Walking Stick With Heart

Attack Detection

ECE 445 Helen Kim

Spring 2005 Choon Lee
Project 28

1
Introduction
 Why did we choose this topic?
 Create an equipment to be used in everyday’s
life for a medical purpose
 Obtain the basic idea from “Wireless Heart
Attack Detector with GPS” of Fall 2004
 Most heart attack results from coronary artery
disease (the restriction of blood flow to the
heart) and it causes instant death of person
----”The Center for Disease Control”

2
Why did we choose this topic? (continued)

 Help senior citizens who have health hazardous

moment most often
 Use a walking stick as the medium asking for medical
help as well as the main unit of detection

3
Objective
 Goals of Design:
-The wireless heart attack detector captures
abnormal heart beat signals.
-The alert system on the walking stick warns the
user to realize his health condition.
-Bluetooth wireless emergency calling system calls
for help at the moment of heart attack via mobile
phone.

4
Objective (continued)

 Benefits:
 Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal transmitted

wirelessly from the wrist to the main unit on the

stick. This avoids the inconvenience of the
attachment of the stick to the wrists.
 Automatic wireless emergency calling system via

Bluetooth module
 Warning mode giving the users a chance to avoid

the fatal moment actively

5
Original Design Review
 Obtain ECG waveform from both wrists.
 Transmit ECG waveform wirelessly from wrist
to a receiver on the stick.
 Microcontroller on the stick will run a heart
attack algorithm to detect possible heart
attack.
 Microcontroller will make the user’s cell phone
to call 911 if heart attack detected.

6
Block Diagram
Electrodes

Bluetooth
ECG Module
Unit (EB500)

A/D Converter Javelin Stamp

(microcontroller)

Transmitter Receiver

7
Components and Functions
 ECG Analog Circuitry
– to obtain analog ECG waveform from wrists

1. Unity-Gain Buffer.
As Impedance Transformer. Skin impedance is high
and Op-Amp’s input impedance is infinity.
2. Differential Amplifier.
Taking the difference between two bio signals from
both wrists and output the ECG waveform with
desired gain.

8
Components and Functions
3. Bandpass Filter
Lower Cutoff Frequency – 0.9 Hz
Upper Cutoff Frequency -105 Hz
- This filter removes noise outside the
frequency range of ECG waveform.
- Without the filter, no recognizable ECG
was obtained during testing.
9
Components and Functions
 PIC16F877 as A/D Converter and RS232

1. A/D Conversion
Analog ECG signal will be digitized into 8 bits (0 –
127).
2. RS232
-Parallel bits of ECG digital data will be translated
into serial bits for transmission.
-It is a standard for serial binary data interchange
between a DTE (Data terminal equipment) and DCE
(Data communication equipment)

10
Components and Functions
 HP-3 Transmitter
1. The RS232 output of PIC16F877 will be
fed into the input of HP transmitter.

***All the above components, ECG

analog circuitry, PIC16F877 and HP-3
Transmitter will be worn on a wrist.
11
 Schematics

C2

U1
7
1
0.01u
V1 (ECG input) 3 +
6
R9 R11
2 -
R1
10k R4
4
5

LM741C 1k
0 1k R10 150k
R5
3k

R2
10k
33k

LM741C
LM741C

4
5
LM741C R3 2

4
5
-
C1
10k 2 6
4
5

-
R7
2 - 6 3 +
Vo (output to DSP)
6 3 +
V2 (ECG input) 3 +
1u R6 U4

7
1
1k R8 U3 100k

7
1
U2 33k
7
1

0
0

C3 R12
V1
PIC16F877
12Vdc V2
1 40 -12Vdc
0.01u 1k
2 39
LINX HP-3 Transmitter 0
3 38
01 0V VDC 0
4 37
GND
5V VDC
02 5 36
RF/ANT Out
6 35
03
CS0 7 34
antenna 04
8 33
CS1
0 05 9 32
0 CS2 10 31
Channel Select:4 V3
1 06
11 30
CTS 5Vdc
07 12 29 14 8
PDN
13 28 F1100E
08
VCC 14 27 1 7 0
VCC 5V DC 09
15 26
GND/MODE
10 16 25
From DSP Analog In
17 24
18 23 Title
19 22 ECG Amplifier, Digital Signal Processor and Transmitter (Helen Kim, Choon Lee)

20 21 Size Document Number Rev

12
A <Doc> <RevCode>

Date: Thursday, April 28, 2005 Sheet 1 of 1

 The following components will be
installed on the walking stick.

1. HP-3 Receiver
2. Javelin Stamp microcontroller
3. EB500 Bluetooth Module

13
Components and Functions
 HP-3 Receiver

1. The receiver will receive digital ECG

waveform from wrist.

2. The receiver will then feed the digital

signal to Javelin microcontroller.
14
Components and Functions
 Javelin Stamp Microcontroller

1. Microcontroller will run an algorithm

through the ECG data to detect heart
attack symptoms.

15
Components and Functions
 2. Heart Attack Algorithm
- Symptoms of Heart Attack
Weak Amplitude, Irregular Heart
Pulse and Widened QRS Pulse.
- Checking Amplitude
-A baseline is set up by averaging
all the data points.
16
Components and Functions
-Amplitude is considered weak if it is
below 50% of the baseline.
-Checking Irregular Heart Beat
- normal pulse rate is between
35bpm and 200bpm
- if pulse rate falls outside of this
range, then heart attack symptom
is detected.

