FPGA based reconfigurable body area network using Nios II and uClinux

This paper presents a reconfigurable Body Area Network (BAN) system that can be used to monitor human vital signs and identify abnormalities. The identification of clinically significant patterns in electrocardiogram (ECG) data is the application used to verify the system operation as well as to demonstrate reconfigurability of the system. Data files from the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database were used for this purpose. As built, the system demonstrates the ability to record raw ECG data and detect and record R-R intervals as well as premature ventricular contractions. Moreover, the overall system was designed to be highly reconfigurable, allowing it to be used for other BAN applications besides pattern recognition in ECG data signals.