Using Adafruit's Circuit Playground Express as well as sublanguage CircuitPython, we've made a program to monitor respiratory and heartbeat rates from a model baby.
Requirements for the design include:
- capable of displaying respiration rate (i.e., breaths per minute) in a way that is intuitive for parents, childcare providers, and health care professionals to understand.
- suitable for use on an infant (i.e., would not cause discomfort or injury to an infant).
- easily placed on and removed from an infant.
- adjustable to allow appropriate fit on different sizes of infants.
- able to stay in place and continue monitoring respiration during normal infant movements like squirming, rolling, and being lifted by a caregiver.
- durable, reusable, and aesthetically pleasing.
With this in mind the software team hypothesized a solution to measure heart rate without causing discomfort and came to the conclusion that utilizing the circuits accelerometer would be the best solution.
The code utilizes the built in accelerometer on the CPX, specifically the z-axis to measure the vertical movement of the baby's chest as the respiration and cardiac cycle proceed.
There are 3 main distinctions in the code:
- If the LEDs are red, that means the respiratory/cardiac rate are higher than the standard average.
- If the LEDS are green, that means the respiratory/cardiac rate are at normal levels.
- If the LEDs are yellow, that means the respiratory/cardiac rate are below the standard average.