Feasibility of Electrodermal Activity and Photoplethysmography Data Acquisition at the Foot Using a Sock Form Factor

Abstract

Wearable devices have been shown to play an important role in disease prevention and health management, through the multimodal acquisition of peripheral biosignals. However, many of these wearables are exposed, limiting their long-term acceptability by some user groups. To overcome this, a wearable smart sock integrating a PPG sensor and an EDA sensor with textile electrodes was developed. Using the smart sock, EDA and PPG measurements at the foot/ankle were performed in test populations of 19 and 15 subjects, respectively. Both measurements were validated by simultaneously recording the same signals with a standard device at the hand. For the EDA measurements, Pearson correlations of up to (Formula presented.) were obtained for the SCL component, and a mean consensus of (Formula presented.) for peaks detected in the two locations was obtained. As for the PPG measurements, after fine-tuning the automatic detection of systolic peaks, the index finger and ankle, accuracies of (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.) were obtained, respectively. Moreover, an HR estimation error of (Formula presented.) Beats-Per-Minute (BPM) was obtained. Overall, the results support the feasibility ofthis wearable form factor for unobtrusive EDA and PPG monitoring.