Wearable Measurement of ECG Signals Based on Smart Clothing

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Wearable Technology
• Cardiovascular Monitoring

Background:

• Aging populations require continuous health monitoring solutions.
• Conventional electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements are cumbersome and can cause skin irritation, limiting their use in smart clothing.
• There is a need for comfortable, wearable ECG monitoring integrated into everyday garments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel wearable system for measuring ECG signals using smart clothing.
• To identify optimal electrode placement for enhanced ECG signal acquisition.
• To enable wireless transmission of ECG data for remote health monitoring.

Main Methods:

• Developed smart clothing with three integrated ECG textile electrodes.
• Utilized a spherical volume conductor model to calculate differential ECG signals.
• Employed body-surface potential mapping (BSPM) data to simulate and determine optimal electrode positions.
• Implemented Bluetooth for smartphone connectivity and WiFi/Internet for PC transmission.

Main Results:

• Identified optimal electrode positions at the lower right (position 12) and upper left (position 11) of the human body for ECG measurement.
• The wearable system demonstrated good performance in acquiring significant ECG signals during both sleeping and jogging conditions.
• Successful wireless data transmission to smartphones and PC terminals was achieved.

Conclusions:

• The proposed smart clothing system offers a comfortable and effective method for continuous ECG monitoring.
• Optimized electrode placement significantly improves ECG signal quality in a wearable context.
• This technology supports remote health assessment for an aging society.