Design of a Simple and Low-Cost Microcontroller Based Medicare Device for Heart Beat Monitoring

Abstract

Heart beat monitoring is vital to ensuring healthiness of the human cardiovascular system, but availability of a simple and low-cost heart beat monitoring device that does not require expert medical personnel to handle still remains a challenge especially in rural and semi-urban areas of developing countries like Nigeria. This paper describes the design and implementation of a simple, reliable, accurate and cost effective microcontroller based heart beat monitoring device with Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and voice outputs. The heart rate of the subject is measured from the fingertip using optical sensors and the rate is then displayed on a text based LCD and voice outputs in English language and two Nigerian indigenous languages (Hausa and Yoruba).