Electronics Weekly Electronics Design & Components Tech News
No chest strap or cable is needed, and an ECG waveform can be recorded.
Similar in size to a wrist watch, the reference design has a sensor electrode on the rear in permanent contact with the wrist, and a second electrode on the front of the device that has to be touched to get a reading.
EPIC is capable of sensing signals through insulated sensors in contact with the skin.
“Just two small contacts and no gels,” said Plessey’s programme director Dr Paul James. “The data gathered is accurate enough that it can provide detailed ECG signals with the appropriate signal processing, including pulse rate and pulse rate variation. This opens up the possibility of estimating key aerobic performance parameters such as VO2max.”
There is also a version that provides continuous heart monitoring, which straps to the upper arm.
Inside the strap are two contacts positioned such that cardiac electric signals are out of phase – allowing differential processing to suppress unwanted noise from other muscles.
“Such a device would enable patients to be monitored as they go about their daily routine and detect transient issues that would probably be missed during a short period of monitoring with the conventional seven electrodes and gel approach,” claimed the firm.
Plessey will be demonstrating these two reference designs at the Chicago Sensors Expo Show in June.
EPIC?
Plessey said:
EPIC stands for electric potential integrated circuit.
“The technology works at normal room temperatures and functions as an ultra-high input impedance sensor that acts as a highly stable, extremely sensitive, contactless digital voltmeter to measure tiny changes in the electric field down to mV.
Most places on Earth have a vertical electric field of about 100V/m.
The human body is mostly water and this interacts with the electric field.
EPIC technology is so sensitive that it can detect these changes at a distance and even through a solid wall.”
No idea why this page has suddenly revived (IT problem ?) but I got one of these from Plessey after my heart attack and to this day it still gives better results with lower noise levels than the proper 12 lead machines doctors use provided you know where to put the electrodes. I once had a junior medic claim the printout I gave him couldn’t be accurate, until his consultant, who I knew and still keeps me alive to this day, wandered over and in front of me told him not to be so unbelieving.
As for toys like smartwatches, they are indeed toys.
Good afternoon Mike.
Glad you got some good service out of that Plessey machine – I am always been distrustful of electrostatic sensing as it is so moisture-sensitive – maybe I too should not be so unbelieving 🙂
I listened to a detailed talk at IMEC about sensing pulse, blood oxygen and blood pressure – as usual, the folk there had gone into it deeply. They said that optical pulse rate sensing is can be really reliable at the wrist and on a finger. Interesting if there are situations where it is not (or maybe not-done-properly is the problem.
BTW, what did you men by ‘suddenly revived’? Where did it appear? (so that someone at this end can go fault-hunting).
It was displayed at the left side of the Viewpoint article From BC108 to SiGe BiCMOS by Ash Madni.
I went to an Imec talk on their heart monitoring in 2015 and at that time it was quite prehistoric, but hopefully it has come on since then. However my heart consultant is an expert in this field and can go on for hours as to why the finger is the last place you want to sense anything about blood flow, and he has a research team at our local hospital working on better solutions for this. With over forty years experience in cardiac and chest medicine maybe Imec should pay him a visit.