Estimating heart rate using wrist-type Photoplethysmography and acceleration sensor while running

Abstract

This study provides Heart Rate (HR) Estimation using wrist-type Photoplethysmogpraphy (PPG) sensor while the subject is running. We propose the algorithm to estimate heart rate for the wrist-type PPG sensor. Since body motion artifacts easily affect the arm portion, our method in this study also uses accelerometer built in the wrist-type sensor to improve the accuracy of heart rate estimation. Our method has two components. One is rejecting artifacts with the power spectrum's difference between PPG and acceleration obtained by frequency analysis. The other is the reliability of heart rate estimation, defined by the acceleration. Experimental results while our test subjects were running came closer to the holter Electrocardiogram (ECG) in high accuracy (r = 0.98, SD = 8.7 bpm). We, therefore, report the heart rate estimation method which has a higher degree of usability compared to existing methods using ECG.