Real-Time Cardiac Arrhythmia Classification Using TinyML on Ultra-Low-Cost Microcontrollers: A Feasibility Study for Resource-Constrained Environments

Recent advances in edge computing and Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) have enabled the deployment of artificial intelligence models directly on microcontrollers with extremely limited computational and memory resources. In this context, this work presents the design, implementation, and validation of a real-time cardiac arrhythmia classification system based on a quantized one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1D-CNN), deployed on an 8-bit Arduino UNO microcontroller. The proposed system integrates end-to-end processing, including ECG signal acquisition using a low-cost AD8232 analog front-end, signal preprocessing, heartbeat segmentation, classification, and real-time visualization on an OLED display. The model was trained and evaluated using the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, considering a reduced three-class problem (Normal, Ventricular, and Supraventricular) to meet the constraints of ultra-low-cost hardware deployment. Under benchmark conditions, the quantized model achieved an accuracy of 97.6%, with a memory footprint below 24 KB and an average inference time of 200 ms per heartbeat, enabling real-time operation on a resource-constrained microcontroller. Real-time experiments were conducted using signals acquired from healthy volunteers to validate system functionality, although no annotated ground truth was available for these recordings, and therefore no diagnostic performance was derived from them. The results demonstrate the feasibility of deploying lightweight deep learning models on ultra-constrained embedded systems using the TinyML paradigm, implemented using TensorFlow 2.15 and TensorFlow Lite. This work should be interpreted as a proof-of-concept platform that highlights the trade-off between classification performance and hardware limitations, providing a foundation for future development of low-cost cardiac monitoring technologies in resource-limited environments.