This paper presents the development of a wireless wearable sensor for the continuous, long-term monitoring of cardiac activity. Heart rate assessment, as well as heart rate variability parameters are computed in real time directly on the sensor, thus only a few parameters are sent via wireless communication for power saving. Hardware and software methods for heart beat detection and variability calculation are described and preliminary tests for the evaluation of the sensor are presented. With an autonomy of 48 hours of active measurement and a Bluetooth Low Energy radio technology, this sensor will form a part of a wireless body network for the remote mobile monitoring of vital signals in clinical applications requiring automated collection of health data from multiple patients.

This paper presents the implementation of a combination of hardware and software signal processing methods on a wearable device for the continuous and long-term monitoring and analysis of cardiac activity during insitu experiments. Heart rate assessment and heart rate variability parameters are computed in real-time directly on the sensor, thus only few parameters are sent via wireless communication for power saving. Hardware method for heart rate measurement, and software methods for the calculation of time-domain and frequencydomain parameters of heart rate variability are described, and preliminary tests for the evaluation of the sensor are presented.