DR.BEAT

Astronauts experience significant physical stress due to weightlessness, necessitating continuous monitoring of vital bodily functions, especially the cardiovascular system. This monitoring is crucial during their time in space. The insights gained from space health can also be applied to monitoring cardiac activity on Earth, addressing the leading cause of global mortality.

In 2015, the German Federal Statistical Office reported that cardiovascular disease incurred a cost of 46.4 billion EUR. Present-day cardiac function monitoring systems have limitations, being either costly or restricted to inpatient settings. However, the “DR.BEAT” project capitalizes on Ballistocardiography (BCG) along with microelectronics to capture precise heart function. This project aims to design towards an approach to an affordable and highly accurate BCG sensor system that can be worn as a “wearable” device, allowing for continuous health monitoring.

The project will automate signal processing, data analysis, and visualization. This advancement is anticipated not only to contribute to space health but also to facilitate the recording of dynamic cardiac activity in a practical and user-friendly manner for everyday use.

Within the scope of this collaborative project, there will be a focus on further design approaches for a miniaturized sensor system to detect the method of BCG signals. This sensor system will play a crucial role in collecting essential BCG data, serving as training data for further analysis and the derivation of evaluation algorithms.

Significant efforts will be dedicated to implementing signal processing, integrated data evaluation, and thorough data analysis. Additionally, a well-designed visualization will be developed to ensure accurate monitoring of health parameters.

DSI, as the coordinator of the joint project, assumes responsibility for overall planning and risk management. Their primary role involves further development, high integration, and implementation of embedded evaluation algorithms. DSI collaborates with the project partners to conduct requirements analyses and develop system concepts.

As part of their contribution, DSI will develop, implement, and manufacture a miniaturized BCG sensor system demonstrator. They will also provide technical support for the measurements conducted by the partners. DSI’s expertise lies in integrating the evaluation algorithms derived from the BCG basic data into the BCG sensor system. These algorithms will be applied to the collected data for evaluation.