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 time-
series 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 anal-
ysis, time-series domain analysis
I. INTRODUCTION
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.
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. RELATED WORKS AND PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED
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 sec-
tion, the features of each method are discussed and compared.
A. Heart Rate Estimation via Frequency Domain Analysis
Generally, in terms of frequency domain analysis, Short-
Term 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.
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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 ESTIMATION BASED ON FUZZY LOGIC
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.
Fig. 1. System conguration
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.
Fig. 2. Response characteristic of air pressure sensor
B. Algorithm
The proposed heart rate estimation algorithm consists of
following steps:
1) Preprocessing: Preprocessed signals x are calculated
from obtained signals by taking full-wave rectication.
2) Determining Initial Heartbeat Point: The initial heart-
beat point h
1
is detected.
First, the lead signals from 0 to 60 sec in x is divided into
three parts; x
a
(from 0 to 20 sec), x
b
(from 20 to 40 sec) and
x
c
(from 40 to 60 sec). The peak frequency f
j
(j = a, b, c) is
determined for each part.
Next, the average frequency f in the lead signals is cal-
culated by equation (1). The time range T in which initial
heartbeat exists is calculated by equation (2).
f =

j=a,b,c
f
j
3
(1)
T =
1
f
(2)
Finally, the point with maximum amplitude from 0 to T sec
in x is determined as the initial heartbeat point.
3) Detecting i
th
Heartbeat Point: The next heartbeat point
h
i
(i 2) is determined.
In this step, knowledge about heartbeat is formulated by
employing fuzzy logic. The knowledge is described in follow-
ing list:
Knowledge 1 : The large peak is caused by heartbeat.
Knowledge 2 : Heartbeat interval does not change
signicantly.
Thus, the fuzzy rules are determined through the following
rules:
Rule 1 : IF x
i
is HIGH, THEN the degree of
heartbeat point
Amp
is HIGH.
Rule 2 : IF t
i
is CLOSE to T, THEN the degree
of heartbeat point
Int
is HIGH.
where t
i
is the time lag from last heartbeat point h
i1
.
The membership function HIGH(x
i
) for rule 1 is illustrated
by gure 3, and formulated by equations (3)-(7).
Fig. 3. Fuzzy rule for heartbeat amplitude
3078 2008 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC 2008)
HIGH(x
i
) =

0 ifx
i
> x
min
xixmin
xmaxxmin
ifx
min
x
i
x
max
1 ifx
i
< x
max
(3)
x
min
= min (x) (4)
x
max
= max (x) (5)
Additionally, the fuzzy singleton function for rule 1 is deter-
mined as equation (6).
s
Amp
(x) =

1 if x = x
i
0 if otherwise
(6)
The degree of heartbeat based on rule 1 is denoted by equation
(7).

Amp
= min (HIGH(x
i
), s
Amp
(x
i
)) (7)
Next, the membership function CLOSE(t
i
) for rule 2 is
illustrated by gure 4, and formulated by equations (8)-(11).
Fig. 4. Fuzzy rule for heartbeat interval
CLOSE = exp

t
i
T

2
2
2

(8)
=
T
3
(9)
Then, the fuzzy singleton function for rule 2 is determined as
equation (10).
s
Int
(t) =

1 if t = t
i
0 if otherwise
(10)
The degree of heartbeat based on rule 2 is denoted by equation
(11).

Int
= min (CLOSE(t
i
), s
Int
(t
i
)) (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 h
i
to h
i
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.
5) Calculating Heart Rate Variability: Finally, the heart
rate HR is estimated by using whole heartbeat points detected
in priori steps by equation (13).
HR
i
=
60F
h
i+1
h
i
(13)
IV. EXPERIMENT
A comparative experiment against backdrop of the discus-
sion 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
PROFILE OF SUBJECTS
Subject Age [yrs] Height [cm] Weight [kg] Gender
A 23 175 76 male
B 23 171 68 male
C 23 165 50 male
D 25 171 56 male
E 22 180 92 male
F 22 172 55 male
G 23 170 62 male
B. Experimental Results
Table II shows the performance comparison of heart rate
estimation. In table II, AC stands for pattern matching based
on autocorrelation.
TABLE II
EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
Correlation
Subject Proposed AC
A 0.973 0.703
B 0.807 0.389
C 0.754 0.621
D 0.872 0.699
E 0.972 0.658
F 0.844 0.677
G 0.737 0.346
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 heart-
beat interval is plotted in black. According to these gures,
the proposed method models the heart rate variability more
accurately than AC.
2008 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC 2008) 3079
Fig. 5. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject A
Fig. 6. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject A
Fig. 7. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject B
Fig. 8. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject B
Fig. 9. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject C
Fig. 10. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject C
Fig. 11. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject D
Fig. 12. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject D
Fig. 13. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject E
Fig. 14. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject E
Fig. 15. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject F
Fig. 16. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject F
3080 2008 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics (SMC 2008)
Fig. 17. Heartbeat interval transit via proposed method for subject G
Fig. 18. Heartbeat interval transit via AC for subject G
V. DISCUSSION
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 ap-
proaches, 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 parameter-
tuning 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 pro-
posed 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 Suc-
cessive. In addition, 79.6 % better than Constant.
The methods are different depending on whether they up-
date T parameter, as the timing of the updating of T affects the
accuracy of sensing heart rate variability which is a variability
TABLE III
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON WITH CONVENTIONAL METHODS
Absolute error mean [msec]
Subject Proposed Successive Constant
A 5.67 41.82 131.08
B 50.02 157.37 164.87
C 22.96 49.38 53.81
D 23.58 42.05 48.82
E 5.67 13.85 195.48
F 24.52 62.37 90.73
G 27.71 97.60 100.67
Average 22.88 66.35 112.21
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.
VI. CONCLUSION
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 ef-
fectiveness 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 bio-
regulatory should be considered whenever a vital signal is mea-
sured 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.
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