17
Components and Functions
-Checking Widened QRS Pulse
- Normal pulse width should be less
than 36ms.

18
Components and Functions
 Alert Level
- The failure of each of the three
symptoms will raise the alert level.
-The threshold of the alert level is set to
10.
-If threshold is surpassed, emergency
call will be activated.

19
Components and Functions
 LEDs
-Two LEDs will indicate the alert level.
-First LED means low risk, which will be
turned on for alert level between 4 and
6.
-Second LED means high risk, for alert
level between 7 and 9.

20
Components and Functions
 EB500 Bluetooth Module
-Javelin Stamp will send some
commands to EB500 to set up a
connection between the bluetooth
module and the cell phone.
-Bluetooth communication is nothing
than just a wireless serial cable after
the connection is set up.

21
Components and Functions
- AT commands
-AT commands direct a phone to dial
(D), answer (A) and hang up (H).

-Every AT command starts with “AT”

(Attention). This is the command line
prefix.

22
Components and Functions
 -AT commands to make 911 call
 “ATD911; \r”
 “ATD2173335257; \r” (Calling lab)

23
 Schematics
PC Serial Port 9 V VCC Bluetooth Module
Microcontroller EB500
Javelin Stamp
0

DSR 1 RX 01 24 02 01
6 Sout Vin VSS VSS
2 TX 02 23 04 03
7 Sin Vss TX RX
RTS 3 DTR 03 22 06 05
8 ATN RES' CTS RTS
4 GND 04 21 08 07
9 VSS VDD Status
5 05 20 0 10 09
P0 P15 Mode Ctrl
06 19 12 11
P1 P14
07 18 14 13
P2 P13
08 17 16 15
P3 P12
09 16 18 17
P4 P11
10 15 20 19
LINX HP-3 Receiver P5 P10 Vin
11 14
12 P6 P9
01 13 'Alert Level' to
antenna RF Input/Anttena Input P7 P8 Microcontroller BasicX
02
GND
03
GND
04
GND
05
GND
06 5V VDC
GND
07
GND D1 Low-Risk
08 R1
GND
09
N/C 33k
0 10 LED
CS0 0
0 Channel Select 11
CS1
0 12 D2 High Risk
CS2 R2
13
PDN
14 33k 0
RSSI LED
15
GND/MODE D3 Emergency Call Activated
16 R3
VCC 5V DC VCC
17
33k
Analog Out Title
Digital output to Javelin 18 LED <Title>
Digital Out
Size Document Number Rev
A <Doc> <RevCode>

Date: Thursday, April 28, 2005 Sheet 1 of 1 24

Functional Testing
 A/D Testing by inputting a known voltage
level and checking the corresponding digital
value.
 0.1V - 5
 1.0V – 50
 2.0V – 100
 2.5V – 125
 8 bits can only go up to 127
 The highest peak of ECG waveform from
analog circuitry will be amplified to only 2.0V
25
Functional Testing
 Collecting ECG 150

waveforms 100

-ECG Samples of
team members 50

0 Series1
1 18 35 52 69 86 103 120 137 154 171 188 205 222 239 256 273 290

-Notice that the -50

amplitude is
between 127 and
-100

-127 for 8 bits A/D. -150

26
More ECG Samples
150

100

50

0 Series1
1 18 35 52 69 86 103 120 137 154 171 188 205 222 239 256 273 290

-50

-100

-150

27
More ECG Samples
150

100

50

0 Series1
1 8 15 22 29 36 43 50 57 64 71 78 85 92 99 106 113 120

-50

-100

-150

28
Functional Testing
 Heart Attack Algorithm Testing
- One of the ECG samples shown was
stored and was changed in terms of
amplitude, rate and width.
- Javelin Stamp was modified to run with
this modified data.
- Each of the three thresholds responded
correspondingly.

29
Functional Testing
 Bluetooth Communication & Lab Call
-The communication worked properly
and the lab phone rang properly.

30
Successes & Challenges
Challenges Before Successes
- Each component has to be tested and

debugged individually before they were

combined together.
- TTL logic signal of PIC were captured

by scope to test the functionality.

31
Successes & Challenges
 - ECG waveforms were captured by Javelin
Stamp to test the wireless communication
between wrist and the stick.
 -Suitable bluetooth module was selected
carefully by reading data sheets to check
certain commands to make sure that it is
connectable to a cell phone.

32
Successes & Challenges
 The notion of AT commands was
obtained by surfing online technical
forums.
 AT commands were given by somebody
met at a technical forum.

33
Test
 Operation Temperature
We chose the reasonable range of outer weather.
 Test Range: -25°C to 50°C inside freezer and by

hair dryer
 Result: We could observe that the whole system

behaved properly.

34
Test (continued)
 Transmitter / Receiver
For our design, we assume the user stays the range
of area near to the stick.

Test range between wrist circuitry and the
stick : ~40 ft
The javelin still could capture the digital
signal.

35
Recommendations
 Better biosensors that reduce noise
when hands are moving.
 Better circuit design to reduce power
consumption.
 Lighter material for the wrist circuitry
and the main unit on the stick.

36