Wearable wireless biophotonic and biopotential sensors for canine health monitoring

There is an increasing interest from dog handlers and veterinarians in the ability to continuously monitor dogs' vital signs (heart rate, heart rate variability and respiration rate) with the aim of identifying physiological correlations to stress and excitement outside laboratory environments. We present our latest efforts towards a novel non-invasive wearable sensor system including photoplethysmogram (PPG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) to remotely and continuously monitor vital signs of animals. To overcome the limitations imposed by the dense hair layer, we investigated the use of pointed style electrodes, traditionally used in training (shock) collars, as passive ECG recording electrodes. We also studied the incorporation of light guides and optical fibers for efficient optical coupling to the skin. The ECG and PPG sensors were interfaced to a system on chip (SoC) with Bluetooth capability for transferring the data to a nearby smartphone or computer for data storage and analysis.