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Capacitive Measurement of ECG for Ubiquitous Healthcare

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Abstract

The technology for measuring ECG using capacitive electrodes and its applications are reviewed. Capacitive electrodes are built with a high-input-impedance preamplifier and a shield on their rear side. Guarding and driving ground are used to reduce noise. An analysis of the intrinsic noise shows that the thermal noise caused by the resistance in the preamplifier is the dominant factor of the intrinsic noise. A fully non-contact capacitive measurement has been developed using capacitive grounding and applied to a non-intrusive ECG measurement in daily life. Many ongoing studies are examining how to enhance the quality and ease of applying electrodes, thus extending their applications in ubiquitous healthcare from attached-on-object measurements to wearable or EEG measurements.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by the Public Welfare & Safety Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2010-0020808) and in part by Sangji University Research Fund 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oriental Biomedical Engineering, Sangji University, Wonju, 220-702, Korea

    Yong Gyu Lim

  2. Interdisciplinary Program in Bioengineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 110-799, Korea

    Jeong Su Lee & Hong Ji Lee

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Health Science, Korea University, Seoul, 136-703, Korea

    Seung Min Lee

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, 110-799, Korea

    Kwang Suk Park

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  1. Yong Gyu Lim
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  5. Kwang Suk Park
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Correspondence to Kwang Suk Park.

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Associate Editor Tingrui Pan oversaw the review of this article.

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Lim, Y.G., Lee, J.S., Lee, S.M. et al. Capacitive Measurement of ECG for Ubiquitous Healthcare. Ann Biomed Eng 42, 2218–2227 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-014-1069-6

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