Wireless body fat measurement machine with a smartphone interface

Abstract

Scientific literature and the World Health Organization (WHO) predict that in the year 2025, there will be about 2.3 billion adults globally who are overweight and 700 million who will be obese. This persistent metabolic disease has not been effectively addressed due to the use of inappropriate methods for measuring body fat and the unique characteristics of human physical and cellular structure. To ameliorate this condition, a new mechanism for weight measurement is proposed. The proposed mechanism operates with a minute alternating current (bioelectrical impedance technique) of 0.2– 0.8 mA via a two-lead finger. The device was designed with five components: 5 5-Volt Li-Po battery, a HC-05 Bluetooth module, a Dry electrode sensor, a Galvanic skin response sensor, and a programmable microcontroller (Arduino Shield) that is programmed to compute the voltage value for the body fat composition. The study was conducted within the University of Nigeria, Nsukka community, with adolescents aged 5 – 19 years for both genders and adults aged 20 – 38 years. The results revealed that as age (in years) and weight (in kg) increase, body fat percentage tends to increase. Weight in (kg) is a key parameter in the BMI method and was considered in the study, with consistent results as shown in the tables. To use the bioelectrical impedance technique, the approximated internal body resistance of 300 ? – 1 k?, age (in years), and weight (in kg) are necessary to obtain a precise body fat percentage