UC Santa Cruz

Electrocardiography (EKG) is the process of detecting the heart beat data for a patient, who has to put electrodes on his/her body. These electrodes are able to detect the tiny electrical change on the skin between two different points that arise from the heart muscle depolarizing during each heart beat.

Traditional EKG test can use up to 12 electrodes. The heart beat data is acquired by the electrodes over a certain period of time. The electrodes are capable of capturing the magnitude of the heart beat at any moment during a whole cardiac cycle.

In this thesis, we build an EKG data acquisition system, Slug Heart. On our platform, the patients can have two channels (3 electrodes, one of them is the reference for both channels) or one channel (2 electrodes) on their body, then our EKG circuit board will capture and amplify their EKG signal. The bluetooth module on the board transfers the heart beat signal to Slug Heart Android App on their cell phone. By doing this, the patients will have a clear view of their EKG waveform. Our EKG data acquisition system is very small and convenient, and it is a platform for studying EKG data during other activities throughout the day. Our EKG data acquisition system is powered by a single coin cell battery, and it is able to support at least 2 days' continuous testing without interruption. In addition, our Slug Heart platform is low-cost.