Progressive motion artifact removal in PPG signal for accurate heart rate estimation

Abstract

This paper proposes a motion artifact (MA) removal method in the photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal for accurate heart rate estimation. PPG signal is easy to acquire, but it is easily distorted by body movement. In this study, MA is analyzed using acceleration signals and removed in the PPG spectrum for accurate heart rate estimation. The proposed method progressively removes three-axis acceleration spectra in order of spectral power. The performance was confirmed by comparing heart rate estimation errors one case that MA was removed with another case that MA was not removed. After removing MA and applying two peak tracking methods in 12 data sets, the mean absolute error (MAE) of the beat per minute (BPM) is lower than conventional methods.