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Updated: Nov 18, 2025
Conformable Wearable Electrodes: From Fabrication to Electrophysiological Assessment
Published on: July 22, 2022
Characterisation of Textile Embedded Electrodes for Use in a Neonatal Smart Mattress Electrocardiography System
Henry Dore1, Rodrigo Aviles-Espinosa1, Zhenhua Luo2
1Robotics and Mechatronics Systems Research Group, School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK.
Insights
This study presents a novel non-contact electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system for newborns. The system uses textile-embedded sensors to provide rapid, accurate heart rate readings, improving neonatal care.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Neonatal Medicine
- Wearable Technology
Background:
- Heart rate monitoring is critical for newborns in the delivery room.
- Clinical recommendations advocate for electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to reduce mortality.
- Current methods can be time-consuming and intrusive.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and develop a non-contact ECG monitoring solution for real-time data delivery in delivery rooms.
- To enable unobtrusive and continuous monitoring during interventions.
- To improve the accuracy and speed of heart rate measurement in neonates.
Main Methods:
- Development of a real-time, high-resolution ECG acquisition system using a low-power embedded platform.
- Fabrication and characterization of textile-embedded, non-contact electrodes.
- Proof-of-concept testing with simulated and human cardiac signals.
Main Results:
- Achieved heart rate accuracy within ±1 beat per minute for test ECG signals.
- Demonstrated accurate beat-to-beat morphology reproduction (correlation coefficient ~87%) from human volunteer ECG recordings.
- Realized a time from application to heart rate display of under 6 seconds.
Conclusions:
- Flexible, non-contact, textile-based electrodes are suitable for wearable devices in neonatal heart rate monitoring.
- The developed system serves as a proof of concept for a complete neonate ECG monitoring solution.
- This technology has the potential to enhance infant care during and after birth.
Abstract:
Heart rate monitoring is the predominant quantitative health indicator of a newborn in the delivery room. A rapid and accurate heart rate measurement is vital during the first minutes after birth. Clinical recommendations suggest that electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring should be widely adopted in the neonatal intensive care unit to reduce infant mortality and improve long term health outcomes in births that require intervention. Novel non-contact electrocardiogram sensors can reduce the time from birth to heart rate reading as well as providing unobtrusive and continuous monitoring during intervention. In this work we report the design and development of a solution to provide high resolution, real time electrocardiogram data to the clinicians within the delivery room using non-contact electric potential sensors embedded in a neonatal intensive care unit mattress. A real-time high-resolution electrocardiogram acquisition solution based on a low power embedded system was developed and textile embedded electrodes were fabricated and characterised. Proof of concept tests were carried out on simulated and human cardiac signals, producing electrocardiograms suitable for the calculation of heart rate having an accuracy within ±1 beat per minute using a test ECG signal, ECG recordings from a human volunteer with a correlation coefficient of ~ 87% proved accurate beat to beat morphology reproduction of the waveform without morphological alterations and a time from application to heart rate display below 6 s. This provides evidence that flexible non-contact textile-based electrodes can be embedded in wearable devices for assisting births through heart rate monitoring and serves as a proof of concept for a complete neonate electrocardiogram monitoring system.
