SBIR Phase II: Contactless and portable heart-rate device based on magnetic sensing technology

这个小型企业研究（SBIR）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种新型的磁传感器，能够连续检测人类心脏产生的微小磁信号。所提出的技术能够在不接触皮肤的情况下进行心率和心脏波形检测，这与需要不舒适的电极、粘合剂和胸带来操作的基于标准心电图仪（ECG）的设备相反。此外，该技术可以以低成本制造并且容易小型化。该项目的目标是提供一种非接触、不显眼和舒适的方式来评估心脏状况，供体育爱好者用于健身心脏监测，以及需要准确、连续和长期心脏监测解决方案的心脏病患者使用。这项技术的目的是方便地与手镯、智能手表集成，或者简单地放在口袋里，同时不断测量心脏功能。它的小尺寸和低成本使这项技术得到广泛应用，并易于与可用的可穿戴设备集成。此外，我们知道心脏病是发达国家的主要死亡原因，我们相信我们的低成本和易于使用的设备将对公共卫生和预防医学产生积极影响。因此，更好的预防保健将有助于降低医疗保健费用。拟议项目将侧重于开发一种基于心磁图（MCG）的新型磁传感器，用于连续和便携式人体心脏监测。几十年来，便携式心电图仪一直局限于心电图（ECG）传感器。ECG不适用于连续心率监测（例如，老年患者在家中使用），因为它需要在患者身上安装导电（粘合）电极？的胸部。相比之下，MCG可以无创和非接触地准确记录人的心跳。我们提出了一种新颖的，芯片级，高灵敏度的磁力计，可以进入和扩大便携式心电图心脏监测市场。二期项目的目标是继续优化磁传感技术，并开始开发能够真实的实时记录心脏信号的原型和示范装置，为医疗诊断提供一种新的非接触式心率和心脏波形测量方法。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Research (SBIR) project is to develop and prototype a novel magnetic sensor capable of continuous detection of the small magnetic signals generated by the human heart. The proposed technology enables heart-rate and heart waveform detection without any contact to the skin, contrary to standard electrocardiograph (ECG) based devices that require uncomfortable electrodes, adhesives and chest straps to operate. Furthermore, this technology can be manufactured at low cost and easily miniaturized. The goal of the project is to provide a contactless, unobtrusive and comfortable way to evaluate the heart condition, to be used by sports enthusiasts for fitness heart monitoring, and for heart disease patients that require an accurate, continuous and long-term heart monitoring solution. The proposed technology is designed to be easy integrated with bracelets, smart-watches, or simply placed in a pocket, while constantly measuring the heart function. Its small size and low cost enables the broad use of this technology and easy integration with available wearables. Moreover, knowing that heart disease is the main cause of death in developed nations, we believe our low cost and easy to use device will have positive impact on public health, and on preventive medicine. Better preventive care will consequently help to lower healthcare costs. The proposed project will focus on the development of a novel magnetic sensor for continuous and portable monitoring of the human heart, based on magnetocardiography (MCG). Portable cardiography has been limited to electrocardiography (ECG) sensors for decades. ECG is not suitable for continuous heart-rate monitoring (e.g. for in-home use by elderly patients) since it requires conductive (adhesive) electrodes on the patient?s chest. In contrast, MCG can accurately record the human heartbeat non-invasively and contactless. We propose a novel, chip-scale, highly sensitive magnetometer that can enter and expand the portable ECG heart-monitoring market. The goal of this Phase II project is to continue the optimization of the magnetic sensing technology, and start the development of prototypes and demonstration units that can record the heart signals in real time, providing a new and contactless way to measure heart-rate and heart waveform for medical diagnosis.