The suggested techniques and approaches operate perfectly and
effectively while needing little hardware. The system is suggested to
measure a variety of characteristics utilizing sensors such as the LM35
temperature sensor, and the MAX30100 Pulse Oximeter sensor. These
sensors are used to detect data on the body temperature, heart rate, and
blood oxygen level. By using the IoT platform, health data collected by
the three input sensors can be seen on the LCD and in real-time through
the ThinkSpeak platform. ThinkSpeak is one example of an IoT
platform that will simplify the process of health monitoring on
occasion. This developed system provides many facilities for medical
staff and families to perform the process of health measurement or
monitoring, whether at home or in the hospital.

6.0 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Faculty of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering Technology (FTKEE), Advanced Digital Signal Processing
(ADSP) Lab, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektrik (FKE), Universiti Teknikal
Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), and Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE),
Malaysia that supported this research under project
FRGS/1/2020/FTKEE CERIA/F00428.

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