A Comparative Study of Heart Rate Estimation via Air Pressure Sensor

Naoki Tsuchiya , Kenta Yamamoto , Hiroshi Nakajima and Yutaka Hata

Core Technology Center, OMRON Corporation, Kyoto, Japan Email: tutiya@ari.ncl.omron.co.jp Graduate School of Engineering, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, Japan

AbstractIn order to realize heart rate monitoring on a bed, there are mainly two types of approaches similar to other signal processing applications: frequency domain analysis and timeseries domain analysis. In frequency domain analysis, FFT is widely used to extract heart rate from obtained signals. Since FFT assumes constant frequency, it cannot be used for extracting microscopic variability of heart rate. In time-series domain analysis, pattern matching based on autocorrelation is commonly used. The method is not only advanced in sensitivity to heart rate variability, but it is also sensitive to unexpected noise. In response to these problems, heart rate monitoring technology is proposed by using air pressure sensor. In this paper, a heart rate estimation algorithm employing fuzzy logic is proposed and effectiveness of fuzzy logic applied to biomedical sensing is discussed. The experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed technology by comparing it with other methods such as pattern matching based on autocorrelation. Index Termsheart rate, fuzzy logic, frequency domain analysis, time-series domain analysis

In response to these two requirements, unconscious and noninvasive equipment for heart rate monitoring by using air pressure sensor has been proposed [4], [5]. The equipment estimates heart rate variability from the pressure obtained from air pressure sensor attached to the bed. In this paper, the performance of heart rate estimation algorithm based on fuzzy logic is validated. Section II presents related works for heart rate estimation. Section III describes the heart rate estimation algorithm. And Section IV shows the comparative experimental results. Finally, in Section V, the effectiveness of fuzzy logic applied to biomedical sensing is discussed. II. R ELATED W ORKS A ND P ROBLEMS T O B E S OLVED There are two major types of approaches used for estimating heart rate from obtained signals, that is, frequency domain analysis and time-series domain analysis [6], [7]. In this section, the features of each method are discussed and compared. A. Heart Rate Estimation via Frequency Domain Analysis Generally, in terms of frequency domain analysis, ShortTerm Fast Fourier Transformation (SFFT) is commonly used. Short-Term FFT is capable of monitoring global variability of target waveform. However, since FFT assumes constant frequency, FFT does not extract microscopic variability of target waveform. Here, considering heart rate monitoring, the microscopic variability is quite important for detecting symptom of cardiac disease, autonomic nerve activity, and so forth. Thus, the frequency domain analysis is not recommended for the use of estimating microscopic heart rate variability. B. Heart Rate Estimation via Time-Series Domain Analysis In time-series domain analysis, there have been several methods for heart rate estimation, that is, peak detection, pattern matching, and so forth. Especially, pattern matching based on autocorrelation is commonly used to estimate heart rate variability from signals obtained via electrocardiography monitor. The method is capable of sensing heart rate variability. Therefore, this method is recommended for extraction and sensing of microscopic variability of heart rate.

I. I NTRODUCTION In advanced nations, it has been recognized as a serious social problem that there is an increase in medical treatment costs caused by aging of society, reduction of birthrates, and growth of life-related diseases affecting the whole population. Thus, in these nations, the importance of daily individualized healthcare is proposed, and many self-assessing health devices are on the market. Here, considering daily healthcare, there are several indices for determining health condition, that is, blood pressure, body fat, active mass, and so forth. It is especially known that heart rate variability includes much information on health condition, for example, symptoms of cardiac disease, and autonomic nerve activity [1], [2]. Thus, heart rate monitoring in daily life is quite effective for disease prevention. However, it is still the case that heart rate monitoring is conducted only in medical checkups via electrocardiography. So, a heart rate monitoring device used in daily life is strongly desired. In terms of daily measurement of health condition, there are two requirements. The rst one is that the measurement should not be conscious since obtaining ones natural health condition is quite important [3]. Second, the measurement should be non-invasive. For example, even if X-ray CT provides correct information of health condition, it is not recommended for daily use due to radiation effects.

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However, on the other hand, the method is also sensitive to unexpected noise. Thus, some noise reduction operation is required to use the method practically. III. HR E STIMATION BASED ON F UZZY L OGIC To solve priori problems in major approaches mentioned in section II, the heart rate estimation algorithms based on fuzzy logic have been proposed [4], [5]. In this section, the details of proposed heart rate estimation are described. At rst, the brief system conguration and measurement principle of the equipment is mentioned. Next, the algorithm for heart rate estimation is described. A. System Conguration Figure 1 shows the heart rate monitoring equipment. The humans body presure is obtained via air pressure sensor, and the pressure is quantied into 1024 level (10bit) by A/D converter. Finally, the heart rate variability is estimated from the quantied pressure.

