Heartbeat monitoring system / Mohd Marwan Othman

Our heart normally beats in a regular rhythm and rate that is just right for the work our body is doing at any moment. The heart is a pump made up by four chambers: two upper chambers (atria) and two lower chambers (ventricles). It is powered by an electrical system that puts out pulses in a regular rhythm. These pulses keep the heart pumping and keep blood flowing to the lung and body. This project is developed to monitor the heartbeat by using optically heartbeat sensor and LABVIEW software as a programming language that been interfaced through the computer via ADC-16 High Resolution Data Logger. One handy optical technique exploits the fact that tiny subcutaneous blood vessels (capillaries) in any patch of skin furnished with a good blood supply, alternately expand and contract in time with the heartbeat. An ordinary infrared LED/photocell pair can sense this rhythmic change as small but detectable variations in skins contrast.