Designing Smart Wearable to measure

Health Parameters
Rashi Kansara Pritee Bhojani
Bachelor of Engineering Student
Prof. Jigar Chauhan
Bachelor of Engineering Student Assistant Professor
Universal College of Engineering Universal College of Engineering Universal College of Engineering
Kaman, Mumbai. Kaman, Mumbai.
rashikansara@gmail.com Kaman, Mumbai.
pritee.bhojani32@gmail.com jigar.chauhan@universal.edu.in

Abstract— Due to the rising trend in IoT almost all the things
today are on the verge of becoming smart which can be used in
our day to day to life rather it be smart bottle, smart wearable’s,
etc. Smart Wearables are used to monitor health related
parameters and mostly used by fitness conscious people and for
some who have health related problems and needs to measure the
health parameters continuously. Wearables help in monitoring
different health related parameters such as step count, heartbeat,
ECG, sleep monitoring, body mass, body temperature, etc. Smart
wearables provide garments with sensors knitted in the cloth to
find a lot of sensitive information using wireless network. With
respect to the above survey we are proposing an idea in which
there is a prototype that can be embedded in any type of fabric
anytime, anywhere to find health related information and people
can view their statistics of the health data collected on mobile
application through their authentication, thereby measuring few
parameters such as heart rate (BPM) using Pulse Sensor. The
system will detect the amount of sweat generated by human to
calculate the sugar level of the person by using GSR Sensor
which will help to detect whether the person is diabetic or not
and real time body temperature can be calculated using an
accurate Temperature Sensor and lastly 3 Axis Accelerometer
Sensor which shows the step count of an individual. All these
above sensed parameters will be sent to a microcontroller for
processing and then transferring it to a mobile application
through wireless communication. The data can be viewed by the
user on smart phone application. Real time data analytics can be
done for diagnosing various symptoms for detecting diseases.
are many people suffering from many incurable cures
diseases. Some of them are heart diseases, diabetes,
systolic/diastolic blood pressure problems, etc. These are the
diseases which can be monitored anytime, anywhere using
small devices. Wearable device is the solution to overcome the
limitations of disease which needs to be monitored
continuously with a specific interval of time and it provides
fast and effective response to necessity of monitoring patients
over a long time. They are non-obstructive digital device
which are developed keeping in mind that patients outcome
should be improved while costs, energy, time and traveling
must be reduced. It focuses on comfort of user by providing
light weight device.
For hardware module, the sensors are used to monitor
health parameters like body temperature, step count, heart rate
and sugar level. For software module, the collected data from
sensors is displayed on smart phone application. All the
sensors are connected to microcontroller Arduino Mega 2560.

Keywords— Beats per minute(BPM), Pulse Sensor, Wireless

Communication, Grove Galvanic Skin Response Sensor(GSR), Step
Count, MLX90614 Temperature Sensor, WiFi, ADXL335 3 Axis
Accelerometer, Battery, Arduino Mega 2560.

