4.

1 A Portable Non-invasive Blood Glucose Monitoring Device

Figure 4.2 displays the proposed portable blood glucose monitoring device
which consists of an Arduino Uno microcontroller, a LCD keypad shield, and the NIR
sensor.

LCD screen

Arduino

Push
button

NIR
sensor

Figure 4.2: Portable non-invasive blood glucose monitoring device

 The device is developed using a near infrared sensor with a peak wavelength of
1550 nm and Arduino Uno as a microcontroller. From a research conducted by student
from McMaster University, it was found that NIR with the higher wavelength (2050
nm) was able to penetrate deeper into the body tissue. However, too high of observance
may cause other substances in the blood to interfere with the infrared signal. Besides
that, inadequate power source from the microcontroller might be one of the reasons of
the some measurement errors[30]. The results obtained using NIR of 1450 nm proved
that the NIR which is less than 2000 nm is more appropriate when implemented using
Arduino.

The device requires the user to key in their height and weight using the push
button as shown in Figure 4.3 Once the height and weight are keyed-in, the BMI for the
user will calculated and shown on the LCD screen. To proceed to the next process, the
user will need to press the SELECT button. At this stage, the sensor will start to active
and a READY message will be displayed on the screen as in step 6. Once the glucose
concentration is measured, the device will calculate the required insulin dose
corresponding to the BMI and display the measured glucose concentration in mg/dL
and insulin dose needed in Units as shown in the last step. The user can repeat the
measurement by pressing the RESET button. The working display on the LCD screen
are shown in the steps below;