Simple Optical Heart Rate Monitor

Here are some thoughts about the project

Team members

Yang Meng Ting

Idea

Photoplethysmography is a non-invasive optical technique used in commercial wearables and pulse oximeters to monitor heart rate. Our goal is to reproduce the core concept with a simple DIY device to gain a better understanding of this technology.

Setup(Tentative)

Equipment

Green LED

Photodiode

DAQ devices/Arduino Uno (or other microcontroller if needed)

[maybe a Basic op-amp circuit]

Resistors and capacitors

Breadboard and jumper wires

(Optional) Small display (OLED or LCD)

Measurements

Procedure

1. Attach the sensor (LED and photodiode) to a fingertip (or earlobe).

2. Connect to acquisition system (DAQ or microcontroller).

3. Observe the raw PPG signal data.

4. Calculate and display heart rate output.

Expected Results

We expect to see a pulsatile waveform corresponding to the heartbeat in the raw data. We can then compare the observed results with those observed by professional heart rate monitor.