GSM and Arduino Based Vital Sign Monitoring System

Analysis of the vital signs of patients can aid in early disease diagnosis and care. There are many illnesses which can be diagnosed and managed by monitoring this medical information periodically.

Detection of various early-stage medical diseases can be simply done by monitoring Human vital signs, as they show the standard body's essential functions, indicating the status of an individual's health condition.

In many cases it so happens that patients do not receive appropriate medical treatment on time, as a result of which unexpected incidents happen due to ignorance of one’s health status. Since pulse rate and vital sign area unit are the foremost crucial parameters, an affordable device to detect such parameters is useful for human health.

Photoplethysmography (PPG) is a photosensitive technique that measures difference in blood volume of the pulse (usually in the body's soft tissues) by specifically interfering with the differences in the photo-emitter's absorption, reflection, volume and dispersion of light, and then it is registered by the photoreceptor. Then, the PPG waveform reflects shifts in arterial blood supply. The waveform obtained with a pulse oximeter illuminates skin and processes variations in the absorption of light.

The embedded systems-Arduino, GSM module and the various sensors used in this research provide a simple monitoring method which does not require a smartphone or internet connectivity.

This paper aims at illustrating the significance of constantly monitoring vital signs. The device proposed has been developed as an Arduino program that is straightforward and inexpensive, a conveyable system that acquires the vital signs data and sends a text message as warning messages during a health emergency.