Sub-Theme: Emerging Technologies
Project By:
- Jeet Baidya (IX-A)
- Tanziruz Zaman (IX-G)
Pregnancy is a delicate phase, and continuous fetal heart monitoring is essential to ensure the well-being of both mother and baby and to ensure speedy treatment in case of complications. In many rural regions, pregnant women do not have access to healthcare clinics or fetal monitoring devices. This leads to delayed detection of fetal distress and avoidable complications.
GarbhSurakhsha is a low-cost, AI-powered fetal heart monitoring system designed to:
- Monitor fetal heart rate in real time
- Provide villages with a cost-friendly healthcare solution
- Detect abnormal heart rhythms automatically
- Alert caregivers instantly in case of danger
- Make fetal monitoring accessible, especially in underserved areas
This project combines signal processing, artificial intelligence, and computational thinking to create a safe, reliable, and affordable maternal healthcare solution.
In many rural and underserved regions, pregnant women do not have regular access to clinics or advanced fetal monitoring systems. As a result, fetal heart abnormalities such as irregular rhythms often go undetected until it is too late, leading to preventable complications, emergency deliveries, or even fetal loss.
Current monitoring methods require clinical settings, trained professionals, and costly equipment, making regular fetal health tracking impossible for most families. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a portable, low-cost, AI-powered fetal heart monitoring system that can detect early signs of fetal distress and alert caregivers in real time.
Maternal health is also a key indicator of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
GarbhSurakhsha captures fetal heart sounds and processes them using an AI model to classify readings as normal or abnormal, which can be viewed through a mobile application.
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Signal Capture
- A microphone attached to a stethoscope captures fetal heart sounds.
- The microphone connects directly to a smartphone using an audio jack.
- The recorded audio is sent to the phone for analysis.
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AI-Based Analysis A TensorFlow-based AI model analyzes features such as:
- Heart Rate (BPM)
- Heart Rate Variability
- Rhythm patterns
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Alert System
- Real-time alerts are sent to caregivers via a dedicated mobile app when abnormalities are detected.
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Normal fetal heart rate: 110–160 BPM
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Detection of:
- Tachycardia: >160 BPM
- Bradycardia: <110 BPM
- Identification of irregular spacing between consecutive heartbeats
- AI model trained on fetal heart rate patterns
- Classifies heart rhythms as normal or abnormal
- Real-time fetal heart monitoring
- AI-driven anomaly detection
- Extremely affordable hardware
- Ideal for rural and low-resource healthcare settings
- Enables life-saving early detection
- Demonstrates practical use of AI in healthcare
| Component | Cost |
|---|---|
| Microphone | ₹100 |
| Stethoscope | ₹100 |
| Total Cost | ₹200 (approx.) |
- Reduces complications caused by delayed fetal monitoring, often leading to fatalities
- Can be used by ASHA workers, community health centers, and NGOs
- Enables faster medical intervention during emergencies
- Improves maternal and fetal health outcomes
- Bluetooth-enabled fetal monitoring belt
- Cloud-based monitoring for hospitals
- SMS alert system for families
- Integration with Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
- Rural households
- NGOs
- Government healthcare missions
Maternal healthcare devices are a rapidly growing sector, making GarbhSurakhsha a commercially promising and socially impactful solution.
- Saves lives through early fetal distress detection
- Supports UN SDG 3 – Good Health & Well-Being
- Reduces travel-related carbon footprint
- Promotes equitable access to healthcare
- Encourages AI-driven innovation in India
- According to the Results of the Comprehensive Modular Survey: Telecom, approximately 96.8% of people in rural areas have access to a smartphone, making this solution widely accessible and easy to deploy.
- Multi-sensor fetal monitoring
- Uterine contraction analysis
- Fetal movement detection
GarbhSurakhsha is an innovative AI-powered fetal heart monitoring system aimed at making maternal healthcare accessible, affordable, and accurate. By combining low-cost hardware, machine learning, and real-time alerts, it provides a life-saving solution for pregnant women, especially in rural and resource-limited regions.
This project demonstrates how emerging technologies can transform maternal healthcare and empower communities with safer pregnancies.
- PhysioNet – Sudden Unexpected Fetal Heart Sound Database (SUFHSDB): https://physionet.org/content/sufhsdb/1.0.1/
💡 GarbhSurakhsha – Technology for Safer Motherhood