The inspiration behind VitalGuard came from the growing need for accessible healthcare monitoring for elderly and chronically ill patients, especially in rural or low-resource settings. With hospitals being overcrowded and home care expensive, we wanted to create a low-cost, real-time monitoring system that could detect critical health issues early and alert caregivers or doctors immediately.
What it does VitalGuard is an IoT-based health monitoring system that continuously tracks key vitals such as heart rate, body temperature, and detects falls. When abnormal values or incidents are detected (like high fever, bradycardia/tachycardia, or a sudden fall), the system sends instant alerts to caregivers via a web dashboard and notification services.
How we built it We used an ESP32 microcontroller connected to a pulse sensor, temperature sensor, and accelerometer (MPU6050). The data collected is transmitted via Wi-Fi to a Firebase Realtime Database. A web dashboard (built using HTML/CSS/JavaScript) fetches and visualizes the data live. We used IFTTT to trigger email/SMS alerts based on abnormal values.
Challenges we ran into
- Configuring the Firebase Realtime Database with low latency.
- Calibrating the accelerometer for reliable fall detection.
- Creating meaningful alert thresholds that reduce false positives.
- Limited hardware testing time due to hackathon constraints.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
- Completed a working prototype within 2 hours.
- Developed a live web dashboard and functional data pipeline.
- Implemented emergency alert logic and real-time visualization.
- Designed a scalable system architecture for future health metrics.
What we learned
- Fast prototyping with IoT platforms and Firebase integration.
- Handling sensor noise and threshold-based alerts.
- Building minimal but functional user interfaces quickly.
- The importance of real-time data accuracy in healthcare systems.
What's next
- Integrating more sensors like SpO2 and ECG.
- Adding AI for anomaly detection in vitals.
- Developing a mobile app for caregivers with GPS tracking.
- Secure user authentication for doctor-patient dashboards.
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for Vital guard
Built With
- arduino
- css
- esp32
- firebase-realtime-database
- html
- ifttt
- javascript
- lm35-temperature-sensor
- mpu6050-accelerometer
- pulse-sensor
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