Wireless Sensor Platform for Pulse Oximetry

Pulse rate and oxygen saturation are two important clinical measurements that indicate the state of a person’s essential body functions. Oxygen saturation is the measurement of oxygenated hemoglobin in arterial blood i.e. it indicates the level of oxygen in the blood. Pulse oximeters, consisting of LEDs and photodetectors, offer a simple and low cost means of monitoring both pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation non-invasively. The primary objective of this project was to develop a wireless platform for MEMS devices. For this project, a pulse oximeter was also developed as a demonstration vehicle for this wireless platform. A microcontroller and a Bluetooth module was used to transmit the data from the sensor to the smartphone and an Android program was developed as a part of the project to connect with the Bluetooth module and receive, plot and save the data. Once the sensor and Android application were developed, the pulse rate and oxygen saturation measurements were compared to measurements taken by a commercial pulse oximeter to determine the accuracy of the device. The sensor was able to accurately measure with an average error percentage of ±2.86% and ±1.08% for pulse rate and oxygen saturation respectively.