The
SILICON LOCKET is an efficient and high performance
medical device for cardiac patients with state-of-the-art
electronics, embedded into an ultra small form factor,
and thus the name 'locket'. The system is a web enabled
heart monitoring device with a host of advanced features
to accelerate modern treatment schemes. The subject
may stay at home/ hospital and is supposed to wear a
match-box size silicon locket with the electrodes strapped
at proper locations, and he/she may be at home or in
hospital.
Features
The device is optimized to acquire
three simultaneous electrocardiogram (ECG) data and
stores it in Micro SD card memory. The locket is equipped
with an USB, IrDA, RS232 and 2.4GHz direct sequence
spread spectrum wireless connectivity for seamless integration
with the public network, existing mobile phones and
highend PDAs. An ultra low power custom front-end IC
(64-pin LQFP) for ECG signal conditioning is implemented
in the analog section. The chip is designed, characterized
at IIT Bombay and the silicon is fabricated through
TSMC Taiwan. The reconfigurable analog circuit may be
switched among twelve possible leads. A miniaturized
and pluggable PSTN modem is constructed to transfer
data to a remote doctor's computer or medical database.
In case of abnormality (such as arrhythmia) in the patient's
ECG, the silicon locket automatically connects to a
mobile phone and sends an alert SMS to the doctor. A
low cost polymeric accelerometer (MEMS) is fabricated
using electron beam lithography technique, which is
useful to detect motion artifacts in ambulatory subjects.
A varied model of the silicon locket with an attractive
colour STN LCD is designed for easy user interface.
Also an interactive GUI is developed for upload and
viewing of the stored data through a personal computer.
A 32-bit ARM7 system- on-chip based
base station is designed as an accessory for the silicon
locket. The base station is a handheld system with a
colour TFT LCD and high processing bandwidth. The circuit
primarily targets bridge applications for TCP/IP connectivity
and for disease detection in greater detail. Complicated
signal processing algorithms are expected to run on
the base station PCB and those are under development.
The commercial versions will be ported with an online
disease detection schemes for added patient safety.
" IIT Bombay sets an example
of 'cardionet' concept with several added functionalities"
The system accelerates cardiac telemedicine application
with wearable computers. The latest version of the silicon
locket senses skin temperature, body posture and pulse
oximetry, apart from ECGs.
Source:
Industrial Design Centre
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Powai Mumbai 400 076
The
SILICON LOCKET is an efficient and high performance
medical device for cardiac patients with state-of-the-art
electronics, embedded into an ultra small form factor,
and thus the name 'locket'. The system is a web enabled
heart monitoring device with a host of advanced features
to accelerate modern treatment schemes. The subject
may stay at home/ hospital and is supposed to wear a
match-box size silicon locket with the electrodes strapped
at proper locations, and he/she may be at home or in
hospital.