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TopCardiac Monitoring System
Recent developments in the miniaturization aspect of sensors has created a huge impact on the wearable physiological monitoring related studies. Such sensing device ensures portability with less power consumption as well as effective energy utilization. The primary advantage of such systems are continuous monitoring of the signals in real-time by clinicians in a monitoring station along with activation of alarms during critical conditions.
In general physiological sensors, such as ECG, demand large energy due to high sampling rate and resolution and also impose limitations due to reduced user wearability. Holter systems are available for patients with cardiovascular diseases to record their cardio activities as demonstrated by Laze et al (1997). In 2001, there has been a notion of telemedicine using mobile phone by NegoslavDaja et al and with power efficient algorithms for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation as proposed by Schreier et al. (2002). Gouaux et al. (2002) proposed a smaller and feasible device for telemedicine. However, it was still insufficient due to lack of processing of raw ECG signals in their devices.
Wireless sensing technology in the recent past decade can enables the healthcare delivery in a better manner and helps in monitoring of patients who are at risk. Although these sensor nodes offer potential low-power operation, the need to limit battery volume to enable a compact package and the need for supporting energy-intensive sensing systems require an energy management method (Winston et al., 2008). This must optimize the operation of sensors and other components further to meet measurement demands while minimizing energy. Energy usage of sensor nodes may be reduced by activating and deactivating sensors according to real-time measurement demand. For better brevity, Table 1 emphasize the various cardiac monitoring system reported in the literature .The report comprises of engineering principles, sensors used, design factor, signal processing and communication modalities adopted and advantage/limitations of each technique.