TUT
Department of Electronics
Projects - The ECG-Shirt

Kankaanpää Unit - Projects

The ECG-Shirt


  • Work done - 2005-2006
  • Project team: Hanna Karhu, Lasse Hahto, Aki Halme, Taina Pola
  • Extent of work: 2 diploma thesis works, wearable ECG measurement system research
  • Results: ECG-shirt prototypes ( measuring electronics + shirt with textile electrodes )
  • Contact: Taina Pola

Long-term electrocardiographic (ECG) recording is a common medical investigation, which can reveal reasons for occasionally appearing cardiac symptoms. Normally long-term ECG is recorded in patient´s normal environment for 24 or 48 hours, which sets demands on the measuring equipment. Measurement electrodes that are normally used in long-term ECG recording are inconvenient and may even cause skin irritation. The problem can be solved by textile electrodes which do not cause skin reactions even if used for long times.

An ECG-shirt is a compact, wearable measuring device with textile electrodes for long-term ECG recording. The shirt consists of a detachable measuring device (main unit), textile electrodes and the shirt itself. The ECG-shirt looks like conventional shirt, but inside are the integrated textile electrodes and outside the measurement device with snap fastening.

The device uses a sensitive analog interface to amplify the electrocardiographic signal from textile electrodes. Whenever the unit is started up the adjustment of the amount of amplification is being recalculated. This phase is important because the contact between skin and the textile electrodes can vary substantially. The device stores the digitized signals to a removable mass storage (miniSD card). After measurement data will be transferred to a PC where it can be visualized and analyzed.

In addition to the equipment´s functionality the device also includes a so called "Now I´m feeling something"-button. When the user gets a feeling of everything not being OK, he/she can press the button and a special timestamp marker is stored on the memory card with the ECG-data. This facilitates the job of a doctor etc. who analyzes the data afterwards and he/she can easily find the places in data on which to concentrate.

Textile electrodes are a novel choice for the biopotential measuring. They are made from electrically conductive fabric and they are soft and flexible. Textile electrodes can be sized and shaped as wanted. In addition, these electrodes don´t irritate the skin like traditional electrodes and they are much lighter.

The shirt makes the measurement unobtrusive, because everything is incorporated into the shirt.

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Updated , Hokkanen Mirja