Geert Langereis

Measurement of body signals Geert Langereis

In many projects with user interaction, we have to measure body parameters. To measure sports or health related activity, we may need heart-rate, motion and muscle activity. To estimate the mood of a person, parameters like heart-rate variability, repetitive movements and breathing rate may be indicative. These sensed parameters, together with the appropriate signal processing results in an estimator for the human functioning. Designers want to have full access to the electronics and embedded signal processing code to customize the whole system. And that is where the commercial existing products can not always help. Therefore, this book was written to provide some basic reference designs for making wearable concepts to measure bodily parameters. Some examples of the circuits are an optical heart-rate detector, a bio-amplifier for muscle activity or the electrical heart signal, electrical body impedance analyzer and a breathing rate circuit. Besides the analog electronics, the micro-controller interface and code is explained as well, in this case using the popular Arduino platform. The combination of analog and digital methods allows for sensing and subsequent signal processing to design your own system to measure many behavioral and physiological patterns.