Smart Heart Rate Monitoring System using Arduino for Healthcare Applications

Abstract

Heart rate is an important parameter to assess the cardiovascular system and its continuous measurement is not only important for patients with heart diseases, but also for sportive, old persons and those who undergo regular check-up of their health status. While ECGs have great accuracy; however, they’re expensive, large and not easy to use on a daily basis outside of hospitals. Therefore low-cost versions need to be created that can be used everywhere. Heart Rate Monitor using Arduino is an innovative project that offers a solution for this issue. With this project users will be able to track their heart rate. They will be able to use a photoplethysmograph based pulse sensor which works by tracking the volume of blood moving through their veins. The sensor connects to a microcontroller (Arduino) which allows users to filter their heart rate data and provides them with their heart rate, by detecting the high peak (the highest point) in each pulse. The readout is displayed on an LCD so the user knows what their current heart rate is. If a user has a heart rate that goes above or below what is considered safe the user will receive a visual alert via the LED on the pulse sensor as well as an audible alert from the speaker in the Arduino module. This design was set up to allow other systems to communicate with the Heart Rate Monitor via a Bluetooth or WiFi connection, which allows for remote monitoring via an IoT Platform. As health care providers look to implement telemedicine systems into their practices, the demand for wearable technology is increasing rapidly. Inspired by the increasing CVD rate and insufficient diagnostics in low-resourced areas, we make sure ours is low-cost, portable and modifiable. Beyond the individual user, it can be used for fitness tracking and education purposes, or work as part of a larger public health community, he added. It’s a multifunctional option both for individuals who need personalised care as well as our population at large. There is, therefore, a need for accurate, inexpensive devices for monitoring the heart. The solution is presented by the arduino-based technology by incorporating a cheap sensors and microcontroller, to support continuous monitoring in real time. Weighing cost, portability, and accuracy, such systems are a compromise.

Introduction

Heart rate is a key indicator of cardiovascular health, but conventional monitoring methods such as ECG and Holter systems are costly, bulky, and limited to clinical settings. This makes continuous monitoring difficult, especially for people in remote or resource-limited areas. Although fitness trackers and smartwatches offer heart rate features, they often lack clinical accuracy and are affected by motion artifacts, sensor contact, and power constraints.

To address these challenges, the study proposes a low-cost, portable Arduino-based heart rate monitoring system using a photoplethysmography (PPG) pulse sensor. The system measures blood volume changes, processes signals through an Arduino microcontroller, calculates heart rate in beats per minute (BPM), and displays results in real time on an LCD or mobile application. Wireless connectivity enables remote monitoring and telehealth integration.

The project aims to provide affordable, real-time, continuous heart rate monitoring for personal use, education, clinics, and remote healthcare, with potential for early detection of abnormal cardiac conditions. Motivation for the work stems from the growing need for accessible healthcare solutions, particularly in developing regions where hospital-based monitoring is impractical.

A comprehensive literature survey highlights advances in PPG signal processing, motion artifact reduction, sensor placement, adaptive filtering, IoT-based remote monitoring, and secure data transmission, reinforcing the feasibility of reliable low-cost systems.

The proposed methodology integrates a pulse sensor, Arduino UNO, LCD display, and Wi-Fi module (ESP8266). The system captures analog heartbeat signals, converts them to digital data, filters noise, detects peaks, computes BPM, displays results, and transmits data wirelessly for continuous and remote monitoring.

Experimental results confirm successful implementation, with stable hardware operation, improved signal clarity after filtering, and accurate real-time heart rate detection. The system demonstrates strong potential as an affordable, user-friendly, and scalable solution for continuous cardiac monitoring and telemedicine applications.

Conclusion

The proposed Arduino system provides a low-cost, simple manner to detect heart rate (sometimes referred to as your heart rhythm) in real time. It offers all of the same features as more sophisticated systems including real-time data collection through the use of wearable sensors, the ability to see your results from the comfort of your home, and an option to receive mobile alerts when a patient\'s heart is out of rhythm. In comparison to current technologies, it achieves comparable or greater accuracy than any device available now, and arguably higher user comfort levels. In this way, it enhances patient safety, caregiver safety, and medical professional safety by providing quicker and more precise interventions for patients suffering from arrhythmias.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Pragadeswaran S, Niranjan S, Muthu Krishnan K, Mohammed Arshad I, Rajesh Kumar K. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.