Opportunities for real-time worker safety tracking, Vital Signs Monitoring (VSM) are: 

• Medical industry
• Home – Sport and Wellness
• Automotive – Military
• Industrial Security, worker safety
• Assisted Living
• Farm worker tracking

The next session was about the required technologies for wearable VSM and its use cases. The parameters we need to monitor are our level of activity, body composition, stress, and vital signs. The level of activity is measured using MEMs motion sensing, body composition by impedance measurement, stress level by optical measurement, and vital signs by biopotential measurement. Next, the speaker discussed how to measure the above parameters and the technologies used for it in detail.

• Biopotential measurement: – It is basically monitoring the activity of the heart. The signal from the heart when it starts pumping is felt on the skin surface and can be measured using ECG and heart rate monitoring. The analog devices use AD8233 ultra-low-power single lead ECG frontend integrated signal conditioning block.

• Optical measurement: – The technology used here is photoplethysmography (PPG) which monitors the pressure and volume of a cardiovascular system. Transmissive and reflective methods are used here. We can also measure oxygen saturation (SpO2) in blood. Analog devices are in progress for producing a better optical measurement system since it has more challenges in measurement.

Challenges in designing an optical system are: –

• Interference of ambient light
• Artifacts of motion
• Physiology of the human body
• Mechanical design and optical signal path

Module for optical measurement in vital signs monitoring

• Bioimpedance measurement: – Various bioimpedance use cases are electro dental activity/galvanic response (EDA/GSR), body composition measurement/body impedance analysis (BCM/BIA), and hydration. Electro dental activity is used for measuring stress level. Stress can cause

• Insomnia
• Eating disorders
• Depression
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Colds and viruses
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Heart problems

The technology used for body impedance measurement – 

• Motion Sensing: – Motion sensing is mainly done using ultra-low-power MEMs sensors. MEMs in wearables are used for 

• Motion tracking/profiling
• Motion artifact rejection
• Step counting
• Calorie burn
• Fall detection

The technology used for motion sensing is ADXL362 MEMs low power three-axis accelerometer that can measure vibration up to ±8g. However, worker safety tracking solutions are deployed on Bluetooth mesh technology to ensure coverage in larger areas, are simple and easy to deploy, and has a battery life of 5+ years on an average data transmission rate of 5 minutes.

The webinar highlights the capabilities of the analog device in sensing different vital signs using their modules and low-power MEMs technologies. Analog devices can be a one-stop shop for vital signs measurement devices and we provide the engineering expertise to bring these solutions to the needy – providing technical assistance, device selection, cloud configuration, web security, customer-centric project management, and worker safety monitoring platform.

Contact us to know more about our capabilities in integrating real-time worker safety tracking solutions. Vital Signs Monitoring devices and integrating dashboard alerts and measurement matrices.