A wireless biosignal measurement system using a SoC FPGA and Bluetooth Low Energy

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a prototype for a wireless biosignal measurement system, which makes use of a System-on-Chip FPGA, with an embedded ARM processor, and the Bluetooth Low Energy standard for wireless data transmission to a smartphone. The body temperature and heart rate are monitored using a steel-head thermistor and an ECG acquisition module, respectively. The ARM processor runs a Real-Time Operating System. A part of the algorithm that extracts the heart rate runs on custom hardware implemented in the FPGA fabric. The prototype successfully extracts the vital signs and sends updated values to a smartphone every second.