Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based mobile electrocardiogram monitoring system

A wireless electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system is developed which integrates Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. This BLE-based system is comprised of a single-chip ECG signal acquisition module, a Bluetooth module and a smart-phone. Apple´s iPhone 4S is selected as the mobile device platform, which embedded with Bluetooth v4.0, Wi-Fi and iOS. In this paper, the monitoring system is able to acquire ECG signals through 2-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor, transmit the ECG data via the Bluetooth wireless link, process and display the ECG waveform in a smart-phone. The results show that implementation of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology in the existing ECG monitoring system not only eliminates the physical constraints imposed by hard-wired link but also highly reduces the power consumption of the long-term monitoring system.