I. INTRODUCTION
Smart devices developed using IoT technology are used to
acquire real time data in all the fields including medical,
traffic, science, etc. The data collected in real time is then
transferred using wireless communication technology such as
NFC, Bluetooth or WiFi. The users are able to access the real
time data collected using an application or a website on a
smart device. Wireless Sensor Network technology is used in
smart devices for getting real time data. A lot of smart devices
are emerging in the field of health care, medical and fitness.
Nowadays people are becoming fitness conscious, so they
want to continuously monitor their health related parameters.
As the demand increases, the complexity too increases. There
C. Wireless Communication Module: It is used to
connect the sensors and send the data to
database server.
D. Battery: Used to provide power supply to
the microcontroller and sensors.
E. End Devices: The data collected from sensors can
be viewed on these devices.
F. User: The user views the data collected by sensors
Fig. 1. Smart Fabric
The components of Smart Fabric illustrated in the above fig.
are as follows: -
A. Sensors: The sensors are used to take real time data
as input.
B. Microcontroller: The Microcontroller is used to
connect the sensors and give them power supply
and interface with
on Smartphone application
II. EXISTING DEVICES
There are many smart shirts/t-shirts available in the market.
These smart fabrics available are costly as there is less
competition and each every company doing it has different
features. There are very less companies producing same things.
Smart Fabric is now the most emerging thing in market after
smart watch and smart bands. The smart fabric is
overcoming many needs of different people by implementing
it in just one fabric which can be used in day-to-day life and
no extra things needed. To improve the lifestyle and make it
more easy there is always a new invention. A lot of devices
and technologies emerge every day to make a person’s work
simpler. The following are some of the smart devices in the
category of smart fabric.
A. Arrow’s Smart Shirt
The first smart shirt [1] was released by the well-known
multinational company Arrow. It is a cotton shirt connected to
the Arrow mobile application using NFC as the wireless
communication. A mobile tap on the cuff of the left sleeve is
used for sending instructions to your smart phone from the
shirt. Once the cuff of the shirt and Arrow mobile application
is synced, the tapping on the cuff will help us send business
card, Bluetooth pairing with a device of our choice, share
Facebook and LinkedIn profile and listen to music. The app
also supports different modes such as meeting mode, home
mode and working mode to control different parameters of the
smart phone such as battery, WiFi, ringer volume and
Bluetooth.
B. Broadcast Wearables India’s Touch Enabled T-Shirt
The world’s first touch enabled t-shirt [2] are introduced by
the Broadcast Wearables from Hyderabad. The t-shirt contains
LED Panels which are sandwiched between the layers of
cloth. The t-shirt is connected to the mobile application via
Bluetooth wireless communication. All the things in the t-shirt
receive power via battery. The t-shirt can reflect the real time
mood on the t-shirts. The wearer can write or draw small
things on the mobile application are displayed on t-shirt via
LED lights. The t-shirt also contains a fitness tracker and
cycling jersey. It contains headlights and indicators for those
who love cycling in dark. The t-shirt is washable and durable
too.
C. Polar Seal Heated Sports Pullover
The Polar Seal [3] pull over t-shirt is used to warm the
body. With just a touch it just warms us in very cold places. It
has 3 temperature settings which can be selected according to
nodes are to be worn on the fingers. The Grove GSR Sensor
will take sweat as input and show sugar level which helps to
detect that the person is diabetic or not without pricking and
without taking blood samples. The GSR sensor is very useful
for people suffering from high diabetes and need to
continuously monitor their diabetes every day. Earlier the
sugar level was checked by blood test only which took a long
time to give the level of diabetes and then came the digital
monitoring machines which also needed to prick the person
but gave on the spot result of it. The GSR sensor overcomes
the needs. It has 3 zones to heat up and the wearer can select
from the three zones to heat themselves. It is light weight and
flexible. It is perfect for people who love skiing. People who
get cold very early it is useful such people. Also it is useful for
people living in regions having very low temperature almost
throughout the year, as they don’t have to wear many sweaters
to keep themselves hot.
III. DRAWBACKS OF EXISTING DEVICES
There are many smart wearables available in the market but
they are very costly and you can get only one shirt/t-shirt at
