Efficacy research of electrocardiogram and heart rate measurement in accordance with the structure of the textile electrodes

Abstract

Recently, the demand for 24-hour biological signal monitoring in various fields such as health care and sports is increasing rapidly because of lifestyle changes and increasing interests in health. Thus, the field of clothing for continuous monitoring of biological signals is again illuminated increasing the market. However, smart clothing used to monitor biological signals has disadvantages affecting the motion artifact which are due to movements of the human body, so studies for minimizing motion artifact is underway from various angles. In this research, we configured the structure of the textile electrodes can be applied inside of the clothing, of the flat type and the three-dimensional type, and tried to derive the electrocardiogram and the structure of the suitable structure to measure the heart rate through measuring and comparing the electrocardiogram signal and the heart rate accuracy by structure. For this process, the heart rate accuracy and electrocardiogram signals of 8 men, with a standard body shape in their twenties, were measured and analyzed when walking and standing. At this time, the subjects were wearing clothes in which three-dimensional electrodes and flat type electrodes could be applied, respectively, to measure the electrocardiogram signal and heart rate in accordance with the experimental protocol. The results of the stability of the waveform, the signal size and the SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) of the threedimensional electrode when measuring the electrocardiogram signal were higher than those of the flat electrode. In addition, in the heart rate measured at the time when walking and standing, the accuracy of the three-dimensional electrode was shown to be higher than the flat type electrode, so the three-dimensional electrode was analyzed in a suitable structure for measuring the electrocardiogram and heart rate.