16 Empowering Design Innovation for Healthcare Wearables
Introduction
I
t looks like the next big thing in health and fitness
monitors will be electrocardiogram (ECG) capability,
but what if your wearable device doesn't have it?
You can feel your stress levels rise as your potential
customer base jumps aboard the departing ECG train,
and there's nothing you can do about it. Surely, there's
no way you can add this feature to your wearable
quickly enough to catch up? If only adding ECG to
a wearable wasn't such an expensive and time-
consuming effort.
Perhaps you can relax after all. In this design solution,
we review the theory and practice of measuring an
ECG signal in a chest-worn wearable before proposing
a composite solution to accelerate design effort and
significantly reduce the time it takes to capitalize on
this burgeoning technology.
ADD ECG TO
YOUR WEARABLE
WITHOUT RAISING
YOUR HEART BEAT
MAXIM INTEGRATED
In this design solution, we'll review
how biopotential theory can be
used to measure ECG using wet
or dry electrodes connected to a
chest-worn device, then consider
the challenges in conditioning
the ECG signal to allow accurate
measurement with minimal power
consumption.