that price. But if we want to monitor it daily then we need
something that can measure the data continuously. These are
just limited to a single cloth and one person only. If we buy
only one t-shirt then we can use it every day only during
workout out period and not for the whole day. The device
proposed by us can be used during the entire day and on any
fabric as it is attachable and detachable. The device can be
used during the workout period and during the office time too.
A. Arrow’s Smart Shirt
The disadvantage of the arrow shirt [1
] is that it can be used
by only high level professionals or by businessmen who meet
many peoples in a day for business meetings. It is not suitable
for normal middleclass peoples. It uses NFC as wireless
communication between shirt and mobile which has very short
range for communication. Also the shirt should be taken care
of when washing or ironing it. The shirt is too costly to afford
for normal people for daily usage.
B. Broadcast Wearables India’s Touch Enabled T-Shirt
The disadvantage of the touch enabled t-shirt [2] is that it
can be just used by fitness freak people or by people who love
cycling in night or for style statement. The sensors are woven
between the layers of cloth. So if one of the sensor or LED
doesn’t work nothing can be done by normal persons. It
contains Bluetooth as wireless communication which has short
range for communication. The t-shirt is touch enabled so if the
touch isn’t working then the functionality of it reduces. Also
the battery is knitted which can’t be replaced when it stops
working.
C. Polar Seal Heated Sports Pullover
The disadvantage of the Polar Seal t-shirt [3] is that it can
only be used in places where it is too cool. There are many
places where the temperature is neither very hot nor too cool
to wear sweaters even in winter season. This can be majorly
used by people who love skiing and trekking in ice where they
don’t need to wear many sweaters. Also the cost is very high.
If the touch which is used to control the temperature and zone
control to heat up yourself is not working then it will make the
t-shirt useless.
IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM
We are proposing a device which can be attached and
detached to any type of fabric anytime. When the person
wants to measure his health parameters, the device needs to be
attached to the inner part of t-shirt. The device needs to be
then connected to the smart phone using wireless
communication WiFi. To measure the sugar level, the GSR
all these disadvantages by using the skin conductance instead
of pricking. To measure beats per minute, the heart sensor has
to be held properly between two fingers: - thumb and index
finger. The Pulse sensor is very useful for people who are
suffering from heart disease or people who are dealing with a
lot of tension/stress in their life daily. It helps to monitor that
the heart rate of the person is within the range or not.
Traditional method of finding heart rate was using a
stethoscope, wrist watch and two fingers: - index and middle
fingers by placing it on the wrist of the hand (radial artery) or
either side of the neck (carotid artery) and count the number of
beats per minute. This can be done only by doctors or some
people who have knowledge about it. ECG/EEG is the method
used for finding more accurate heart rate in hospitals which
need big machines. This has the disadvantage that you always
need to go to doctor and can’t be done anytime, anywhere
whenever there’s an emergency. The fitness freak as well as
people suffering from diabetes daily perform some exercise so
this device helps them in measuring their step count and using
algorithms and processing’s on step count data it display’s the
calories burnt. ADXL335 3-Axis Accelerometer is used to
calculate the step count which will give as result the calories
burnt. Earlier there were no appropriate methods to find the
step count and then calculate the calories burnt. Now there are
many devices providing this feature to help people remain fit. Fig. 2. System Architecture
The MLX90614 Digital Infrared Temperature Sensor
measures the body temperature and shows whether the person
is having a fever or not. Earlier thermometers made of glass
with mercury in it were used in which the level of mercury
was used to define the body temperature and it should be
handled with care and keep safely as glass is fragile and
should not be broken as the mercury inside it was harmful too.
Then the digital temperature sensor was invented which
displayed more accurate body temperature and wasn’t fragile
as it was made of plastic. All the earlier temperature sensors
needed body touch for a couple of seconds to find body
temperature but this temperature sensor has the advantage of
non-contactable to the body. All these parameters are shown
according with necessary measures to be taken on a smart
phone application. The device needs to be detached from the
cloth before washing it.

