Non-Contact Monitoring of ECG in the Home Environment-Selecting Optimal Electrode Configuration.

Capacitive electrocardiography (cECG) is most often used in wearable or embedded measurement systems. The latter is considered in the paper. An optimal electrocardiographic lead, as an individual feature, was determined based on model studies. It was defined as the possibly highest value of the R-wave amplitude measured on the back of the examined person. The lead configuration was also analyzed in terms of minimizing its susceptibility to creating motion artifacts. It was found that the direction of the optimal lead coincides with the electrical axis of the heart. Moreover, the electrodes should be placed in the areas preserving the greatest voltage and at the same time characterized by the lowest gradient of the potential. Experimental studies were conducted using the developed measurement system on a group of 14 people. The ratio of the R-wave amplitude (as measured on the back and chest, using optimal leads) was less than 1 while the SNR reached at least 20 dB. These parameters allowed for high-quality QRS complex detection with a PPV of 97%. For the "worst" configurations of the leads, the signals measured were practically uninterpretable.

Electrodes array for contactless ECG measurement of a bathing person - a sensitivity analysis.

An applicability of a remote (contactless) electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements in a bathtub is presented in the paper. Possibility of ECG measurements in shallowly filled tube with a water was examined. A bathing person was, both, sitting and lying during experiments performed. The problem became non-trivial when the bathing person was moving in reference to a fixed set of electrodes and located at the longer walls of the bathtub. However, the results obtained indicate that the sensitivity of a developed electrode array could enable such measurements. However, a spatial sensitivity distribution determines, both, the recorded ECG signal parameters and quality.

Respiratory signal of bathing person - preliminary study.

The scope of this paper is analysis of applicability of modern biomedical acquisition system installed in bathtub towards reception of respiratory signals of bathing person. An analysis of the possibility of such measurement is shown as well as preliminary results.