1) Preprocessing: Preprocessed signals x are calculated from obtained signals by taking full-wave rectication. 2) Determining Initial Heartbeat Point: The initial heartbeat point h1 is detected. First, the lead signals from 0 to 60 sec in x is divided into three parts; xa (from 0 to 20 sec), xb (from 20 to 40 sec) and xc (from 40 to 60 sec). The peak frequency fj (j = a, b, c) is determined for each part. Next, the average frequency f in the lead signals is calculated by equation (1). The time range T in which initial heartbeat exists is calculated by equation (2). j =a,b,c fj 3 1 f

f T

= =

(1) (2)

Finally, the point with maximum amplitude from 0 to T sec in x is determined as the initial heartbeat point. 3) Detecting ith Heartbeat Point: The next heartbeat point hi (i 2) is determined. In this step, knowledge about heartbeat is formulated by employing fuzzy logic. The knowledge is described in following list: The large peak is caused by heartbeat. Heartbeat interval does not change signicantly.

Knowledge 1 : Knowledge 2 :

Thus, the fuzzy rules are determined through the following rules:
Fig. 1. System conguration

Rule 1 : The air pressure sensor response is shown in gure 2. The equipment is not only capable of easy setup and application, but also unconscious and non-invasive. Rule 2 :

IF xi is HIGH, THEN the degree of heartbeat point Amp is HIGH. IF ti is CLOSE to T , THEN the degree of heartbeat point Int is HIGH.

where ti is the time lag from last heartbeat point hi1 . The membership function HIGH(xi ) for rule 1 is illustrated by gure 3, and formulated by equations (3)-(7).

Fig. 2.

Response characteristic of air pressure sensor

B. Algorithm The proposed heart rate estimation algorithm consists of following steps:
Fig. 3. Fuzzy rule for heartbeat amplitude

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HIGH(xi ) = xmin xmax = =

1 min (x) max (x)

xi xmin xmax xmin

if xi > xmin if xmin xi xmax if xi < xmax

(3) (4) (5)

5) Calculating Heart Rate Variability: Finally, the heart rate HR is estimated by using whole heartbeat points detected in priori steps by equation (13). HRi = 60F hi+1 hi (13)

Additionally, the fuzzy singleton function for rule 1 is determined as equation (6). sAmp (x) = 1 if x = xi 0 if otherwise (6)

IV. E XPERIMENT A comparative experiment against backdrop of the discussion in section II and III was conducted. A. Dataset This experiment is conducted on 7 healthy males at age 23 1.0 (mean standard deviation). The prole of these subjects are shown in table I. The measurement took 10 minutes by using the equipment in section III. Additionally, electrocardiogram (ECG) is obtained as reference data by electrocardiography (AD Instruments, ML856).
TABLE I P ROFILE OF SUBJECTS Subject A B C D E F G Age [yrs] 23 23 23 25 22 22 23 Height [cm] 175 171 165 171 180 172 170 Weight [kg] 76 68 50 56 92 55 62 Gender male male male male male male male

The degree of heartbeat based on rule 1 is denoted by equation (7). Amp = min (HIGH(xi ), sAmp (xi )) (7) Next, the membership function CLOSE(ti ) for rule 2 is illustrated by gure 4, and formulated by equations (8)-(11).

Fig. 4.

Fuzzy rule for heartbeat interval

B. Experimental Results ti T 2 2
2

CLOSE = =

exp

(8)

Table II shows the performance comparison of heart rate estimation. In table II, AC stands for pattern matching based on autocorrelation.
TABLE II E XPERIMENTAL RESULT Subject A B C D E F G Correlation Proposed AC 0.973 0.703 0.807 0.389 0.754 0.621 0.872 0.699 0.972 0.658 0.844 0.677 0.737 0.346

T (9) 3 Then, the fuzzy singleton function for rule 2 is determined as equation (10). sInt (t) = 1 if t = ti 0 if otherwise (10)

The degree of heartbeat based on rule 2 is denoted by equation (11). Int = min (CLOSE(ti ), sInt (ti )) (11) In this nal step, the degree of heartbeat point is calculated by equation (12). = Amp Int (12)

4) Updating Time Range T : The time range in which the next heartbeat point may occur is updated every 10 times of heartbeat detection. In this step, at rst, partial x is picked up from the last heartbeat point hi to hi 60F , where F is sampling frequency of air pressure sensor. Next, the partial x is divided into three parts and the time range T is updated in similar way to section III-B2.

According to table II, the proposed method provides 0.851 correlation on average. Especially, correlations of subject A and E are over 0.97. The accuracy of proposed method is 1.46 times better than comparative method AC on average. Figures 5-18 show examples of estimated heartbeat transit by using the proposed method and pattern matching based on autocorrelation. In these gures, X and Y coordinate stands for beat count and heartbeat interval, respectively. The estimated heartbeat interval is plotted in gray, and the reference heartbeat interval is plotted in black. According to these gures, the proposed method models the heart rate variability more accurately than AC.

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Fig. 5.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject A

Fig. 11.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject D

Fig. 6.

Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject A

Fig. 12.

Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject D

Fig. 7.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject B

Fig. 13.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject E

Fig. 8.

Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject B

Fig. 14.

Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject E

Fig. 9.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject C

Fig. 15.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject F

Fig. 10.

Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject C

Fig. 16.

Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject F

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TABLE III P ERFORMANCE COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL METHODS Subject A B C D E F G Average Absolute error mean [msec] Proposed Successive Constant 5.67 41.82 131.08 50.02 157.37 164.87 22.96 49.38 53.81 23.58 42.05 48.82 5.67 13.85 195.48 24.52 62.37 90.73 27.71 97.60 100.67 22.88 66.35 112.21

Fig. 17.

Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject G

caused by autonomic nerve activity and/or other biocontrol factors. Thus, in the proposed method, the fuzzy logic assumes a role of unexpected noise canceling, and the dynamic parameter tuning is realized by updating T for every 10 heartbeats.
Fig. 18. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject G

VI. C ONCLUSION In this paper, a heart rate estimation algorithm based on fuzzy logic is proposed. The method is not only capable of sensing heart rate variability, but is also robust over unexpected noises. The effectiveness is caused by employing fuzzy logic since the fuzzy logic realizes dynamic parameter tuning via priori knowledge about heartbeat. In the proposed method, two fuzzy rules are formulated by employing priori knowledge about heartbeat, that is, the large peak is caused by heartbeat, and heartbeat interval does not change signicantly. Multiple validation via fuzzy rules is applied to determine heartbeat points. According to the comparative experimental result, the effectiveness was validated, and it was shown that the proposed method gives high accuracy (an average of correlation was 0.851). Regarding the additional experiments, the dynamic parameter conguration of T proved to be effective for a variability caused by a human beings biocontrol. In this paper, the proposed method proves to be capable of heart rate monitoring. However, generally speaking, the bioregulatory should be considered whenever a vital signal is measured sensitively. Thus the basic notion of the proposed method could be applied to other biomedical sensing applications. We hope that our study will help medical advancing of daily healthcare, and that it will be of valuable service for an individuals healthy life. R EFERENCES
[1] M. Malik et al., Heart Rate Variability - Standards of Measurement, Physiological Interpretation, And Clinical Use, Vol. 17, pp. 354-381, European Heart Journal (1996). [2] H. Kobayashi et al., Heart Rate Variability; An Index for Monitoring and Analyzing Human Autonomic Activities, Vol. 18, No. 2, Applied Human Science, pp.53-59 (1999). [3] S. Tanaka et al., Fully Automatic System for Monitoring Blood Pressure from a Toilet-Seat Using the Volume-Oscillometric Method, , IEEEEMBC 2005, pp.3939-3941 (2005). [4] K. Nagamune, S. Kobashi, K. Kondo, Y. Hata, K. Taniguchi, and T. Sawayama, Unconstrained Evaluation System for Heart Rate Using Ultrasonic Vibrograph, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 43, no. 5B, pp. 3237-3238 (2004).

V. D ISCUSSION In this section, the priority of the proposed method based on fuzzy logic is discussed from the point of view of biomedical sensing. As aforementioned, conventional heart rate estimation approaches, for example, FFT and pattern matching based on autocorrelation, assume that the obtained signals are of a constant frequency, or that noiseless signals are to be obtained. However, considering humans bio-regulatory variability, the condition is always changing. Thus, a dynamic parametertuning function is required for adapting to the change of human conditions. Therefore, some logic for noise reduction and dynamic parameter-tuning should be implemented in practical use. According to the experimental results, the proposed method is assumed to be theoretically advanced in noise reduction and parameter tuning. Therefore, additional experiments were conducted to validate these advantages. There have been two methods proposed for estimating heart rate based on fuzzy logic [4], [5]. Kamozaki et al. proposed the method using constant T calculated from whole signals. Nagamune et al. proposed the method updating T successively for each heartbeat. The experiment was conducted by comparing the proposed method with these two methods. The dataset used in the comparative experiment is mentioned in section IV-A. Table III shows the performance comparison of the three methods. In table III, Successive stands for the method proposed in [5], and Constant stands for the method proposed in [4]. According to table III, the absolute error mean in the proposed method is 22.88msec, and 65.5 % better than Successive. In addition, 79.6 % better than Constant. The methods are different depending on whether they update T parameter, as the timing of the updating of T affects the accuracy of sensing heart rate variability which is a variability

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[5] Y. Kamozaki et al., Fuzzy Extraction System for Heart Pulse by Air Pressure Sensor, in Proc. of 2006 International Symposium on Intelligent Signal Processing and Communication Systems, pp. 919-922 (2006). [6] R. I. Kitney and O. Rompelman, The Study of Heart-Rate Variability, Clarendon Press, Oxford (1980). [7] Y. Noguchi et al., Lowpass ltering method for heart rate variability analysis, Vol.23, No.10, Systems and Computers in Japan, pp.100-105 (1992).

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