A new method for fetal movement detection using an intelligent T-shirt embedded physiological sensors

Fetal movement is an important indicator showing fetal health. Classically, ultrasound and pregnant women´s subjective perception are the most popular methods for detecting fetal movements. However, ultrasound is available in hospitals only, causing inconvenience to pregnant women. The pregnant women´s subjective perception is strongly related to her personal experience and level of attention, which is uncertain and not accurate enough. In this paper, we propose a wearable technology-based system in order to detect fetal movements conveniently and accurately. The system includes an intelligent garment integrating a number of multi-scale sensors connected each other, a standardized cloud computing platform on which medical diagnosis is realized using a medical expert system. For this purpose, we realize two electronic devices, ready to be integrated into a garment and permitting to collect typical signals on fetal movements. Based on the measured signals, we propose a method combining wavelet analysis and band-pass filter in order to extract relevant features on fetal movements.