Fig. 3. Block Diagram 1

V. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING LITERATURE

information should be processed independently by
sensors or microcomputers.
Smart fabric is a major growth in the category of wearables.
Smart Fabric is being used in many categories such as fitness
and wellness, military and industrial and healthcare and
medical of which it is mainly used for health and fitness.
A. Smart Clothing Market Analysis
In this surveyed literature [4] a detailed market analysis of
Smart devices help to track personal data based on our own
behavioral activities as lifelogging and also it fulfils many
purposes from healthcare to safety notifications based on
lifelogging. Generally, in Smart Clothing or E-Textiles the
sensors are either attached or woven i.e. either of one. Like
most of the wearable devices, the smart fabric sends data to
another secondary device where the user can monitor the
information collected from the sensors. Smart Wearables must
be such that they can be: -
A. Comfortable: The user should be comfortable to wear it
for a long period of time.
B. Independent: It should not depend on anything for getting
power required by sensors and microcontroller and
smart clothes is shown. It shows the different wearable
systems, how the trend started and how it is emerging. It also
defines the different problems people and companies
manufacturing are facing related to the data collected from the
sensors in these smart clothes. In addition to, the problems
related to sensors, size of sensor, accuracy of data are also
defined in this literature.
B. Smart clothes and associated wearable devices for
 biomedical ambulatory monitoring
In this surveyed literature [5] a detailed description about
smart clothes and other associated wearable devices used for
ambulatory monitoring is provided. It gives a detailed
information about what should be provided by the companies
producing smart fabrics and wearables related to health
purposes and what all things should be kept in mind and
avoided to get a better product. It also defines the main
components in the wearable technology that should be present.
In this literature, it says that patients and consumers are
waiting for diagnosis methods that are painless, which require
use of telemedicine, short period stays in hospital,
enhancement of rehabilitation, home care, etc. and most
importantly their own involvement in the treatment. It
suggests that the health smart clothes should be such that it is
in contact with whole body surface as 90% of the skin has a
contact with some or the other textile. Moreover fabrics are
flexible, fit, cheap and disposable. Head band, collar, t-shirt,
socks, shoes, belt for chest, arm, wrist, legs are some of the
wearable devices which have contact with the skin useful for
non-invasive measurements.
C. Smart Textile-Based Wearable Biomedical Systems: A
Transition Plan for Research to Reality.
In this surveyed literature [6] a detailed description of the
different operations associated with the system are shown.
They are:-
A. Sense / Observe
B. Process / Transmit
C. Interpret / Diagnose
D. Respond / Learn
D. Electronic Textiles: A platform for pervasive computing
In this surveyed literature [7] a detailed data about the
existing efforts in the area of Electronic Textiles and the
challenges faced in developing the E-Textiles are mentioned.
The future opportunities in this area are also described. This
literature shows the different applications of the smart shirt.
Connections, Electronics, Data Gathering Endpoint,
Software, Updates and Speed.
VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
There are many smart fabrics upcoming in market yet not
very famous. All of them give different features useful to the
people. They are too costly as the people buying it are very
less. So we are proposing this smart fabric which has features
useful for human health in day to day life and one feature for
fitness too. It uses WiFi as wireless communication
E. Biosignal monitoring using wearables: Observations and
Opportunities
In this surveyed literature [8] an investigation of the
clinical applications of wearable devices for bio signal
and disease monitoring is done. The results obtained from
wearables and clinical equivalents are compared to design
a clinic equivalent wearable device. The EEG, EMG and
ECG based wearable devices are studied on factors such
as their properties, acquisition, existing technology,
opportunities and comparing it with clinical data. The
different factors for clinically relevant wearable design
determined are signal, medical, environmental and
economic factors. The disadvantage of this is that it just
consists of wearable devices calculating ECG, EMG and
EEG and this is used by very few people.
F. Communication challenges in high-density deployments
of wearable wireless devices
In this surveyed literature [9] the need for data
connections for new wearable devices is determined. The
data connections should have low-latency and high speed.
A solution for emerging connectivity among wearable
devices to increase their performance is determined with
their challenges. It also determines different wireless
technologies, their speed, their range and users per
clusters.
G. A Context-Aware Scheduling Mechanism for Smartphone-
Based Personal Data Collection from Multiple Wearable
Devices
In this surveyed literature [10] a mechanism is
proposed for context-aware scheduling to dynamically
collect the data and schedule them depending on the
situations of wearables, availability of network, resources
computed and the state of the user. The personal data is
collected from multiple wearables and uploaded on the
server to gather the information there. The efficiency and
effectiveness is checked by the deployed system for the
actual data collected. The data is collected from the
wearables and visible to the user via smartphone-based
system.
H. Wearable healthcare: Lessons from the past and a peek
into the future
In this surveyed literature [11] a SWOT analysis is
made on the wearable technology market. Different
Strengths, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats for
wearable devices are mentioned in detail.
I. Architecture of smart clothing for standardized wearable
sensor systems
In this surveyed literature [12] a detailed architecture
for developing a smart wearable is defined. It defines the
major hardware components required to develop smart
wearable devices with sensors contained in it. Some of the
basic requirements are: - Wires, Physical Layout,
technology as it has the more range compared to Bluetooth and
NFC. It is very useful for people suffering from many incurable
diseases and requires continuous monitoring. Also it can be
used by many people with just different login on their mobile
application. In addition to, it can be applied to any fabric. No
need to waste time, energy and money by going to the doctor
every time at specific intervals for regular check- ups, in
contrast this proposed work will give the results on the spot
with no pain and one time cost of buying it and saves time and
energy too.
 According to the data, suggest specialized doctor for advice
in the nearby vicinity. The doctor selected can view all the
data of their patients and comment precautions, do’s and
don’ts to the patient.
International Conference, INSPEC-16864943, ISBN:9781-1-5090-5880-
8, 2016.
[11] Jamin Casselman, Lara Khansa, “Wearable healthcare : Lessons from
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Issuue-7, 2017.
[12] Krisjanis Nesenbergs, “Architecture of smart clothing for standardized
wearable sensor system,” IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement
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[13] Smart Clothing a Huge Trend At UK’S Largest Wearable Tech Show,
http://betakit.com/smart-clothing-a-huge-trend-at-uks-largest-wearable-
tech-show/
[14] Arrow Smart Shirt, https://www.gqindia.com/content/the-worlds-first-
smart-shirt-is-here#s-cust0

VII. REFERENCES
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[3] Polar Seal Heated Sports Pullover,
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