This paper presents actual development in the field of personal telemedicine. For personal cardiographs most suitable dry electrodes that do not require a conductive gel. This article describes experiments with capacitive electrodes from Plessey Semiconductors. On the basis of the obtained experimental data, it is planned to create own capacitive electrodes with the possibility of detuning from the skin-electrode contact.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is the development and study of capacitive coupling electrodes with the ability to monitor the quality of the skin–electrode contact in the process of electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnostics. The study’s scope embraces experimental identification of distortions contributed into the recorded ECG signal at various degrees of disturbance of the skin–electrode contact.
Design/methodology/approach
A capacitive coupling electrode is designed and manufactured. A large number of experiments was carried out to record ECG signals with different quality of the skin–electrode contact. Using spectral analysis, the characteristic distortions of the ECG signals in the event of contact disturbance are revealed.
Findings
It was found that the violation of the skin–electrode contact leads to significant deterioration in the recorded signal. In this case, the most severe distortions appear with various violations of the skin–electrode contact of two sensors in one lead. It has been experimentally shown that the developed sensor allows monitoring the quality of the contact, and therefore, improvement of the quality of signal registration, enabled by the use of bespoke processing algorithms.
Practical implications
These sensors will be used in personalized medicine devices and tele-ECG devices.
Originality/value
In this work, authors studied the effect of the skin–electrode contact of a capacitive electrode with the body on the quality of the recorded ECG signal. Based on the studies, the necessity of monitoring contact was shown to improve the quality of diagnostics provided by personalized medicine devices; the capacitive sensor with contact feedback was developed.
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