Implementação e validação de um hardware emulador de sinais biológicos

Abstract

Several studies in healthcare require the acquisition and analysis of biological signals. The stage of acquisition of these signals depends on protocols, equipment and specific techniques, and is a compulsory part of the schedule of several studies. For this reason, it is interesting to be able to optimize it. The main objective of this work is the development in an emulator hardware of biological signals for teaching and learning in area of biomedical engineering and aid to new technologies arising from the use of biological signals. In this context, the development of equipment capable of emulating and simulating biological signals becomes relevant because, with them, you can subtract the acquisition step, saving time and at aiding aimed studies its processing. These devices provide a biological signal in analog form that was previously stored digitally in a database emulating them, or simply simulating these signals when they are generated by computer programs. An important application for the emulators and simulators of this kind, is to evaluate the accuracy, precision and performance of the systems processing signals in real time. Thus, this study includes a literature review that describes the importance of the study of biological signals and proposes an architecture and organization of an emulator / simulator called BioSim in order to improve techniques for the study of these signals as well as to evaluate and calibrate equipment that use these signals. The BioSim corresponds to a four-channel system consisting of processing modules, MAPLE ( ARM Cortex M3 ) and Arduino MEGA ( ATMEGA 2560 ) , with a storage capacity of 4 Giga Bytes per channel , through a micro SD card ( SanDisk ), and a man-machine interface comprising a liquid crystal display and buttons for navigation. To evaluate the developed equipment were considered signs simulated by a computer program, in emulation of database a several biological signals collected in previous studies by our research group of the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory of the Federal University of Uberlândia - BioLab. The results suggest that the device is able to simulate and emulate biological signals in real time, sampled to 20 kHz, with a resolution of 12 bits. This will allow the optimization of the acquisition process of the biological signals, reducing the time for carrying out research in area of the Biomedical Engineering.