Portable 3-d printed plastic optical fibre motion sensor for monitoring of breathing pattern and respiratory rate

This paper reports on the design of a portable sensor system based on a novel combination of 3-D printing and optical fibre based technology and capable for use in IoT sensor application. The portable sensor is implemented using an Arduino board, an LED and photodetector circuit that are encapsulated in a 3-D printed box. The sensor probe to obtain the respiratory signal was designed and 3-D printed to match the plastic optical fibre (POF). Three identical sensor system was fabricated and the results show that the sensor performed well when tested on three different positions simultaneously on the upper body. The sensor also demonstrates good signal response corresponding to three different breathing patterns-normal breathing, deep breathing and breath holding, which are useful for monitoring of regular and irregular breathing patterns. The proposed sensor system is non-invasive, portable and suitable for respiratory monitoring inside or in close proximity to Electro-Magnetic (EM) based scanning environments such as MRI or X-ray based instruments.