A simple heart rate monitor using 8051 microcontroller. The device senses the heart rate from the finger tip using IR reflection method and displays it on a three digit seven segment display in beats per minute The pulsating reflection is converted to a suitable current or voltage pulse by the sensor. The sensor output is processed by suitable electronic circuits to obtain a visible indication (digital display or graph).

1. Heart rate monitor using 8051
microcontroller and photo
interrupter
A simple
1

2. Overview
2
• A simple heart rate monitor using 8051 microcontroller. The device
senses the heart rate from the finger tip using IR reflection method and
displays it on a three digit seven segment display in beats per minute.
The circuit has an accuracy of 4 beats per minute and it is very easy to
use. In medical terms, the technique used here for sensing heart rate is
called photoplethysmography.

3. Photoplethysmography.
Photoplethysmography is the process of optically estimating the volumetric
measurement of an organ. Pulse oximetry , cardiovascular monitoring,
respiration detection, heart rate monitoring etc are few common applications
of photoplethysmography.
Let us have a look at the application of photoplethysmography in heart rate
monitoring from the finger tip. When the heart expands (diastole) the volume
of blood inside the finger tip increases and when the heart contracts (systole)
the volume of blood inside the finger tip decreases. The resultant pulsing of
blood volume inside the finger tip is directly proportional to the heart rate
and if you could some how count the number of pulses in one minute, that’s
the heart rate in beats per minute . For this an IR transmitter /receiver pair is
placed in close contact to the finger tip. When the heart beats, the volume of
blood cells under the sensor increases and this reflects more IR waves to
sensor and .When there is no beat the intensity of the reflected beam
decreases.
The pulsating reflection is converted to a suitable current or voltage pulse by
the sensor. The sensor output is processed by suitable electronic circuits to
obtain a visible indication (digital display or graph).
3

4. LTH1550-01 photo interrupter forms the photoplethysmographic sensor here.
LTH1550-01 is simply a IR diode – photo transistor pair in single package. The
front side of the IR diode and photo transistor are exposed and the remaining
parts are well isolated. When the finger tip is placed over the sensor the
volumetric pulsing of the blood volume inside the finger tip due to heart beat
varies the intensity of the reflected beam and this variation in intensity is
according to the heart beat.
When more light falls on the photo transistor it conducts more, its collector
current increases and so its collector voltage decreases. When less light falls
on the phototransistor it conducts less, its collector current decreases and so
its collector voltage decreases. This variation in the collector voltage will be
proportional to the heart rate. Any way this voltage variation is so feeble and
additional signal conditioning stages are necessary to convert it into a
microcontroller recognizable form.
The next part of the circuit consists of a two active low pass filters using
opampLM324. The LM324 is a quad opamp that can be operated from a
single rail supply. Resistor R23, R17 and capacitor C5 sets the gain and cut off
frequency of the first filter. With the given component values, gain will be 101
and cut off frequency will be 2.5Hz. The gain and cut off frequency are
determined using the following equations.
. 4

5. • Voltage gain Av =1 + (R17 / R23)
• Cut off frequency Fc= 1/(2π *R17*C5)
• The second low pass filter also have the same parameters. The two low
pass filters form a very critical part of the circuit as any noise or false
signals passing to the microcontroller stage will produce disastrous results.
The output of the filter stage will be a voltage level fluctuating between 0
and 0.35 volts and this fluctuation is converted into a 0 to 5V swing using
the comparator based on the third opamp (IC1c). The reference voltage of
the comparator is set to 0.3V. When ever the output voltage of the filter
stage goes above 0.3V, the output of the comparator goes to zero and
whenever the output voltage of the filter stage goes below 0.3V, the
output of the comparator goes to positive saturation. The result will be a
neat pulse fluctuating between 0 and 5V at a rate equal to the heart rate.
This pulse is fed to the microcontroller for counting.
5

6. Components required
• LTH 1550-01
• IC AT89S51
• 2N2222
• LM324
• 7 SEGMENT DISPLAY / LCD
• RESISTANCES
• CAPACITORS
• LOW POWER LED
• CRYSTAL
6

7. 7

8. Output over the bread board
8

9. Observation and how program flow:
For the counting purpose both the timers of 8051 (Timer0 and Timer1) are used.
Timer 1 is configured as an 8 bit auto reload counter for registering the number of
incoming zero going pulses and Timer0 is configured as a 16 bit timer which generate
the necessary 1 second time span for the Timer1 to count. For counting the number of
beats Timer0 and Timer1 are used. Timer1 is set as an 8 bit auto reload counter for
counting the number of pulses (indicating the heart beat) and Timer0 is set as a 16 bit
timer which generates a 65536uS delay. When looped 230 times it will produce a 15
second time span (230 x 65536uS =15S) for the Timer 1 to count. The number of
counts obtained in 15 seconds is multiplied by 4 to obtain the heart rate in beats per
minute. The Timer 0 which generates the 1 second time span is configured in Mode 1
(16 bit timer). So the maximum it can count is 2^16 and it is 65536.In 8051 the crystal
frequency is divided by 12 using an internal frequency divider network before applying
it as a clock for the timer. That means the timer will increment by one for every 1/12th
of the crystal frequency. For an 8051 based system clocked by a 12MHz crystal, the
time taken for one timer increment will be 1μS (i.e.; 1/12MHz). So the maximum time
delay that can be obtained using one session of the timer will be 65536μS.
9

10. Implementation with Conclusion:
• When power is switched ON, the indicator LED
D4 will glow continues in that state. Now
place your finger tip over the sensor and
adjust preset R14 so that the LED D4 starts
blinking. After you got the LED blinking, reset
the power and wait for 15 seconds. The
display will show your heart rate in beats per
minute. Average heart beat of a human being
is 72 beat/minute.
10

11. 11
Data sheet:LM324-N

12. 12

13. 13