Hi everyone, I am working on a project for school that I need some advice on. It will be a medical device for anesthesia monitoring. A patient will have one of these sensors attached to their thumb (force, flex, accelerometer or pressure). Most likely we will use force or flex sensor. A current will then be applied to the ulner nerve (wrist area) which will then stimulate muscle movement of the thumb. Based on how much muscle movement you have, you can figure out if the anesthesia medicine is wearing off or there is too much of it. The goal is to monitor the muscle movement and display the data on a display in form of a graph. The way the current pulse works is you have 4 pulses in 2 seconds (so one pulse each 1/2 of a second). I am not exactly sure how often we would need to sample the sensor data to recover the correct graph. I just need your advise with the sampling rate and what would be the best microcontroller for the job. Any help would be much appreciated. Let me know if you have more questions.

This is the screen that we plan to use:
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=167

 

Do you know that screen already has a micro (mcu) with I/O pins and I2c (master) built in?

 

Do you know that screen already has a micro (mcu) with I/O pins and I2c (master) built in?

Yeah I saw that. I just wasn't sure if that would do the job. I am a noob at all this. The other thing is that we are required to have our own PCB, if using the MCU on the display that is not going to pass. Any suggestions?

 

Yeah I saw that. I just wasn't sure if that would do the job. I am a noob at all this. The other thing is that we are required to have our own PCB, if using the MCU on the display that is not going to pass. Any suggestions?

Well you will probably need a PCB for the other circuitry feeding the display.. (op amp,etc..)

Did you see this?
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=187

Despite what the old school "PIC" guys say the Arduino is a great choice for a beginner. No programmer needed,etc...

And based on your initial question virtually ANY microprocessor out there can be used. Its what you want to use/are familiar with,etc.. pic/microchip/avr,etc.. TONS of choices.
Fast for you "2 times a second" is SLOW for a micro.

 

Well you will probably need a PCB for the other circuitry feeding the display.. (op amp,etc..)

Did you see this?
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=187

Despite what the old school "PIC" guys say the Arduino is a great choice for a beginner. No programmer needed,etc...

And based on your initial question virtually ANY microprocessor out there can be used. Its what you want to use/are familiar with,etc.. pic/microchip/avr,etc.. TONS of choices.
Fast for you "2 times a second" is SLOW for a micro.

Thanks for your help, I will need to discuss it with my professor and my group and see if he approves it.